Chris Chan

Edmonton approves $100 million over four years to build a mobility network

Edmonton approves $100 million over four years to build a mobility network

Following extensive discussion and many amendments to a multi-part motion, Edmonton City Council has voted to approve funding for the Bike Plan.

While billed as a “Bike Plan”, the plan is actually for a city-wide mobility network, which includes extensive shared pathways in appropriate contexts, such as along many of the arterials that comprise much of the district connector routes.

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Today's your last chance until 2031: make your voice heard.

Today's your last chance until 2031: make your voice heard.

Council votes on bike plan funding first thing Friday morning, and it's in jeopardy.

The Bike Plan needs $200 million. Some councillors have proposed the plan receive only $30 million. If their proposal is accepted, the Bike Plan cannot be implemented as designed. The City's lack of debt room means that future funding for the Bike Plan won't become available until the 2031-2034 Capital Budget cycle.

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Announcement: Dr. Greg Glatz

The Board of Directors of Bike Edmonton is happy to announce the hiring of Dr. Greg Glatz as the new Executive Director of Bike Edmonton, effective 19 October 2022.

Greg joins Bike Edmonton with over 30 years of experience in the non-profit leadership space, with a focus on helping organizations maximize their social and community impact. He is an everyday and commuter cyclist who enjoys cycling year-round and has been active with the cycling communities in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton, and we are excited to welcome him to Bike Edmonton.

Greg is looking forward to working with our staff, volunteers, members, and patrons to help us achieve the vision of making Edmonton a world class cycling city through our mandate of making everyday cycling in Edmonton safer and more widespread by providing bicycle services, education, and civic representation.

Please join us in welcoming Greg to Bike Edmonton!

For further comment or information, please contact Andi Eng, Acting President at president@bikeedmonton.ca

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Bike Edmonton 2022 Annual General Meeting

The Bike Edmonton Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held Sunday, October 23, 2022, from 2-4pm at picnic site #2 of Victoria Park, just behind the Victoria Park Pavilion.

This will be an outdoor meeting discussing required-business: presentation and approval of audited financials and next year’s budget, an update on the activities of the Society, and the election of the Board of Directors.

Everyone is invited to attend. Only members-in-good-standing, and who are present are eligible to vote. No proxies are permitted.

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2022 Community Garden Tour with Sustainable Food Edmonton

Join the 2022 Edmonton Community Garden Bike Tour with Sustainable Food Edmonton! Space is limited, so register today!

Explore and learn about community gardens on this guided tour, which includes free lunch. Gardens include Richfield, Lakewood, Sakaw, Concordia and Ridgewood.

Sustainable Food Edmonton is a non-profit charitable organization who initiates and supports projects and programs to encourage the building of community through urban agriculture. They connect communities and kids with their food, how it’s produced, and the planet that makes it all possible.

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Message to Membership

Dear Bike Edmonton Members,

We are reaching out to provide an update and highlight ways that you can support your society. 

The board is currently hiring a new Executive Director, providing operational oversight to the society, and beginning contract negotiations with our newly unionized staff. You can support these activities in many ways, such as sharing the posting for the Executive Director position with your networks, volunteering at the shops or during events, and joining the board.

We are accepting nominations to fill vacant board positions starting immediately. Board members would then be elected for a 2-year term during the Annual General Meeting in the fall. Those who are interested are encouraged to fill out the board nomination form (bottom of this page) or contact board@bikeedmonton.ca for more information. Board members must be current members of Bike Edmonton.

As a reminder, board meetings are open to the general membership. Our next meeting is on August 22, 2022 at 7pm MT on Google Meet. If you would like to attend, please RSVP by emailing board@bikeedmonton.ca. 

Despite some challenges over the last year, the board is committed to the vision and mission of the society and knows that our membership shares our goals. Thank you for your continued support in ensuring that Bike Edmonton remains an important part of our city and lives!

