Heiko Van Eijnsvergen is taking a cautious approach towards Maple Ridge’s plans to put in a bike lane along 123rd Avenue.
He owns a house there and worries about the future of the road, if the city removes the parking lanes on either side of the road and puts in bike lanes. When the streetside parking is gone, could the city in future years, just turn the road into a major traffic artery? he asks.
Maple Ridge wants to reduce speed on the road and increase safety and is considering either building corner flares at the intersections between Laity and 203rd streets, or installing bike lanes on either side, with the resulting effect of slower traffic speeds on the road.
However, installing bike lanes requires removing the parking lanes.
The city held public information meetings both last year and this Aug. 1 about the idea. The bike lanes would be separated from the roads by a curb and run from Laity Street to 203rd Street – which has just had a bi-directional bike lane completed on the east of the road.
“I guess I’m just joining the chorus,” Einjsvergern said. Most residents at the meeting didn’t like the idea of losing their street front parking.
Maybe a bike lane could go on one side of the road and a sidewalk on the other, he suggested.
Darren Gosselin, whose mother in law lives on 123rd Avenue, said removing streetside parking would make it difficult to park for parents picking up their kids at Laity View elementary.
“People now use 123rd Avenue as a commuter route and people fly down that route.” When residents complained to city halll, they wanted addressed was the traffic speed.
“The city’s solution was to put in bike lanes. If they’re doing that for traffic control, people are just going to find a way around that.”
He said if the city wants to buildbike lanes it should do so on the narrow 210th Street connecting Golden Ears Way to Old Dewdney Trunk Road. People are already complaining about difficulty accessing their properties on 203rd Street, north of Dewdney Trunk Road, after a bike lane was recently completed on the east side of that road.
The city however, could just build traffic-calming measures on the road and forget about bike lanes on 123rd Avenue.
Jackie Chow, with Hub: Your Cycling Connection, says that curb bulges and traffic circles would make cycling more dangerous, as cyclists would be forced to move into the vehicle lane when approaching the curb bulges and traffic circles.