Many Victorians believe that the bikes lanes are a waste of money, but are they?

With the expansions of the bike lanes to start sometime this year which will continue on Vancouver Street, Wharf Street and Humboldt Street. City of Victoria plans to have all bike lanes done by 2022, and with 32 kilometers of All Ages and Abilities protect bike lanes extending across the community.

 If you had a problem with the bike lanes along Pandora and Fort Street, then you can voice you opinion in an online survey or go to one of the meeting set up by city workers where you discuss design plans for the future bike lanes. With British Columbia, and Victoria in general, wanting to move into a more environmentally friendly community, then this will be one of the ways to do that. Mayor Lisa Helps says that once completed we are expected to reduced greenhouse gas emission by more than 10,000 tones a year. In addition, there has been a lot of flack about the cost of the project and where the money is coming from. Yes, an extra $7.85 million is needed to complete to Cook, Humboldt and Wharf bike lanes, but $500,000 of that was to “save eight parking spots in the 600 block of Fort Street. That was [due to] direct input from the public.” Says Helps. “That impacts the costs.” And as where the money is coming from? The funding is from the AAA bicycle network which is mostly funded through Federal Gas Tax Funding, which means every time we put gas into our cars, we are funding the transportation network project. From an interview with Vic News and director of engineering and public works, Fraser Work, Work mentions that “a lot of questions come up about ‘why not simply add more painted lanes’ that have such a lower cost … that’s not what this is about. From a staff level I’m most interested in the safety for all cyclists that move in and out of traffic.” People are forgetting about the safety of the cyclists, young, old, and disabled. With the rate of population that Victoria is growing at we need to start thinking about the future, and how people are going to transport themselves around the city.

At the end of the day the argument about whether bike lanes are a waste of money or not won’t end. But maybe to really see both sides to this dispute, people should try to enjoy a bike ride down the protected bikes lanes themselves and see why people do appreciate the lanes so much.