Natalie Fischer January 30, 2019


The bike lanes in Victoria have caused much outrage, but despite that the city moved forwards with their plans and have won the 2018 Climate and Energy Action Award. However with the cost it took to build the bike lanes does not make up for the amount of cyclists using the lanes. The construction process was said to have inconvenienced many shop owners along the roads the bike lanes were being added to. “They’re good. If people would use them,” Kim Osbourne says when asked in a chat group about the bike lanes.


Some people want to see a bike lanes along Shelbourne Street as it is a direct road to downtown Victoria. The street would do well with a bike lane as it may increase the amount of bicyclists in downtown Victoria as more people would be able to transport themselves downtown without relying on a bus or car to transport themselves and their bike.


If I am to give my opinion on whether the bike lanes are a positive or negative, I do not have one. Due to the fact of how I rarely venture downtown I do not see the results of the bike lanes and what they have given or taken away. When I am downtown I use the bus for transport. Perhaps if a bike lane were to be built down Shelbourne Street I would get myself a bike and bike sometimes rather than relying simply on public transport.


Sources:


Michel Murray, Times Colonist, https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/island-voices-victoria-s-bike-lanes-are-an-expensive-folly-1.23478127


Bill Cleverley, Times Colonist https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/despite-critics-victoria-s-new-bike-lanes-win-award-1.23430723