Keith Gerein: Nuisance or not, Edmonton’s bike lanes are no business of the UCP government

Apparently yet to be satisfied with its incursions into Edmonton’s police commission, photo radar, regional planning, election rules and more, the UCP government appears to have chosen its next target — city bike lanes.

Anyone on a two-wheeler could see this coming a mile away. With Doug Ford’s Ontario government intent on ripping out a number of bike lanes in Toronto, it was only a matter of time before Alberta’s government seized the opportunity to insert itself into the same culture war.

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Frankly, I’m surprised it took them this long, though it does make for a good distraction amid allegations of corruption in procurement at Alberta Health Services.

Still, I have to admit some confusion as to Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen’s approach.

The minister’s first step was to send a letter to Coun. Karen Principe last week in which he criticized city intentions to install bike lanes at the expense of car lanes. He specifically cited plans along 132 Avenue between 66 Street and 97 Street, but made it clear it wasn’t the only location of concern.

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That was followed by a strange “town hall” event Thursday at the Killarney Community League in front of a small but partially hostile crowd.

To the minister’s credit, he gamely responded to a number of barbed questions from the audience, though his overall case for provincial intrusion in the matter was unconvincing.

One of his main arguments was that it doesn’t make sense for the province to spend tax dollars helping to expand capacity of major roadways such as Yellowhead Trail and Anthony Henday Drive if the city then reduces lanes on roads that directly or indirectly feed those thoroughfares.

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“This is bottlenecking Edmontonians at a time of rapid growth,” he told the town hall. “We will be sitting down with municipal leaders and we will be talking about smart infrastructure planning that doesn’t sacrifice road functionality. Our roads need to work for everyone.”

Later on, when asked if his government might rip out city bike lanes the way Ontario is doing, Dreeshen confirmed that option is “on the table” — a response that did not get a wildly positive reaction from the crowd.

Lack of respect

A few things can be unpacked from all this, and I’ll start with the arrogance that seems to underlie the planned sit-down with municipal leaders. There is little to indicate this is a real invitation for collaboration, and instead comes across as a summons for a lecture. In other words, fix this or we will fix it for you.

The minister from Innisfail-Sylvan Lake might want to consider at least a little respect for Edmonton’s history of planning, discussion and design already built into this work.

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Indeed, increased biking is a significant feature of the City Plan, which is built on the not-entirely radical idea that a major city heading toward two million people might need to get more compact, sustainable, and find alternative ways of moving people around so that not everyone has to have a car.

The City Plan has been around since 2020. Edmonton’s last civic election in 2021 selected a council that was largely supportive of implementing that plan. That council approved $100 million for bike infrastructure in late 2022. Dreeshen was named transportation minister at around the same time.

As such, it seems disingenuous for the province to have waited until now to start targeting two-wheeled transportation.

Alas, the UCP government of late has been increasingly inserting itself into municipal infrastructure decisions, overriding years of work by city officials. We certainly saw that with the Green Line LRT in Calgary.

In that case, the province at least had a financial stake in the Green Line. With Edmonton’s bike infrastructure, it has none. Dreeshen’s attempt to justify intrusion — by characterizing neighbourhood bike lanes as a detriment to investments in major thoroughfares — is a massive stretch.

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Some roadways, like Yellowhead Trail, are specifically designed for maximum traffic flow. Neighbourhood roads have additional considerations.

I agree that the city should generally try to avoid swapping car lanes for bike lanes, but there are some areas where that just isn’t possible. And in those cases, the extra 30 to 90 seconds that a bike lane might add to a daily driving commute hardly adds up to “bottlenecking” the minister suggests.

Selective safety

In that vein, my greatest concern with all this is the shockingly low — or selective — priority the UCP government seems to place on safety. Dreeshen’s whole schtick here is about the movement of people and products, which is obviously an important part of his portfolio, but it shouldn’t be everything. We’ve seen the same ideology at play in his recent gutting of photo radar.

At this point, I will admit to a personal stake in the issue. A year ago, a good friend was cycling home from work when he was hit by a pickup truck. He thankfully survived, but suffered severe internal injuries. There were complications for months afterwards. The pickup truck driver left the scene.

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I myself have had a number of close calls. I would like to cycle more, including commuting to work some days, but it just does not feel safe. For the people out there who say not enough Edmontonians use bikes to justify bike lanes, this is precisely the point. Similar to transit, if you want people to use the system, then a safe, reliable, integrated network is a prerequisite.

All that said, even if you disagree with me — and I know many of you do — there is a bigger principle at stake around municipal self-determination.

If the province gives itself licence to intervene at such granular levels of city planning, where does it stop?

Is the government going to start dictating municipal speed limits? Pothole schedules? Will the city need to check with Dreeshen’s office before installing traffic lights and crosswalks?

If Edmontonians are unhappy with the city’s choices, there is an election six months from now that offers the opportunity for change.

In my mind, that is increasingly what this civic election is going to be about. Do local voices have priority say in the designs of our own communities, or does it fall to the whims of cabinet ministers from other places who might have different agendas?

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kgerein@postmedia.com

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