By Olivia Timm
PETERBOROUGH-With several citizens emphasizing the importance of bike lanes on Charlotte Street, Peterborough council voted to look into King Street as an alternative instead.
Chambers were packed full at Monday’s meeting with citizens of all ages – and the selection of young advocates were in favour of bike lanes.
One in particular was Kaia Douglas, a grade 10 student and cyclist.
She asked council to envision the danger of cycling without proper bike lanes.
“Cyclists are already using Charlotte Street to get in and out of downtown, even though there is absolutely no infrastructure for us. If cyclists are supposed to switch our routes and only use King Street, we would have done that by now because King Street is calmer and safer,” she explained.
She poses the question: “If we know where cyclists want to ride, shouldn’t we make it safer for them in those places?”
According to a survey of 220 people, results showed that most cyclists wanted the bike lanes to be on Charlotte Street, not King Street.
“Bicycles are not blocking traffic – we are traffic. If we are in the business of moving traffic, we better be in the business of moving all traffic. That means cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. This is why I strongly believe that it is your duty to approve separated bike lanes on Charlotte Street,” said Douglas.
Another speaker, Nathan Govier of Fixed Gear Promotions, made a grand entrance sporting a bright jacket and wearing a bicycle helmet.
He explained the obstacle that cyclists face when they are not treated equally on the roads.
He pointed to himself, proving his point by saying, “Even dressed like this, I have a hard time getting cars to see me on the road.”
“It is my vision for this city that one day, we have as many people biking around town as we do driving,” he said.
Govier continued by saying, “we need to all of the municipalities of this size in Ontario to get on board with more biking and less driving.”
Ron Steinman wants to see bike lanes as well, but he brought up a different issue. His focus was on the issue of parking – in particular, will there be enough?
Steinman had prepared data for council that had an overhead view of parking spaces in the Reid and Downie public lots. The pictures emphasized that during the middle of Friday and Saturday, they were not filled to the extent.
He said, “These lots have always been underutilized.”
Steinman also says business will increase with the input of bike lanes.
“Most places that have put biking lanes in find their business increases because people don’t buy anything when they’re in an automobile. Often when people put in more cycling in a walk-able city, they find more sales,” he says.
Steinman answers his question, “I would say the answer is yes – there is plenty of parking along this area of Charlotte Street to accommodate any parking needs that people might have.”
Dave Madill, Chair of the BDIA, shut down the data presented by Steinman by saying, “a picture of the parking lots downtown are anecdotal, that is not data. We need to get away from anecdotal and biased studies.”
Madill is in favour of putting bike lanes on King Street rather than Charlotte Street.
“We need to have lanes but we need to have safe environments for them. The best solution is King Street for safety and economically,” he said.
He went on to say, “You are losing 89 parking spaces by doing this… that is [like losing] a parking lot.”
Madill had several councilors on his side in regards to the bike lanes moving to King Street.
Coun. Parnell voted in favour to move the discussion of bike lanes off of Charlotte Street and onto King Street.
“I believe in complete streets. I think protective bike lanes are the way of the future. This keeps the doors open by including the King Street protected bike lane in 2018’s budget,” expressed Parnell.
She agrees that King Street is a compromise, but she says, “I would like to see this stay in – we should look at King Street for the biking lanes.”
Natasha Holley, 15 year old Peterborough student and cyclist, respectfully disagreed with moving bike lanes onto King Street.
She said, “One day the City of Peterborough will not be yours. It will be my generations.”
Holley says she would rather have protected bike lanes that allow her to bike safely downtown than have parking spaces.
A more experienced cyclist, Chloe Black, says that having, “something that is separated and for them [cyclists] would be a good option.”
For a woman that claims to ride her bike more than the average person drives their car, she says, “it is probably safer for everybody.”
Although multiple councilors urged to defer making any decision until more information was collected, the deferral was lost.
Council then went back to the original recommendation from May 29 to move bike lanes from Charlotte Street to King Street.
Coun. Therrien, who in past meetings had proclaimed herself as an avid cyclist, said, “We are going to be spending millions of dollars on a street where we could be doing something unique and foward-thinking for the future… We have heard from young people here today about what they are hoping to see in the city and about ways to attract other millennials who are looking for these types of amenities.”
She says it is embarrassing for council to not be either waiting for more information to make an educated decision, or to do something innovative.
Therrien also said, “We are not going to be doing this road for decades and we will be wasting time if we go with the same old status-quo.”
Coun. Pappas did not support King Street bike lanes, either.
He said, “It is short-sighted of us to not listen to the people who it affects.”
Pappas continued by saying, “You can waste the money and put the bike lanes on King Street, but I do not think it’s wise to use our taxpayer’s dollars for it.”
Coun. McWilliams supports moving bike lanes onto Kings Street.
He said, “I think the key to this is safety and the movement of traffic – and yes bikes are traffic as well. King street might not be the right alternative, but it’s the safest one.”
Council meets again next Monday, June 12th at 6:30 p.m.
