Government Street bike lanes

I thought I would post my dialog with various Councillors regarding the Government Street bike lanes. I have tried to assemble it in chronological order.

Me:
Mike Pearce,
I was discouraged to hear that you are discussing at Council the possible removal or modification of the Government Street bike lanes.
I am asking you and the rest of Council maintain all current bike infrastructure and actively support the development of more bike lanes and bike routes, with input from the cycling community.
There is great potential for Penticton to be the cycling capital of BC. We are home to Ironman Canada, and are a destination for training, with many training camps located here. People choose to holiday here so they can train on the Ironman course. Supporting cycling in Penticton will bring tourist dollars to our city. The Government Street bike lanes are heavily used by cycling commuters and athletes alike. It will also help ease traffic congestion and go along way to reaching carbon neutrality, which the City has commited to.
I would like a response on how you are going to address my concerns. Please pass my comments and requests on to Council.
Thank you,
Rowena Tansley

Pearce:
is there something wrong with having ideas im not a bad person you know i have quite a brain by the way i am extremely concerned with the absolutely dangerous situation of the bike lanes and car lanes on govt avenue as a person and as a councillor i am working out how far i will go on this matter if you are genuinely interested in working with any person really concerned without a closed mind on this dangerous situation which street i go down twenty times a day most days of the week you may contact the rest of council directly from the city website where their email addresses are located perhaps you can send me some ideas of yours once you have thought them out carefully about how you address my concerns of the dager of the clash thank you

Me:
To Penticton City Council,

I wrote to Councillor Mike Pearce regarding the Government Street bike lanes and asked him to pass on my comments and concerns to Council. He suggested I contact you myself so I have forwarded my correspondence with him to you for your comments. Please read the correspondence and comment on my concerns and his response. Please let me know if the response from Pearce reflects your opinions and the opinions of Council. You can find the correspondence below.

I will reiterate. I would like City Council to maintain the existing bike lane network and to actively promote expansion of the network. I would like City Council to recognize that promoting cycling is a way to bring tourist dollars to Penticton, a way to make Penticton more healthy and liveable, and a way to reach carbon neutrality. Any change or removal of bike lanes should occur only with input from the Cycling Community.

I would like my comments taken to Council, considered, and I would like a response. Thank you for your time.

Rowena Tansley
(Attached my previous correspondance with Pearce)

Pearce:
how about eliminating all parking betwen eckhafrdt and the hospital and moving the same size bike lane against the curb where you can be protected a little better mp

Litke:
I not only want current lanes maintained, but I want to see an expansion of new lanes. Unfortunately, my latest motion to extend bike lanes from downtown to the community center was defeated by the rest of council. Councillor Jakubeit was the only one who supported me. Other councilors expressed concerns about the loss of parking along Wade. Once again, the car won the argument over sustainable green transportation. Thanks for your continued interest and concern. Maybe if people like you continue to exert pressure, the rest of council will see the light.

Albas:
Hi Rowena,
Sorry for the delay.
My position on this is really simple. First of all, the comments by Councilor Pearce do not represent official city policy at this time- it was simply his opinion.
The north/ south bike lanes was done through a partnership initiative with the Province. In my mind, any changes would have to show a net benefit to and to include collaboration from all community partners including the bicycling community (such as your association), the property owners or neighbourhood associations and of course the Province.
Personally, I think that the bike lanes serve the purpose they were intended and we have a lot of other priorities within the city both economically, socially and environmentally than to fix something that appears not to be broken.
My apologies again. If you ever have any questions or comments please email or phone me. My web site will soon have a link to a Penticton discussion forum and I would be happy to have you or any other citizen state their opinion on public policy so we can all share and learn.
Thanks again for your question.
sincerely,
Dan Albas

Me (to Pearce copied to Council)
Mike Pearce,

Thank you for your response.

Regarding your idea of removing the parking on Government Street and moving the bike lane to the curb, my opinion is that tax dollars would be spent better elsewhere.

Can you please clarify why you are focusing on Government Street and why you feel it is a "dangerous situation". If you are referring to the Government Street bike lanes as being dangerous to cyclists I would strongly suggest you talk to the Cycling community and see what they think are the priorities for improving cycling safety in Penticton.

I am Vice-president of the Penticton and Area Cycling Association (PACA) and there has been a great deal of discussion on the issues of the Government Street bike lanes, the Penticton cycling network in general, and other concerns and ideas that Penticton cyclists have. As I said before, any decisions regarding the cycling network and cycling in general in Penticton should be discussed with the cycling community, and PACA is one of the ways that this can happen.

For the most part, the cycling community (most of these cyclists are also drivers) finds Government Street a fairly safe and effective route for commuting and for training. East Side Rd and Naramata Rd (with the recent tragic accident) jump to mind as routes that are used extensively by cyclists and could use safety improvements. These routes are highly popular for athletes and tourists, and they are the only corridor for commuters cycling from OK Falls and Naramata to Penticton. These two routes offer immense potential for the City of Penticton to develop as cycling corridors and would benefit the City in terms of meeting carbon reduction targets and promoting Penticton as a cycling destination.