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Painted bike lanes and the 101 Avenue Corridor Concept Plans

The Edmonton Bike Coalition is holding a family-friendly celebration & bike protest on Saturday, June 18, at noon at 101 Ave & 75 St. If you’re interested in this project, attend to meet and work together with community members!

The current state of 101 Ave

Concept plans for the 101 Avenue Streetscape project were released in March 2022.

Overall, the plans are a significant improvement over the existing state of 101 Ave. But two significant gaps remain:

  • Between 80-84 St, the bike lane is only a painted lane on the road. We know that paint does not encourage people to bike, and excludes many, including women and children (the City even has a GBA+ policy).

    The City of Edmonton does not maintain painted bike lanes in the winter, leaving an intentional missing link between the all-ages and abilities, all-season facilities to the east (the new 101 Ave protected bike lanes) and west (shared pathways into Forest Heights and Cloverdale, Downtown, and Mill Creek).


    This section is currently identified as an “existing substandard district connector route” in the City’s Bike Plan Implementation Guide, and will continue to be substandard.

    Based on its average traffic volume, the City’s own Complete Streets design standards call for buffered or protected bike lanes.

  • The protected bike lanes also vanish between 74 St to 76 St.

The Problem with 75 Street

Proposed painted bike lanes on 101 Ave.

Terminating the protected bike lanes at 76 St and 74 St is not safe.

Painting bike lanes between traffic flowing in all directions is not safe.

Here is what a similar bike lane in Waterloo looks like:

In contrast, 132 Avenue, which sees comparable traffic volumes, uses a much safer intersection design.

  • 97 St is a major 7-lane arterial

  • 75 St is a major 7-lane arterial

  • 132 Ave has 4 lanes of traffic at the intersection

  • 101 Ave has 4 lanes of traffic at the intersection

Concept plan for the intersection of 97 St and 132 Ave, a comparably busy street with the exact same number of traffic and turning lanes as 75 St and 101 Ave. The separated bike path is maintained in this design.


Edmonton’s Complete Streets Design Standards also state:

Painted bike lanes are generally suitable only on lower speed and lower motor vehicle volume streets... Larger or more complex intersections typically coincide with protected bike lanes or shared-use paths due to the motor vehicle traffic volumes and speeds. These locations require a greater degree of physical protection for people cycling and can include separate signal phasing of multimodal movements, two-stage turn queue boxes, and protected intersections.


If the intersection context (e.g., available space, traffic volumes, traffic speeds) does not make it possible to provide an intersection bike lane design that is suitable for the Design User group (i.e., motor vehicle speeds over 50 km/h or volumes over 4,000 veh/day), an alternative may be to terminate the painted bike lane prior to the intersection and transition via a bike ramp to an off-street bike path or protected bike lane.

On paper, Edmonton’s own design standards, which 101 Ave doesn’t appear to follow, echo best practices from other jurisdictions. NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials) has an entire guide called Don't Give Up at the Intersection. The City of Ottawa recently published their Protected Intersection Design Guide, which includes protected intersections for large, multi-lane roads.

Next steps

Funding for detailed design and construction of 101 Ave hasn’t been approved yet: that will need to come forward in Council’s 2023-2026 Capital Budget discussions. We want to see improvements to this neglected but important part of Edmonton. But we want to ensure that this investment creates actual improvements, and that the money spent on this project reflects Edmonton’s values and desires for a safe, equitable city.

Join the Edmonton Bike Coalition to help advocate for a better 101 Ave. You can join their mailing list, as well as join them in person on Saturday, June 18 at noon for a celebration and protest to build connections and community, and imagine better solutions.


Appendix

Guidelines for selecting facility types based on traffic volumes and speeds (Netherlands & Edmonton)

Chart of Dutch CROW manual selection plan for cycling facilities

Dutch cycle facilities selection plan from the CROW Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic

Traffic Volumes on 132 Ave & 97 St

Traffic Volumes on 101 Ave

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102 Avenue Pedestrianization

Rendering by @newfangl3d of 102 Ave in front of the Milner Library with no cars and pedestrian activation.

