Dear editor:
I participated in Loop Day on Sunday, June 1 and enjoyed a nice bike ride with my wife from our house in the Willow Point area to the pier via the Rotary Sea Walk and then to the farmer’s market on Shopper’s Row. We then rode to the hardware store to pick up some supplies and back home via the ERT trail and Beaver Lodge Lands. Unless I need to haul some large items, cycling is usually how I get around town. I enjoy the fresh air, the exercise, saving money on fuel and reducing my carbon footprint. The cycling infrastructure in Campbell River is OK. We have only one extended bike trail that is completely segregated from vehicular traffic, and it is the full length of ERT, from the south end of Dogwood down to Homewood Road. For cycling to hit critical mass in Campbell River, we need a few more segregated bike paths. The city made a big deal about the bike lanes implemented when road upgrades were performed on Hilchey Road a couple of years ago. Hilchey is more cyclist-friendly than it was before the upgrade, but you still need to be ultra vigilant when you are cycling down that road, or you will get smoked by a vehicle passenger door or run down at the Galerno or Eardly intersections.
I made two trips to Sweden last year for work. Sweden has good cycling infrastructure, and as a result, there are a lot of cyclists. I spent time in five major Swedish cities, and in all five cities, a large percentage of the population commutes by cycling. There were also lots of people riding scooters; I saw men riding scooters while wearing three-piece suits. Most of the cyclists don’t wear helmets, which I don’t recommend. I also saw many people actively using their phones while cycling, which is also a behaviour I don’t advocate. If I rode my bike in Campbell River the way many cyclists do in Sweden, I wouldn’t be writing this letter. The point is that the cyclist doesn’t need to worry about being hit by a car because the cyclist has a segregated bike path. On streets where the bike paths converged with vehicle roads, the cyclists had priority. Over one weekend while I was in Sweden, I travelled across the Oresund Bridge to Copenhagen, Denmark. Denmark takes cycling to a whole different level.
There are blocks and blocks of bike racks like the one in the photo everywhere in Copenhagen. Cars are not the default mode of transportation in Sweden and Denmark. There is no smog or traffic congestion in Stockholm, Copenhagen or Gothenburg, and the general population is healthy and fit. The lack of vehicle ownership is not perceived as a hardship because Sweden and Denmark continually rank in the top 10 of the happiest countries.
Here in Campbell River, our city council is embarking on a $185,000 study that will investigate ruining the only segregated bike path in the city, and in the process, put a salmon-bearing stream at risk. Although it seems convenient to blame the aquaculture industry for the decline in salmon stocks, the reality is that the largest contributor to habitat destruction is reckless development and urbanization.
I want to be clear; I have no intention of moving to Sweden or Denmark. I like where I live. One of the reasons I like living in Campbell River is the jewels of nature like the Beaver Lodge Lands and the ERT trail. A new subdivision in Campbell River doesn’t have to mean that there must be road infrastructure to accommodate multiple cars for every household. Unfortunately, in North America, car culture prevails. I am not an expert in city planning, but I have read enough on the topic to know that eliminating green spaces and riparian areas and covering them with pavement and culverts does not make a more livable city that is resilient to extreme weather events (eg. flooding, drought and heat domes).
The Quinsam Heights subdivision has a great central location that is close to the Beaver Lodge Lands, Strathcona Gardens, schools, the city center and the BC Transit center. As a result, there is a unique opportunity to create a neighbourhood where every household has close access to nature, walking and cycling trails and a transit hub, therefore not requiring multiple vehicles. Sustainable, eco-friendly transportation models are being successfully employed in other countries (eg. Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands). It can be done here too. It just takes a paradigm shift for the city and the developers. Hopefully, this $185,000 study will look at alternatives other than the default position of putting a two-lane vehicle road down the ERT trail. Some of the potential alternatives will make the subdivision a more livable neighbourhood that is less expensive to build and to live in.
Mike Beattie
