A group of Central Saanich cyclists are holding a community bike ride to raise awareness and to show the municipal council that the community wants safe bike lanes and cycling infrastructure.
At HEL,HILEC park on Saturday, July 6, Central Saanich residents are invited to participate in the bike ride as the district continues its sewer replacement in Brentwood Bay which was expected to include bike lanes along Wallace Drive, connecting Brentwood Bay and Saanichton.
"I was stoked. I was like, 'this is great. We really need bike lanes there.' I personally have been buzzed so many times by drivers on there that I just won't ride on the road there anymore, I just avoid it," said bike ride organizer Sarah Frumento, describing when she heard there would bike lanes added to Wallace Drive.
She said that when the plan was released and she saw that the bike lanes would be shared-use lanes and painted bike lanes on Wallace, rather than protected bike lanes or a multi-use pathway, her and other cyclists were disappointed.
"The shared-use lanes in particular are the ones that are really problematic, because they've been found not to be any safer for people on bikes. So we just know this isn't going to encourage any new riders to start using active transportation in our community, which is obviously really important," she said.
At a council meeting on June 24, Central Saanich council members voted in favour of directing staff to "investigate and report back on options to
improve cyclist safety" on Wallace Drive, but Frumento said that doesn't guarantee anything and if changing the plan is to costly, it could discourage council to make any further changes.
Cyclists of all ages are invited to the event, and they are expected to be at HEL,HILEC park at 10 a.m. Saturday. There is a family route, which is three-kilometres, and a longer route that will be six-kilometres.