Bike Lane Improvements and Library Entrance Updates
Prince George, B.C. – The City of Prince George has already approved $500 thousand dollars to improve the bike lane network in the City, and tonight Council will be asked to give the green light to removing on street parking from a number of roads in that network.Recognizing that removing on street parking from a number of routes is a controversial move, the report calls for extensive consultation with a variety of stakeholders to ” investigate methods to encourage use of existing nearby parking lots, suggest alternatives to parking on the arterial routes and identify any infrastructure improvements that may be necessary or desirable to satisfy parking demand or availability”
The phased in approach would see the proposed 36 km of cycle network approved
- Consultation
- Prioritizing areas where improvements need to be made and issues resolve
- Implementation
- Education and enforcement
Half of the cost of the cycling network improvements is being covered by a Bike BC grant.
Also on the agenda for this evening, a public hearing for the proposed seniors development at Oak and Victoria streets. An amendment to the Official Community Plan is required for the developers to be able to use a portion of Ron Brent park for the project.
The upgrades to the entrance of the Library will be presented in a report to Council. The Library has had a new entrance on its wish list for several years, citing accessibility and safety issues with the existing entrances. A workshop held last summer saw attendees selection one of three proposals, but it is expensive, and at this point there is no available funding for the $3.9 million dollar project. The City is already putting $1.27 million into other upgrades to the Library in the 2016-2018 capital plans, and there is a further $245 thousand dollars worth of work that has recently been identified. The City had applied for a half million dollar Community Infrastructure grant , but was unsuccessful in landing those dollars.
Comments
I wonder if they will stop transit from parking or stopping at these locations as well.
that’s not the issue. busses move on within 5 minutes (max, usually a lot faster than that.) The issue is people parking there all day.
the worst spot is on ospika by the soccer fields. So many cars parked there, and it’s very obviously already a bike lane. The CN Centre parking lot is just across the street. Soccer parents can park there.
Wow…. like lots of PPl ride there bikes in Winter….They get to much free Beers I think!!
As I have said many many times. Spend some time on Ospika, and you will see very few bikers. To not use this space for parking, and leave it for 10 or 15 bikers a day is a complete waste of money and space.
Put the bikers on the sidewalks. Very few people walk on the sidewalks in this town.
“…but it is expensive, and at this point there is no available funding for the $3.9 million dollar project.”
The upgrade to the library entrance is projected to cost almost 4 million dollars? Like ten times the cost of a 400,000 dollar residence including the lot? Is this for real or a typo?
“Put the bikers on the sidewalks. Very few people walk on the sidewalks in this town.”
You must be kidding. Some sidewalks are so narrow that two people can barely walk side by side and you want them to be competing with bike riders?
good call on the bike lane issue. Dual time frame is valid april to oct should be doable for enforcement.
Prince George. Take some time to see how many people actually use the sidewalks and how many bikers there actually are in this town and you would see very quickly that this whole subject is a tempest in a teapot.
All we need to do is allow the bikers to use the sidewalks to get around parked cars. This is what they do now, except technically it is illegal to bike on the sidewalks. Put in a bylaw making it legal and Im sure the bikers and the pedestrians will be able to figure it out.
In the meantime we keep this parking space for funerals, weddings, sports events, etc; etc;.
if they enforced it it would be fine…but heaven forbid we ask bylaws to leave the coffee pot and warm office.
Someone might say bad words to them and then they will be of with PTS…
actually bcracer, bylaw officers do leave the coffee pot and warm office! You can find all of them together at Timmie’s every morning and every afternoon. They usually congregate there for well in excess of a half hour!
so Hart Guy, they move from one warm space and one coffee pot to another…figures…
I hope city will come up with some hefty fines for Jillian Merrick and friends who cycle on the sidewalks and out of the designated bike lanes.
I know that will never happen will it Jillian? after all we can’t penalize bikers just vehicle drivers?
why all the bike hate? This is a great step in changing the PG perception.
Cities all over are getting more bike friendly. Share the road, it’s called sideWALK for a reason. Better yet save up for a bike this spring
and give your heart some exercise. Keyboarding does not count.
Let’s be real here. Any given hour on any given day in downtown PG, some dude is riding his bike on the sidewalk. If by-law can’t/won’t do anything about that, I doubt any cyclist need fear repercussions for riding on the Ospika sidewalk.
Unfortunately, the greater issue for cyclists – ones who have jobs, homes and stuff to lose, is if you do ride on the sidewalk – which you are legally prohibited from doing so, and do injure a pedestrian, you will be liable because you aren’t suppose to be there at all.
If the city, painted a line on the corridor sidewalks – only needs to be 3 feet wide of the sidewalk, and puts a bicycle picture on it, then cyclists could safely, and legally, use the sidewalk. That’s what they did in Quesnel with their walk/bike path.
” investigate methods to encourage use of existing nearby parking lots, suggest alternatives to parking on the arterial routes and identify any infrastructure improvements that may be necessary or desirable to satisfy parking demand or availability”
So why is it the cars that have to leave the roads that were designed and built for them ?
Wouldn’t it be just as easy for the bikes to move to a side street , instead of being on a main route where it is more dangerous ?
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