The barriers on the Hart would be an awesome idea. If Peden Hill and Highway 16 can have those why shouldn’t the Hart? The traffic is close to the same amount, especially southbound during peak hours. Barriers help prevent head-on crashes and the Hart has seen a number of those over the years and one fatal crash last year.

Most people will agree it’s the drivers problem and while that may be the case there are ways to save lives from stupid drivers. If you’re a good driver you’ll agree to have barriers put up to help save your life from one bad mistake or our lovely winter driving conditions we’ll soon be experiencing.

The barrier is a great idea. Lots of near misses when someone turns left into the Husky. No one expects someone to just stop in the inside lane and then cross a double solid to pick up a coffee and smokes. I agree pookerjams – we can talk all day about how drivers need to be better, but fact is, there’s some real stupid ones out there, and physical barriers is about the only way to deal with them.

I think that before they blindly set up a bunch of no parking area’s around the City they had better find out just how many bikers they actually have.

Once you take out the 6 months of Winter, and get an actual count of the number of people who actually bike to and from work, or who actually bike around the City you might want to wonder why we would get rid of all this prime parking space to service a few people.

Much better to pass a bylaw to allow bikers to use sidewalks on collector and arterial roads, with pedestrians having the right of way.

While bikes on sidewalks may not be the best solution, it is certainly better then having vast amounts of pavement sitting empty all day waiting from a biker to come along.

Very few bicycle riders in Prince George, and very few people who actually use our sidewalks outside the bowl area.

Barriers from the John Hart Bridge to Hoferkamp Road will not have any bearing on traffic coming in our out of the Husky Station. Hoferkamp is South of the Husky Turnoff.

The motion being put in front of Council is to “Direct Administration to consider and report back on options for the removal of on-street parking on arterial roadways in accordance with Section 5.2.4 of the City’s Active Transportation Plan”.

That plan was approved October 17, 2011

Do not expect a decision tonight on the removal of parking. We are some way away from that. This should have been done years ago.

Let us see how Council will deal with how the decision will be made, whether this will be open for discussion by interest groups other than the bicyclists or not. Maybe this will be one of the first controversial decisions made by the City within the new inclusive protocol.

Let us hope so since there are many aspects of this issue which need to be addressed before a final decision is made on the specific request which was initially made informally by Merrick.

At least in my subjective experience, the hill just west of the Mud River bridge on highway 16 is a lot scarier. I’d love to see a barrier between lanes there. Widening the bridge would be great too.

Of interest is the building permit value report as of July.

It shows year to date values of $85.3million in 2013, $81.8million in 2014 and $59.2 million in 2015. The single family dwellings have moved from 50 to 60 to 70 over the same time period. The new multi-family dwellings have moved from $3.9million to $0 to $9.3 million this year.

New and altered commercial is way down, as are new industrial.

Institutional alterations are also down considerably and there has been virtually no new institutional construction over the same half year period in the past three years.

The caution in looking at these figures is that they are only for the first six months of each of the 3 years. There could have been significant value differences in the last 5 months of each of those years, However, this report is an indicator that this will likely not be a year in which construction activity in the city will exceed that of the previous two years.

Twice now I have had a post I am working on disappear from my screen. I will make it shorter now. Bad idea UNBC. You and the media keeping the actions of that wingnut in the fore front are what leads other mentally unstable people to seek their fifteen minutes of fame. We are seeing this happen every week around the world. Not many can name the young ladies that lost their lives that day but many remember the name of the wingnut that committed those horrific acts thanks to the media every year just as he had wished. Now UNBC wishes to help the media in forwarding his agenda with a week long series of events. BAD idea and to ask our city to help aid in this bad idea is just crazy. If UNBC wishes to carry this out fine but please don’t ask our city council to be a part of it as well.

and while were at it – why not put cement barriers down every highway, side street, aerial back road and separate the bicycle lanes from the driving lanes – Good grief whats the matter with drivers/people these days. Maybe instead of handing out drivers licenses like candy bars, maybe the driving age should be raised to a more maturer age then 16. Or maybe these numbskulls who are in such big hurries should learn to slow down and quit trying to push everyone else of the hiways and biways. Who the hell do they think they are anyway??

