The City of Prince George will be rehabilitating its bicycling infrastructure in the coming months.
The Provincial Government has granted a matching $250,000 to Prince George that will allow them to re-mark bike lanes and add no parking signs along cycling corridors.
Councillor Jillian Merrick says the funding will free up nearly 40 kilometres of existing bike lanes.
“There’s no such thing as a dual purpose bike lane-parking lot. They are just mutually exclusive uses. You can’t have stopped vehicles in the middle of a bike lane, just like you can’t have stopped bikes in the middle of a vehicle lane. It just doesn’t make for proper passageway.”
Merrick says the city will then look at changing parking bylaws to outlaw parking on those corridors.
“Ospika is a very good example; it’s not an appropriate place for vehicles to be parallel parking when there is traffic going in excess of 70-80km/hr around them. Also the fact that it is a soccer field so there is lots of kids that use the area.”
Transportation Minister Todd Stone was in Prince George and took part in the announcement. Merrick says Stone and City Council had a productive meeting touching on things such as infrastructure, public transit and more cycling.