During the May 31 meeting of City Council’s Urban Planning Committee, the committee voted 3-2 in favour of the following motion:

Moved by:A. Salvador

That Urban Planning Committee recommend to City Council:
That Administration implement a pilot, as soon as possible, of the full closure of the traffic lane on 102 Avenue between 99 Street to 103 Street for the purpose of establishing a pedestrian-friendly corridor and that Administration prepare a road closure bylaw for the full closure of the traffic lane on 102 Avenue between 99 Street to 103 Street for a one year pilot, and work with the Downtown Business Association and stakeholders to utilize Downtown Vibrancy funding for activation.

This means that the motion now goes to City Council on June 7 for further discussion and another vote, this time by council as a whole.

While Council does not normally hear from public speakers during Council meetings (the public normally speaks at committee meetings, like the one on May 31), you can still make sure your voice is heard by contacting your councillor before Tuesday, June 7 to express your support for 102 Ave as a pedestrian-friendly corridor.

Even if you know your councillor supports this motion already, please still write to let them know that you support this. They need to hear voices in support to strengthen their position!

Sample message

Paths for People has created a sample message and some tips on what you can write to your councillor! They have also published an opinion piece in the Journal.

Look up your ward’s councillor by address here.

You can read more about the plan in this CBC story, as well as listen to discussion about it in the latest episode of the Speaking Municipally podcast.

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Pedal Poll Edmonton 2022 National Bike Count

Vélo Canada Bikes, the national voice for everyday cycling, is looking for volunteers to help between June 7-12 in its annual national count of cycling! Volunteers will observe cyclists at key locations using a simple phone app.

Sign-up to count here.

Pedal Poll was developed with a team of professionals and academics across Canada, representing a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. Team members are motivated to create a bike-friendly Canada and are committed to making cycling more equitable.

Pedal Poll provides opportunities to identify who is cycling and where and work toward inclusion.

Vélo Canada Bikes provides instructions for communities to collect data in the same way so that it can be compared regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Pedal Poll 2021 Edmonton results
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Boulders Climbing and Dirtbag Cafe charity climb for Bike Edmonton

Boulders Climbing and Dirtbag Cafe, our neighbours downtown, are raising funds for Bike Edmonton!

Each Tuesday in June from 11am to 4pm, Boulders Climbing charges only $5 to climb. Each month a different non-profit receives all of the funds taken in during that month's charity climb. Bike Edmonton is the featured organization this June!

Volunteers are needed to sit in the Café to answer any questions about Bike Edmonton. You don't have to be an expert of Bike Edmonton services to volunteer. You'll be sent a volunteer role description which includes simple and easy responses to questions people might ask about Bike Edmonton. Sign up here to help.

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Pedego E-bike Rentals and Tours

Bike Edmonton is joining Pedego Edmonton for a day of e-bike rentals and guided e-bike tours in Edmonton's French quarter on Sunday, June 5, 2022. Pedego is generously donating all proceeds from this event to Bike Edmonton! You can try out an e-bike and support Bike Edmonton!

E-bike tours are just under an hour. Tours are designed to teach riders how to make the most of their rented e-bike features, while exploring bike infrastructure and the river valley at an easy pace.

We also need volunteers! Sign-up to help with outreach tabling or guiding the rides.

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Safe, accessible, equitable: an accurate description of construction detours in Edmonton?

Edmonton has come a long way over the years in how it considers and accommodates people who are walking, wheeling, and cycling around construction zones.

You can generally expect to see, at the least, temporary curb ramps provided to access sidewalks, and usually some consideration for a detour route.

This is a huge improvement over just a few years ago, and we are grateful for how far we’ve come.

A new City report, Active and Public Transportation: Safety, Accessibility and Equity, will be discussed at Urban Planning Committee on Tuesday, April 26, 2022.

