A Halifax-area councillor says he is deeply troubled by a new motion about to be tabled by the mayor that would pause construction of new bike lanes to help ease traffic.
Sam Austin tells our newsroom there is no evidence to suggest that bike lanes cause congestion.
“I think it’s deeply problematic to be putting forward a motion with such major repercussions as pausing work that is literally going out to tender that we looked at in our budget just months ago,” says Austin.
“You can talk to any urban planner folks out there. There’s just no evidence in the world to support what he’s suggesting.”
The motion from Andy Fillmore would ask for a list of bike projects in the current four-year capital plan that could lead to less room for vehicles – and pause them.
However, Austin says the traffic jams in the city now are due to a big spike in population, not bike lanes.
“The congestion we’re experiencing now is from the fact that we have 100,000 more people in this city than we did eight years ago and we haven’t provided suitable alternatives for people to do things other than take their car for a lot of trips,” adds Austin.
Potential
Austin says, we have a lot of potential in our city to cater to cyclists -and in other parts of the world, that infrastructure gets used a lot.
“We are already one of the top active transportation destinations in the country and that’s without the infrastructure to support it because our climate is better than most other Canadian cities,” says Austin.
“There’s no reason to think that we’re some other species of human that things will play out differently here than they have in all these other varied cities around the world that have done this. If you build it, people come.”
The mayor says it’s about meeting everyone’s needs
Fillmore says the city is growing fast and it needs a transportation network that works for everyone.
He tells our newsroom the purpose of the pause is to stop closing lanes to other modes of traffic.
“People who use those other modes deserve to have their needs met, just as much as cyclists deserve to have their needs met,” says Fillmore.
What does the motion ask for?
Ballooning costs, no alternatives and some of the worst congestion in Canada are the main reasons Fillmore is tabling the motion.
He says his intention is to get a list of all the bike lane projects that are not yet tendered to stop any that would close lanes and give the thumbs up to projects that won’t jam things up.
“The red-light projects, I’m asking for a re-design so that they don’t take traffic lane width but rather have the bike lanes put one street over on a quiet side street,” says Fillmore.
This, he says, would be safer and less costly.
“That’s really the entire intention of the report. To make sure we are building a transportation system for everybody.”
The motion will be tabled, Tuesday.
Comments