Powell River resident Liz Brach has appealed to city councillors to help improve the section of Highway 101 from Wildwood to Lund to accommodate a bike lane.
Brach wrote correspondence to councillors, which was reviewed at the December 1 committee of the whole meeting.
At the meeting, councillor George Doubt said he agreed with Brach’s submission and added that this isn’t the first time a cycle route to Lund or the entire Sunshine Coast has come up. He said he had done some work when the issue came up with qathet Regional District (qRD), and city staff had found a ministry of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) study from 2017 about the highway. One of the first things the study states is that the roadway infrastructure on Highway 101 is insufficient for pedestrians and cyclists.
Doubt said qRD conducted a transportation study in 2014 that identified lack of shoulder space for cycling and walking.
“That was found to be one of the main factors that prevent people from walking and cycling,” said Doubt. “Under the actions, one of the ultimate goals is to provide a segregated, paved path from Lund to Saltery Bay. That’s a pretty extensive plan that the regional district had created, which, in the near future, really talked about shoulder widening north of the city to Lund, but also south of the city and within city boundaries, to create a safe biking area between Lund and the Saltery Bay terminal.
“I’d like to see that happening. I think what stands in the way of that is several million dollars of funding.”
Doubt said qRD had a recent joint meeting with Sunshine Coast Regional District and agreed to set up a working group with MOTI on highway issues, including road widening and making bike travel safer.
“I’m glad to see this information come here,” said Doubt. “It’s a good idea to be talked about as a community, but it’s not going to be an easy hill to get over. It’s going to take some money and hopefully we can get upper levels of government to participate.”
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said the provincial highway is not the city’s jurisdiction. She said Brach had requested the city to improve the condition of the highway.
Leishman said she thinks the city needs to send a response to Brach letting her know there are jurisdictional issues regarding the provincial highway, and that her letter can be forwarded to MOTI, as well as qRD. The province is the government that has to do the actual improvements, said Leishman.
“There’s a big push starting to happen that people want all of our provincial highways improved for cycling and safe access,” said Leishman.
Councillor Jim Palm said Brach did a fantastic job outlining the safety concerns. He said the letter was endorsed by Wildwood ratepayers, Westview ratepayers and Powell River Cycling Association.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said it is important to remind people that Marine Avenue is the provincial highway and the city has no jurisdiction over bike lanes along there, either.
Councillor Rob Southcott said he is a cyclist and that the highway is “pretty bumpy.” He said repaving has been done on Highway 101 but the shoulders have not been fixed. He added that it’s a slalom course for cyclists over all sorts of hazards.
“The number of cyclists is increasing and people are buying electric bikes,” said Southcott. “The range of people cycling is increasing. The highway on the north side is a total hazard. I definitely appreciate and support what Liz Brach is advocating.”
Committee chair councillor Cindy Elliott said she was hearing that staff should write a letter to Brach explaining the jurisdictional issues. She heard from councillors that the need for repair existed.
“I completely agree with everything in the letter,” said Elliott. “My brother replaces a bike every year because it gets bent from riding to work in Lund.”
The committee agreed to send a letter to Brach.
