On Monday, Prince George City Council will hear a proposal from Councillor Jillian Merrick on banning parking on arterial roadways, like Ospika Boulevard.
The Prince George Cycling Club is voicing support of the idea and shooting holes in some common misconceptions behind cyclists being “freeloaders” on the system.
Road Director Kyrke Gaudreau says gas taxes and vehicle registrations don’t fund road maintenance at all.
“In fact it is every one of us who pays taxes that help pay for our roads. The argument could be turned around that cyclists are actually subsidizing roads for the drivers, because we are paying for roads with our taxes but we are not the ones destroying them year after year.”
The Cycling Club says research out of Copenhagen says that cyclists actually provide a net social economic gain of $.25/km, as opposed to a net loss of $.12/km for drivers. Gaudreau also pointed out that cyclists put less stress on the healthcare system.
“Would it be any stranger, or less weird for me to put a bike rack in a car lane and park my bike there?” Gaudreau added “ I don’t know of any cities where you are allowed to park in a cycling lane. It defeats the whole purpose of having that lane there.”
The Club says parking on arterial roadways roadways creates dangerous situations for cyclists. In a letter to Council, they pointed to a death of a woman in Kelowna in July that was the result of a parked car opening their door without seeing the incoming cyclist.
On July 30th Prince George received a matching $250k from the Province to re paint bike lanes and erect cycling signs on existing routes.