Bike racks celebrate and enhance our city
Re: The Week, Aug. 16-22
A few weeks back there was a story on the bike racks that the city installed to celebrate a historic victory of a local resident – when Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro D’Italia. There were a few assumptions made in that article, which I would love to clear up.
First, the new racks did not replace old ones; they are additional bike parking options. In fact, we are constantly adding to our bike parking in the city. Over the last three years we have added over 250 inverted U racks on city sidewalks (with plans to add an additional 20 to 30 each year going forward), plus another 100 bike parking spaces throughout the five city-operated parkades. We are currently replacing the old serpentine racks with the new V racks to ensure optimal parking capacity, better design and ease of use.
The article also wonders why we invested in celebratory bike racks and not bike lanes. It must be stressed that the cost of a bike rack is nowhere near the investment of a bike lane. But that said, we continue to enhance cycling infrastructure — and have added close to 5k of bike lanes since 2008.
Overall, I think it is important to celebrate the victories of our residents, especially something as significant as being the first Canadian to win the prestigious Giro D’Italia. And it is even better when the form of marking this victory is something that is used by many every day — like a bike rack.
Dean Fortin,Mayor of Victoria