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Mayor Alsgard seeks action on transportation options
Groups asks for bicycle paths and more signage
by Laura Walz | editor@prpeak.com
Mayor Stewart Alsgard is making an effort to bring focus on transportation in the City of Powell River. He is planning on initiating a transportation study and he would like to see a committee of residents working on the issue. “I want to meet with people who have interests in this area to discuss the possibility of where we can do more than just perpetually discuss it,” he told the Peak in an interview.
“There are opportunities in the city, like Joyce Avenue. It’s a wide road that now has a suicide lane in the middle. Do we need that centre lane? Or do we need to rub all that out and paint on either side of it a bicycle lane? We have the opportunity to re-examine what we have and make some changes.”
Alsgard said that previous surveys and feedback show that people want things like special rights-of-way or bike paths.
Council heard that message again at the November 5 committee-of-the-whole meeting. Brendan Behan, a director of the Powell River Cycling Association, wrote a letter to the mayor asking for more signage for cyclists and bicycle lanes. “We believe that some signage and marking on the main streets of Powell River to indicate cyclists are present would make riding, and the community as a whole, safer,” Behan wrote.
Behan also attended the committee meeting. He pointed out that during the summer there were three accidents involving cyclists. “This option of having cycle lanes or routes planned out with bicycle signs is a way to promote the health of Powell River citizens, to make it easier for people who have bikes who are afraid to ride down Joyce,” he said.
Alsgard said he will be bringing to council a transportation demand management study. “In there is the launching of a bicycle program and looking at what we have available now that could easily be adapted to meet the request for dedicated bicycle lanes,” he said.
An integrated transportation plan would have many benefits, Alsgard said, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, helping keep neighbourhoods alive, promoting health and creating social interactions.
“There are opportunities in the city, like Joyce Avenue. It’s a wide road that now has a suicide lane in the middle. Do we need that centre lane? Or do we need to rub all that out and paint on either side of it a bicycle lane? We have the opportunity to re-examine what we have and make some changes.”
Alsgard said that previous surveys and feedback show that people want things like special rights-of-way or bike paths.
Council heard that message again at the November 5 committee-of-the-whole meeting. Brendan Behan, a director of the Powell River Cycling Association, wrote a letter to the mayor asking for more signage for cyclists and bicycle lanes. “We believe that some signage and marking on the main streets of Powell River to indicate cyclists are present would make riding, and the community as a whole, safer,” Behan wrote.
Behan also attended the committee meeting. He pointed out that during the summer there were three accidents involving cyclists. “This option of having cycle lanes or routes planned out with bicycle signs is a way to promote the health of Powell River citizens, to make it easier for people who have bikes who are afraid to ride down Joyce,” he said.
Alsgard said he will be bringing to council a transportation demand management study. “In there is the launching of a bicycle program and looking at what we have available now that could easily be adapted to meet the request for dedicated bicycle lanes,” he said.
An integrated transportation plan would have many benefits, Alsgard said, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, helping keep neighbourhoods alive, promoting health and creating social interactions.
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| Police enforce intersections | Quick Peaks: November 18, 2009 |
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