https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/08/04/more-bike-lanes-make-for-a-better-city

A FEW weeks ago in Winnipeg, Rob Jenner was killed by a driver while riding his bike to work. On July 29, a few blocks away, a young girl out for a bike ride with her dad was hospitalized after a driver crashed into her. Every year, an average of 70 people riding a bike are hit by drivers so severely that an injury report is filed with the police. In a six-month cycling season, that’s every third day.

Yet, when the city began public consultation for three new protected bike lanes, two downtown and one in the West-Alexander area, the usual public opposition was heard. The talking points are always predictable and can be addressed one-by-one.

● Winnipeg is a winter city. We don’t need bike lanes for six months a year.

This is like saying, “I don’t need to wear a life jacket because I only go boating in the summertime.” Far fewer people cycle in winter but this shouldn’t diminish the need for safe streets in the seasons when people are riding bikes and fighting for road space with thousand-kilogram machines. We publicly invest in many things not used to their full capacity year-round. Would this same argument not apply to parks, sidewalks, arenas, pools and splash pads?

● We can’t afford bike lanes. Bike lanes are cheap. We spend $5 million per year on all active transportation projects. Most of this funding is used to build and maintain sidewalks, with a small percentage used for on-street bike lanes that are often rolled into larger road renewal projects. Spending on dedicated cycling infrastructure is a rounding error in our overall roads budget. We spend $170 million every year fixing existing roads and the Transportation Master Plan projects spending almost that amount building new roads. If we can’t afford bike infrastructure, we really can’t afford car infrastructure like the Kenaston Boulevard widening, pegged to cost the equivalent of the entire active transportation budget for 150 years.

● Winnipeg is a car city. It sure is but with 8,300 kilometers of public roads and less than 30 kilometres of on-street protected bike lanes, there’s lots of room for cars.

● Nobody rides a bike in Winnipeg anyway.

The federal census shows between 5,000 and 7,000 people ride a bike to work daily between May and October. While this represents less than two per cent of commuters citywide, it varies significantly by neighbourhood. About two-thirds of bike commuters live less than five kilometres from Portage and Main. In suburban neighbourhoods like Bridgwater, Seven Oaks, Island Lakes, Linden Woods, Sage Creek, and North Kildonan, this percentage is close to zero. It’s understandable, if you live in this type of neighbourhood, you might believe nobody rides a bike. In mature neighbourhoods like River Heights, West Broadway, Osborne, and Earl Grey, cycling mode share is closer to six per cent of all commuters. Wolseley is ranked as a top 10 cycling neighbourhood in Canada with 12 per cent of commuters riding a bike.

Many more people, including children, cycle for other reasons, such as recreation, exercise, or riding to school. The bike counter near The Forks regularly shows more than a thousand people biking past on a summer weekend day. A 2022 CAA survey found that 15 per cent of Winnipeggers ride a bike at least a few times per week, with a further 30 per cent riding occasionally. Forty per cent of respondents said they would bike more if they had safe, protected lanes to ride in.

● If cyclists want bike lanes, they should pay for it themselves.

City streets, sidewalks and bike lanes are paidfor overwhelmingly through property taxes. Like drivers, people who ride bikes pay property taxes. Cyclists don’t pay fuel taxes that go into the government’s general revenues but the money they save is spent on other things that are similarly taxed. Most cyclists also drive a car.