Edmonton’s Urban Planning Committee approved a proposed plan to install a bike lane grid in the city’s downtown core Wednesday, and there are plans to have lanes in the area within a year.
A number of speakers addressed the committee Wednesday with their thoughts on the proposed bike lane grid.
The plan was brought forward by Stantec, at a cost of about $6.6 million.
The ‘minimum grid’ system was designed by Stantec, and involves converting lanes into two-way bike lanes, separated by curbs and planters – a plan that’s meant to be easily changed if need be.
However, the proposed plan did not account for maintenance of the bike lanes, such as snow removal in the winter. New equipment will be needed to do that, which will add another $900,000 to the cost.
Officials said most of that cost will be re-allocated from existing programs in the budget.
Stantec said most complaints or concerns that came up when bike lanes such as these were introduced in Calgary centered on the loss of parking space, and taking lanes away from cars.
Stantec said they were planning to keep the number of parking stalls the same and said roads where the lanes are expected to be installed were being underused by cars.
City administrators said the system will take about nine months to complete, but no definitive completion date has been set.
With files from Jeremy Thompson