This report states:

The review of current policies and procedures has identified that they are sufficient to ensure safety, accessibility and equity for active and public transportation and therefore no changes are recommended at this time.

While a lot has improved thanks to the current policies, has your experience been that they are indeed sufficient and succeeding at ensuring accessibility?

Recently, the intervention of three community organizations and two councillors was required to ensure a 30 metre section of the 102 Ave bike route, one of the busiest in the city, was kept accessible during a summer-long (March to August) construction project. The fact that we were notified at all about the project, and given the opportunity to meet with EPCOR, is a positive result of some of the changes in procedures over the past several years. We did not have an opportunity for consultation ahead of time, but we also shouldn’t necessarily need to be consulted: recognizing the importance of active transportation routes and pathways should be built-in to everyday practice.

The 102 Avenue bike route is an example of a highly-travelled bike route, and so it attracted the attention of many advocates.

But less visible projects can still have major and unncessary impacts on people, especially those with mobility challenges. Detouring through the grass may seem minor for some people, but for someone with a broken ankle, or a walker, or a stroller, especially in winter, these barriers can be impassable. The closures of sidewalks and curb ramps, long or unsafe detours, construction signage blocking or narrowing sidewalks: these are tied to the “accessibility and equity” points in the report.

Thankfully, the City does have some policies in place. The Manual of Temporary Traffic Control, for instance, requires that:

  • All bike detours must be reviewed and approved by Parks and Roads Services, prior to implementation, and

  • Cyclists shall be detoured to routes that offer a similar level of comfort, safety and travel distance as the existing facility.

It also states:

  • When developing temporary traffic control, pedestrians and cyclists should be prioritized wherever feasible.

The question is: are you seeing this followed on your streets?

If not, you can register to speak to the Urban Planning Committee on April 26, about agenda item “6.4 Active and Public Transportation - Safety, Accessibility and Equity”.

You can also write to your councillor about your experiences, good or bad! If you’ve had positive experiences with temporary closures, let them know what has worked well.

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High Level Bridge Rehabilitation

City Council’s Executive Committee will be discussing rehabilitation options for the High Level Bridge on April 13, 2022.

Administration is currently proceeding with the planning and design for rehabilitation of the bridge combined with active mode enhancements on the upper deck, including:

  • Shared use paths on the upper deck;

  • Widening of the lower east deck sidewalk;

  • Rehabilitation of the north and south approaches of the upper deck; and

  • Maintenance of the streetcar track and provision of safety barriers.

This aligns with the High Level Line proposal, a fantastic proposal put together by the High Level Line Society. The proposal also extends well beyond the bridge itself, stretching 4.3 km and connecting MacEwan University to Whyte Avenue at Gateway Boulevard along the old CPR rail right-of-way.

Illustration of the High Level Bridge upper deck from the High Level Line proposal. Pedestrians and cyclists travel along landscaped paths adjacent to a streetcar on one side.

High Level Bridge rendering from the High Level Line proposal

We’re happy and excited that this may be moving forward now, and grateful for the excellent advocacy and comprehensive work done by the High Level Line Society!

Did you know this isn’t the first proposal for using the upper deck?

Back in 1992, Bike Edmonton (then the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society [EBC]) presented a Rails to Trails concept plan to the City. Part of this eventually became the Ribbon of Steel plan, which built the shared pathway along the streetcar line that now stretches from 105 Ave to Ezio Faraone Park. Some of the south sections were only just built in the last couple years, almost three decades later!

In 1999, members of EBC pitched a Community Greenways concept across the upper deck of the bridge. We raised the idea again in 2016 in response to reports of numerous bicycle collisions along the congested pathways.

Check out the image gallery below for some archival designs and photos (did you know the upper deck used to carry 2 streetcars AND a freight train on three separate tracks?), and inspiration from New York’s High Line.

You can view the reports from the Executive Committee meeting below.

Capital Project Profile for Bridge Rehabilitation - Options



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