Bike lanes cause parking loss and reduce accessibility
LETTER EXCERPTS
We are urgently requesting that the Government of Alberta intervene and use all available legislative mechanisms to ensure our community’s voices are heard and respected. We feel we have exhausted all other recourse.
At a community meeting on April 30, 2025, held at the Delton Community League Hall, over 100 residents gathered to discuss the project. Of those, only four were in support. The remaining attendees raised serious, repeated concerns about accessibility, emergency response delays, safety risks for children and seniors, parking loss, and the impact on disabled residents.
Let us be clear: our community is not opposed to cycling or safe transportation. What we oppose is the unfair, unsafe, and undemocratic way this particular plan has been forced upon us. The plan imposes dramatic changes to how people move, park, and live on our streets — with no prior consultation or meaningful engagement.
Our deepest concern is for seniors, disabled residents, caregivers, and the vulnerable — many of whom rely on on-street parking for safe access to homes, medical support, and essential services. We have already heard from disabled residents who say their handicap spots are routinely ignored by inconsiderate drivers. Removing street parking will only make this worse — and create new barriers for people who already face mobility challenges.
Jeremiah Rawling
To be very clear, the process for the bike plan has been public and fairly implemented. It’s very reasonable to be sad or angry to have missed the consultation, but that doesn’t make it unsafe or undemocratic. Provincial overreach on municipal development does seem pretty undemocratic to me, though, and sets a very dangerous precedent for provinces to have undue influence on local affairs, which undermines local democracy. Do you really want elected officials from another town or city to have a say over how your town or city develops?
I live in McCauley just off Church (96th) Street, and last year, the city installed protected bike lanes (on both sides of the street) and boulevards as part of neighbourhood renewal.
Neighbours and Churches were up in arms about many of the abovementioned concerns, especially the loss of parking for seniors. We also lost a lane of traffic as the road was converted into a one-way.
The result? Generally positive. There's still plenty of room for traffic, and with the narrow roads and bike lanes on both sides, cars aren't using it as a high-speed cut through the neighbourhood. I feel confident that safety has increased, with many neighbourhood children feeling safe enough to play on the sidewalks and boulevards. The upcoming addition of street trees will add to the sense of safety and help protect folks from extreme heat - we know that children and seniors are especially vulnerable to extreme heat.
Parking is tighter and does overflow into the side streets, but it's rare not to be able to find a spot - it's a minor inconvenience compared to the vastly improved street design we now have.