Bike Lane One Pager

Dakota Jones

           Bike lanes in Victoria have stirred up controversy in recent years. The addition of bikes lanes in places, particularly downtown and nearby areas, cost taxpayers $7 million, which generated hefty amounts of backlash. The majority of commuters in Victoria tend to use other forms of transportation because of legitimate reasons. Commuters who travel too and from work may not have the time or energy to make use of these bike lanes. In an article published by the Times Colonist, Michel Murray, a local Victorian who has been cycling for over 15 years, gives his opinion. In Michel’s research, he found that there have been 530,000 bike trips in the first 14 months of lane operation. Which roughly equates to about 1,300 rides per day. With the assumption that each rider makes a return trip on the same day, that leaves us with an underwhelming number of 650 riders using the lanes daily. Although intentions for the bike lanes were beneficial, the adverse effects that they created greatly outweighed the good-intentions of the project.
          Climate change is the most critical issue we are facing as a society, but wasting taxpayer money on something that a majority of Victorians don’t make use of is inefficient. The project is seen by Michel as a “Vanity Project” – It’s meant to allow its enthusiasts to feel good about themselves, even though the actual effects of the lane implementations is minuscule. Throughout this ordeal, those opposing the idea of bike lanes, aka most of Victoria, have been treated with disdain. Blatant disregard from Victoria’s mayor, Lisa Helps, can be paralleled to the Theresa May – Brexit situation in the UK. Pushing unwanted projects with little to no payback is not the way to go. Listening to taxpayers, and logically assessing the number of people who use the bike lanes is a step that has been unfortunately missed by the mayor.
          In conclusion, the concept behind the bike lanes was well intended and sounded good in theory, but the execution and research conducted towards the project were lacking. Even though Victoria still remains as a wonderful place to be a cyclist, there are undoubtedly many other avenues in which taxpayer money can be spent more efficiently for the betterment of everybody, not fill a specific niche to create an eco-friendly façade. It is up to the citizens of Victoria to voice their concerns to their officials; hopefully, more people speaking up will help direct our resources and concerns towards more important issues in the future.