Area residents are calling a new bike lane near North Glenmore Park an ugly, confusing, mess and say they want the city to put things back the way it was.
This summer, the entire northbound lane of Crowchild Trail, as it enters the park, was turned into a cycle track.
Signs have been erected to tell cyclists to use the great big new path on the road and to leave the smaller pathway for the pedestrians.
Many users of the pathway system are confused and unsure which path to use.
Many of the cyclists are still using the dedicated pedestrian path and that has prompted some of the pedestrians to walk on the bike path because they feel safer.
“Yesterday we were on the pedestrian trail, sort of talking about, oh those pedestrians are on the wrong path, when they were on this road, but now we see all these bikers on the pedestrian side so we didn’t want to walk there and have to dodge all the bikers so ya it's still very confusing,” said one pedestrian.
Jeffery Brookman is a community activist and has been monitoring and measuring the new road alignment since it was built.
“At this junction, you've got driver confusion, pedestrian confusion and bicyclist confusion. They all come to a bottleneck and there's the ability to have a serious accident right here,” said Brookman.
Brookman says a complete redesign is in order along with a new round of public consultation. “That requires the dialogue, the communication to take place between the community and the city and the city has rejected all of our pleas for that dialogue.”
In the last month, Brookman has collected over 800 signatures from area residents calling on the city to return the road to its original state.
He is hoping to give the petition to council this fall and wants a new round of public consultation before any new work begins.
The city is planning on installing 10 km of bike lanes on Calgary’s streets and says it is the first step in making Calgary a bicycle-friendly city.
For more information on planned cycling route improvements, visit the City of Calgary website.
