Nelson: Calgary’s bike lanes are ruining us

Nelson:  Calgary's bike lanes are  ruining us


Cities around the world  provide examples of how bike lanes can be added to roads without disrupting  car traffic. What major city would deliberately degrade a vital part of its  infrastructure, internationally recognized for  its excellence? Well,  that's what we're living  in, my friends.
Five years ago, an international survey by a  UK-based automotive company  ranked Calgary first among 100  major cities tested on 15 different  measures as the  best city in the world to  drive in. Our most impressive  result came in the speed category, measuring how quickly  drivers can  get from one area to  another. Most cities would celebrate such an  honor, which could lead to congratulations from municipal transportation  officials. But not at Calgary City Hall.  That's right.
That's because our  city leaders have a  bigger mission in mind: saving the planet from climate change. And those  carbon-dioxide-emitting cars and  trucks speeding through Calgary at thousands  of miles per hour are proving  to be the biggest  obstacle to  overcome if the  city is to  achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. According to  the Calgary Climate Panel, total vehicle emissions  are not only refusing to  go down, they're  actually going up. And until that  changes, all this  talk of "we're a city in a climate  emergency" will be nothing more than hot  air.
So if Calgarians refuse to  voluntarily give up  gas-powered vehicles, we're going to need a  big push to see the environmental light  — and being  designated a  safe place to drive  first certainly  won't get us there. But what  can we do? Well, say hello to bike  lanes. Most Calgarians imagine  that the bike lanes that have  sprung up in  recent years are  a personal project limited to the city  center, which doesn't bother us too  much, as long as we don't  regularly get delayed while driving  downtown.
Sure, we  complain about the cost of  tearing up  roads to  install such  things, while scratching our heads  at the  absurdity of  reducing vehicle space while promoting the  joy of  cycling in January. But at least  it's not happening in our  neighborhoods.
Consider this little  nugget: the city's  comprehensive plan, which will soon  be submitted for final  approval by council, calls for bike lanes to be  located within 400  meters of every  residential unit in Calgary.  Yes, it's there, on page 100 of the Calgary  map. It's written in black and white  that this goal  must be  achieved by  2050.
Oh, and the plan also calls for this  future massive  network of bike  paths to be  regularly cleared of snow and ice during the  winter.
The cost of this  "continuous strategy" will be astronomical. For example, a current bike  path project  that stretches for several miles along the  Beltway would eventually  cost about $10 million. At last  count, there were 17,000  miles of  road in our city, so  be prepared for big  toll increases over the next quarter century to  fund this project. It will also be necessary to plan for the additional  costs of  creating large parking  lots to accommodate all these  bicycles left at  public transport stations.
Anyone who has visited Amsterdam  has seen such  facilities. They are  truly impressive, as  are the  numbers of  people happily pedaling. But Calgary is not like the  old capital of the Netherlands. We are a modern city,  which has expanded  in depth for two  reasons: to be landlocked with no oceans, mountains or other  cities, and  to be able to count on motor  vehicles. That's why an  efficient, quality road  network was so important,  and the city  government understood that.
But the  zeal for climate change has changed  that. What should  have been a serious but practical problem to  solve has become the altar on which other people's  lifestyles are sacrificed while having the  absolute audacity to expect them to  foot the  bill too.
Demolishing and reducing  the road  surface for vehicles and replacing  it with bike  paths everywhere is the plan. It's that simple and that  scary. Woman who killed  future wife, still in wedding  dress, in  drunken car crash gets maximum  sentence
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