Though Government Street is not a priority for improvement for Penticton Cyclists, there have been some great suggestions from the PACA membership and the cycling community on how to make the Government Street route more bikeable (and driveable) if City Council decides to proceed on improvements. Some of these suggestions include: enforcing and strengthening the no stopping bylaw in the bike lanes, having “no left hand turn” signs for certain times of the day where there is no left hand turn lane, contacting the local schools to suggest appropriate alternative routes for parents driving their children to school, timing the traffic lights to allow traffic to flow, and of course promoting commuter cycling.

Overall there is overwhelming support from the cycling community to maintain the Government Street bike lanes as they are.

Thank you for your consideration.
Rowena Tansley
Vice-president Penticton and Area Cycling Association

You can use the online forms:
http://penticton.ca/contacts/default.asp?div=10

Or email them:
Dan Ashton: Dan.Ashton@shaw.ca
Dan Albas: danalbas@shaw.ca
Andrew Jakubeit: Jakubeit@telus.net
Garry Litke: garrylitke@shaw.ca
Mike Pearce: mpearce1947@hotmail.com
Judy Sentes: judy.sentes@osns.org
John Vassilaki: John.Vassilaki@penticton.ca

thank you for your comments im sure the cycling community will be included by council as they are all very bright individuals as to th safety of govt avenue you can decide that for yourself i think the whole st from ekhardt to the hospital is dangerous not just for cyclists but for cross walk users as well and its not all about enforcement its about traffic calming perhaps you can withhold your effort until i actually bring a motiion which i am not ready to do yet until i have thought it out thank you for your imput regards mp

I can't believe the response you got from Pearce. Did he go to school? Has he heard of punctuation or manners? I mean, a little capitalization and the occasional period aren't too hard are they?

Good work to you Rowena for keeping your cool and keeping the kid gloves on, this guy obviously doesn't have quite the brain he thinks he does.

Good luck fighting the good fight,

Kyle

I emailed the councillors and mayor who have not gotten back to me yet on this issue. I don't think some of them check their City email addresses, so the web form from the City website is probably the best way of reaching them, though I have updated some of their addresses above.

I am not speaking for anyone, but I will give a brief summary of my discussions.

I speak to Andrew Jakebeit frequently and he is a strong supporter of cycling in Penticton, and of improving and expanding the bike lane network. He is working to get a committee together to develop a vision and a plan for what a network should look like. The Go Green committee has contacted me, and will be looking for input from the cycling community.

I have spoken to Dan Ashton and he hasn't really expressed an opinion either way, but has clarified several times that private land was expropriated along Government for the purpose of making it a four lane street. He said at the time of expropriation that four lanes weren't necessary so they put in bike lanes. He said the people he talked to would be happy with a different bike route on quieter streets. He asked me to come up with a suggestion for a new north-south corridor and I suggested he leave it where it was.

Judy Sentes emailed and phoned. She said she brought the issue to council and will continue to lobby for bike lanes to stay where they are. She expressed intent to do as much for us as she can for the cycling community.

Not sure who is running yet this year but just thought I'd comment on this thread so you can all know where our incumbent Councillors stand on bike lanes, or at least where they stood a few years ago.

PACA has been VERY active advocating for cycling networks in Penticton (probably why we still have bike lanes on Government St) so some councillors may have changed their opinions. I will try to find out for you.

Any thoughts for other Bike Lanes in Penticton? I understand East Side Rd is getting an upgrade starting after Ironman 2011, any news on any other upgrades?

I sit on a board called the 'Transportation Demand Committee' which among others things, deals with bike lanes within city limits. There is a good deal of discussion going on regarding bike lanes and it looks like several promising projects are in the works. The current committee is composed of numerous bike-path keeners, and 'we' speak directly to city council.

There are several new bike lane projects in the "recommended as valid" file for Penticton in the next 24 months. As always with politics however, the only things which get actioned upon are those which are supported by 'butts in chairs and voices at council meetings' - a cycling community rarity in Penticton.

If riders expect that "someone else will show up for city hall meetings", then pathway development will remain at the snail's pace that its been running at to date...

Andrew

Along with the Ride Schedule, can you post up a Meetings Schedule with where and when. I have no clue where to find such meetings.

Will do.

Andrew

Frank Conci wants to halt the expansion of the bike lane network, not very progressive...
http://www.frankconci.com/election-platform.html

I haven't contacted all the candidates this time around... Does anyone know bike friendly candidates?

I can tell you that Lidtke and Jakubeit support bike lanes and have voted accordingly. Frank Conci says on his website he will put a moratorium on bike lane and transit expansion. Ashton has always been a fence sitter when I ask him for an opinion. bloomfield and robinson both say they support bike lanes when I emailed them recently.

I am not going to be updating this thread.

Please see this new thread:

https://bike.darkbb.com/t765-2011-penticton-municipal-election

The bike lanes aren't dangerous. It's the drivers who are dangerous.