Edgehill area residents are questioning a city plan to install cycling lanes on both sides of Manson Avenue, a move they say will reduce the amount of street parking available to them.
Manson homeowner Iain Livingstone raised the issue in an August 2 letter to mayor and council. Livingstone said he is aware that no bylaws have been passed yet, but he, along with approximately 18 others living on Manson between Alberni and Abbotsford streets, is worried about the impact of the lanes on parking once council makes its decision.
“The installation of bike lanes will no doubt mean no parking will be available to us when or if a bylaw to such effect is in place,” stated Livingstone in the letter.
Livingstone said his concerns go back to the spring when his son-in-law, who had parked in front of his house, was allegedly told by a city bylaw enforcement officer that parking in the bike lane was prohibited. This happened before any bylaw had been passed or notice given regulating street parking, he said.
Livingstone met with councillors Russell Brewer and Karen Skadsheim about his concerns then, but as of August had not heard if any decision on the bike lanes had been made.
“If they are going to be putting bylaws in, then they should be putting signs up, that’s for one thing,” said Livingstone. “They should be telling people.”
Brewer said he understands why some residents have been left wondering what the city’s cycling plan is.
“We missed the boat a little bit there,” said Brewer. “We need to do a bit more sharing with what we’re doing with the cycling plan and the works that are going on.”
Not enough attention has been focused on sharing the objectives and benefits of the cycling plan with the community, or updates on the various phases of the works required and implications for residents and road users, added Brewer.
In 2014, City of Powell River completed its municipal cycling plan. With that document, the city was able to obtain three government grants for more than $338,000 to construct approximately seven kilometres of bike lanes, city manager of engineering services Frank D’Angio told city councillors Tuesday, August 16, in a report to the committee of the whole.
The city’s traffic bylaw that regulates street parking has not been updated to reflect the municipal cycling plan, although a first draft of an updated traffic bylaw was presented in January and is expected to come back to committee in September, said Brewer.
“There’s going to be some learning as we roll the plan out,” said Brewer. “There’s going to be those routes where what we’ve implemented doesn’t quite work and we’re going to have to revisit it and think about doing something different. At the same time, there may be areas where it might require changes in behaviour of motorists, residents and cyclists.”
D’Angio said city staff is looking at options for Manson Avenue residents. With sidewalks on both sides of the road between Alberni and Abbotsford, there is less width for lanes and no gravel shoulder for parking, he said.
“We do have some ideas we’ve been floating, but we haven’t come up with anything concrete yet,” said D’Angio.
Staff will wait for the fall school term at nearby Edgehill Elementary School to begin before conducting a bike count for that stretch of road to quantify its use by cyclists before making any decisions, said D’Angio.
One option among a few, he said, is to have only one bike lane for both directions on that stretch of road.
