By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 5, 2011 – At some point the city will issue a building permit to the developer and construction will begin on the 58 unit project located in the Queensway community – south of the QEW and west of Guelph Line. Whether that happens this month or 18 months from now, there is going to be development and that means more people living in the community – about 125 or so more and they are going to travel from their homes to work.
And here is where an opportunity exists for the city to initiate one of the pilot projects it has in mind to see if they can convince people to use bicycles instead of cars. Mayor Goldring has been hankering to get a bicycle pilot project in place for some time but the right situation hasn’t presented itself. What he wants to know is this: Can people be convinced to use their bicycles to get to work. The Mayor personally drives the car that comes with the job he has – so he ‘aint’ doin all that good’ on the setting an example scale. But he is the Mayor and having people see him flying down the street, chain of office flailing in the wind isn’t exactly the image we want to convey. So- we will cut some slack for the Mayor – but is it possible to give the average Burlington resident a way to cycle to work and perhaps not have to have that second car.
The Mayor want to pilot project that idea but he needed a situation that had at least a chance of working.
At past Council meetings a number of Council members have said they see the roads – even with bike lanes as just too unsafe. Councillor Taylor says he rides n the sidewalks. Councillor Dennison is a different cat – he rides on the road but he too doesn’t ride his bicycle to council meetings.
The past couple of weeks has seen the Queensway development get a lot of attention but not much in the way of results from the as far as the residents of the community were concerned.
But there just might be an opportunity to use this new development as a pilot project for bicycle use. The idea would be to create a protected bike lane on the south side of Queensway running from where the foot path will end at the north end of the project and have it run all the way to the GO station.
Then install a dozen or so locked bike lockers. Put in a dozen of the things and if they get taken up keep adding lockers until the demand stops. The city might even convince the developer to pick up the cost of the bike lane and get GO transit to install the lockers.
It’s got possibilities. Let’s see who picks this one up – Could be Mean Ward of Ward 1 or the Mayor himself. This is a chance to put their money where there mouths are. We shall see.
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