Add bike storage and dedicated lanes, cyclists tell city

Yellowknife cyclists appeared at City Hall on Monday to ask for more downtown bike storage options and dedicated lanes.

Two presentations to council followed a mass bike ride along 50 Avenue that organizers said was attended by more than 100 people.

Becca Denley told councillors she hopes to receive GNWT funding to launch a bike-share program that would let Yellowknifers try a bike for two weeks, for free.

“Providing these free of charge will help people try things out without committing to the costs right away,” Denley said. She hopes to hear whether the program has been funded in the next week.

Electric bikes, e-trikes and e-cargo bikes will all be available for two-week trials, Denley said, as will what she called “acoustic” bikes, meaning non-electric.

More cyclists will mean more demand for downtown storage, and Denley wants the city to help fund the installation of bike storage options either outside City Hall or on the vacant lot at the intersection of 50 Avenue and 50 Street.

“People cheered when I suggested that we increase downtown bike storage. People want to be able to put their bikes in a safe spot,” Denley said, fresh from the mass bike ride.

She also asked for the city to consider a pilot program this summer in which planters and bollards are used to create a bike lane on the south side of Range Lake Road, which she described as a wide road serving two elementary schools and an “abundance of family homes.”

Councillor Rob Warburton, responding to that suggestion, said: “To say I’m keen about traffic calming is an understatement … I love things that are temporary and quick. It’s not a big ask. We’re not completely redesigning a streetscape, we’re just doing something really easy.

“I think this is a way of addressing a lot of the conflict we have in the city around bikes and cars and kids.”

No promises were made by council on Monday evening.

A second presenter, Craig Scott, also called for the creation of bike lanes. He envisaged painted bike lanes, saying Yellowknife has “ample room for nice, wide bike lanes that can significantly improve safety.”

Scott added a request for improved maintenance of trails and existing bike infrastructure in the winter.

“We’re a proud winter city, yet our bike lanes and many multi-use trails are not cleared of snow in winter and gravel gets pushed to the side of the road in the spring,” he said.

Denley separately suggested another program through which artists and students turn nine city crosswalks into “vibrant” works of art.

“People-friendly streets are ones where bikes can have their own route and have less conflicts with motorized traffic, where kids can feel safe to walk and bike themselves to school, and where Elders can walk, bike or wheel themselves with ease,” she said.

“My mission is to help Yellowknife realize a new reality of complete streets for residents to have a choice in how to safely navigate their city.”