Disappearing bike lanes from Calgary festival street rendering rankles community association

A community association is raising concerns about the design for a new festival street in Calgary's Victoria Park after bike lanes vanished from its latest rendering.

Stampede Trail is a planned four-block stretch of Olympic Way S.E., from 12th to 17th Avenue. 

It's set to be lined with shops, restaurants and bars — and at times, closed to traffic for events — after a $20 million redesign.

However, the Beltline Neighbourhoods Association (BNA) initially was not happy that the design included a shared bike lane instead of a physically separated cycle track.

But now, the design has been updated — and although the city says the rendering isn't final, it does not depict any extra cycling infrastructure at all.

Peter Oliver with the BNA says the street should be designed for all users, not just cars, and the oversight could doom the road.

"It's an important street, and perhaps maybe the most important street in the entire district," he said.

"I mean, what it looks like if we get it wrong is a street that's effectively dead."

The BNA has been working with the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) since the end of last year, Oliver said, and when the first iteration of the design became available, it offered its feedback.

The design had features including gently rolled curbs and different types of paving that indicated for all users "who goes where," Oliver said.

But, there was concern that active users and bikes were put in the middle lanes of traffic and within the door zones of parked cars.

"[It was] really going against all best practice that we know is not really truly safe or accommodating," said Oliver.

BNA spoke to the CMLC about coming back with something that is safer and truly multi-modal, Oliver said. But now, there's no paint on the road that delineates a bike lane.

That means "it has definitely gone from bad to worse," Oliver said.