Very good points twobits – but it’s not just 16 years olds, it’s all ages. My personal opinion is there are two major causes for the overall drop in driving courtesy and increase in aggressive behavior. One is lack of police presence. Our police are tasked with so many duties these days, they just don’t have the time to put a show of force on the streets. This weekend they patrolled Chief Lake/Ness Lake because of Wooffest – and it was amazing how well behaved the traffic was. I was actually able to do the speed limit without somebody crawling up the back end of my vehicle.

The second I believe may be caffeine. I think back about 40 years and coffee took time to make, and it wasn’t available via drive thru. or energy drinks. Now, everyone is starting their day with 20 ounces of coffee, making them edgy on the way in, and the afternoon withdrawal makes them edgy on the way out, impairing their ability to be patient and make reasonable choices.

ski51. Any patrolling at Chief Lake and Ness Lake would be done by the Regional Police and not PG City Police. Hopefully PG Police who are paid for by City taxpayers are not doing patrols in the Regional District.

“That hearing will include a transportation study on access and regress from the property.”

That statement is a joke right considering there are no turn lanes off of Tyner for two of the new subdivisions making accessing and regressing a hazard especially in the winter considering the curve and hill.

Wonder if Merrick realizes there are much more pressing needs in this city than bike lanes at this time.

No comments on the bid for the 2020 BC Summer Games?

Pretty sure it’s North District RCMP for that area. I wouldn’t sweat it too much, first time I’ve seen them out there doing traffic in about 5 years. My point which doesn’t seem to be in much favor, is police presence encourages traffic law compliance which irritates the hell out of people who want to make the drive in 12 minutes at 100 km/h vs 15 minutes at 80 km/h and don’t give a crap who they have to bully or cut off to do it.

Since the bike lanes have already been painted, and even before returning to council for approval, I would hazard a guess that Jillian Merrick had the go ahead long time ago. Someone had to have authorized the painting of the signs. or did they? I am guessing also Jillian Merrick is solidifying votes should she decide to run again…. I won’t vote for her again….

Bid for 2020 Winter Games ? Go For It.
The Canada Winter Games were fun.

bcracer – the painting was part of a deal with the Province which kicked in $250,000.00 to match the city spending $250,000, Whether the city spending $250,000 to get $250,000 was a good idea – I’m not so sure. I’m more concerned about the Hart Ski Hill not opening – than bike lanes to be honest.

This proposal is about asking administration to investigate banning parking on bike lanes – you will still be able to park on Ospika tomorrow.

I’m thinking administration will likely cut the baby in half (i.e. wisdom of Solomon.) I think they’ll recommend it for say Apr to Sept only. I also think it’ll be say 7:00 to 6:00 – after all, it’s to encourage bike commuting. Just speculating.

There are many more cyclist in PG than you may realize. Anecdotally, I would estimate that a quarter to a third of the cyclists are driving prohibited. An additional half are low income and cannot afford a vehicle or costs associated with getting a license or insurance. Get one DUI and you owe, you owe, you owe.
Then there are those that prefer to bicycle. The only reason I ever got a car is the mother of my children did not think it practical to schlep the kids around in a bicycle trailer and she did not care for the exercise.

Pal, I often agree with you but in this case we will disagree.

There needs to be a cohesive, all inclusive transportation plan that would include light and heavy motor vehicle traffic, pedestrian traffic, cycle traffic, right on down to alternate transportation like power scooters for the mobility impaired and even those silly skateboards.

That is not to say that all forms need to be in the same space, but each but be provided for and accounted for.

ski51 it is great they got some extra money, but I still wonder who picked the routes to be painted and why it was done before council even agreed to it.
I am thinking maybe Councillor Jillian Merrick might have overstepped her bounds if she authorized this.
actually it seems to be a thing with all of council.

Bcracer, she thinks she can do what she wants.. Her statement of being the decision maker proves that….how soon she forgets she is supposed to be representing the voters..not her personal agenda..

P Val that is so unfair to the cycling community and ms. Merrick . Cyclist more likely find it much easier to get off their butts and vote in their own self interest than are their sedentary counterpoints . A cyclists self interest is a life or death matter . Cycling runs in families . As pop and video games run in others . A vote for safety for my family of three generations of cyclists is a vote I would not miss . I would remember the things you are writing at this time when you next put your child’s helmet on and send him or her into traffic . You couldn’t posibly have a child or grand child . nor could any of the others dissing Ms. Merrick and her voters . And if you or they do then you have more issues than National geographic .