While Salmon Arm is keen to promote Bike to Work week, the daily ride is becoming a growing safety concern according to Mary Howard.
Between a written submission and an oral presentation, Howard shared her perception with city council that Salmon Arm accommodates bicycles more as a recreational activity than as a daily mode of transportation.
In her letter, Howard states the bicycle, as transportation, has “clearly not been a priority for past or current city planners.” She notes how a short commute to work has morphed into an effort of multitasking with survival as a primary goal. She adds with the opening of Uptown Askew’s, a designated bike route, for her, has become “exponentially scarier.”
“It seems we have signage, but precious little else in terms of genuinely integrating bike use into our area’s transportation system,” writes Howard.
Howard told council fear was her motivation for writing the letter. She said riding the route she’s ridden for the past seven or eight years, much of which is a marked bicycle path, has become a “life-threatening event.”
As for when and how the city establishes bike routes, development and planning director Corey Paiement explained the city looks to maps in the official community plan and the Greenways strategy, the latter being geared more towards trails, non-motorized recreational use. He said in terms of bike infrastructure, the city tries to incorporate routes identified in those documents when opportunity and funding comes available.
Engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen said when adding bike routes, the city tries to work with existing infrastructure.
“Therefore we are narrowing down the travel lanes for the vehicles, and sometimes our bike lanes can be from one metre to 1.5 metres, and the actual driving paths for the vehicles have been reduced, so that in theory causes traffic calming,” Niewenhuizen explained. “We do our best with what we have and, as Corey mentioned, as opportunity comes along, we will continue to enhance the bike lanes throughout the community based on the plans that we have.”
Howard commented on the city’s existing and planned bike routes, noting they seem to take bikes out of the city.
“I’m wondering how you’re going to get bikes into the city,” said Howard.
Coun. Chad Eliason asked about improving signage along the ride from Little Mountain Park to South Canoe, a route he is personally familiar with. Niewenhuizen said signs could be put up encouraging drivers to share the road, but he added as signs become more commonplace, people start taking them for granted.
Eliason said he appreciated the letter and hoped council could solve the problem.
Howard said she appreciated the written response she received from the city, though it didn’t seem to alleviate her concern for how the city accommodates daily two-wheel transit.
“I think we give lip-service all the time, but as a user, I don’t see a genuine effort.