Phil Tank: Deaths cast dark shadow on Saskatoon's new bike lane battle

Saskatoon city hall is pitching a handful of new bikeways with lower speed limits, combining two of the city’s most controversial issues.

Author of the article:

Phil Tank • Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Published Dec 12, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 3 minute read

New protected bike lanes on Fourth Avenue in downtown Saskatoon, Sask. accommodate cyclists in May of 2016. Photo by Greg Pender /The StarPhoenix

If you saw downtown bike lanes and the attempt to lower speed limits in Saskatoon as controversial, fasten your seatbelts and secure your bike helmets.

City hall proposes combining these contentious issues by pitching a handful of bikeways that would feature a reduced speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour.

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A city council fresh off a sometimes bruising budget debate will consider the proposal later this month; it was reviewed by council’s transportation committee last week.

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So this idea will get a little further than the proposal to lower speed limits on residential roads, which died at the committee level two years ago, despite years of work, when it failed to get the required support.

An attempt to lower the residential speed limit to 40 km/h — long a priority of Mayor Charlie Clark — never left the garage, but in the wake of its collapse council expanded the hours and days for 30-km/h school zones and added 69 playground zones with 30-km/h limits.

So the supporters of lower speed limits got them, even if they fall short of applying throughout the city.

Now, a 30 km/h speed limit has been proposed for Avenue C as part of a 4.6-km active transportation corridor that would include an on-street bikeway, protected bike lanes and a mixed-use path stretching from Spadina Crescent in the Riversdale neighbourhood to 45th Street West in the airport industrial area.

The cost is estimated at $8.8 million, but no funding exists. That cost does not include the acquisition of property, which makes it far more complicated than the maligned downtown bike lanes experiment.

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Some business owners along Avenue C strongly oppose the idea, partly because it will eliminate on-street parking stalls.

Concerns about the project are legitimate, but two people died while cycling on Saskatoon streets this year, both parents of young children. The need for safer cycling infrastructure has never resonated more clearly.

Bike lanes tend to be controversial everywhere because they disrupt established transportation patterns. Sadly, only deaths and injuries change perception.

Despite those who oppose safety measures for cyclists as some sort of twisted cultural crusade against urban elites, SGI statistics show about 50 cyclists every year are injured in collisions with motor vehicles in Saskatoon.

That suggests the city has been extremely lucky that more deaths have not occurred, and that a significant number of people opt to cycle on our streets despite the danger.

The reduced speed limit is also being proposed for four other bikeways throughout the city that have been approved by council on Dudley Street, 31st Street West, 14th Street East and 23rd Street West.

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City hall received 78 messages in support of the lower speed limits for bikeways, compared to four opposing the Avenue C corridor. Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Toronto have bikeways with reduced speed limits, but most of those cities also have lower residential limits.

Cyclists could receive no better Christmas present from city hall than safer streets, but this proposal is complex.

Still, opponents will be challenged to summon arguments that don’t sound callous and uncaring, given that two Saskatoon families are spending Christmas without a loved one.

Plus, it’s not just traditional cyclists anymore. There are e-bikes and e-scooters. And this year’s warm winter makes it difficult to argue that you can only bike for a few months in Saskatchewan’s largest city.

A warming climate may be changing that permanently.

Yet those digging in for a culture war against cycling may be surprised to discover that they’ve already lost. Over the last five years, Saskatoon has added 27 kms of cycling paths, including 16 kms of paved, off-road trails and 11 kms of raised cycling tracks.

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For sure, that qualifies as a pittance among the city’s more than 5,100 lane kilometres of roadway.

But, even with the downtown bike lanes on hold indefinitely, It’s difficult to see this proliferation as anything other than a victory for cyclists.

More needs to be done, but it must be done right.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

[email protected]

twitter.com/thinktankSK