Bike lanes encourage greener forms of transportation as well as healthier living, help the local economy by allowing people easier access to local shops and provide safety to pedestrians.
That, however, is where the good attributes end, as they are good in theory, but in practice, they are a logistical nightmare due to being too narrow in some portions, road safety and improper regulation.
Some portions of the bike lanes are too narrow for people with disabilities to safely ride their three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles. In fact, many sections of the bike lane system only meet the bare minimum standards imposed by the Transportation Association of Canada. To make matters worse, these bottleneck areas are located in areas with high congestion such as downtown Victoria, which is usually where people are going to commute to and from work from. This makes it very difficult if not impossible for disabled commuters to bike to and from downtown.
Perhaps the most sizable concern about bike lanes relates to road safety. Specifically, to the lack of regulation and training of cyclists on proper road etiquette. This lack of clarity and training can be very dangerous when dealing with vehicles with such significant size differences. There should be stricter regulation of the laws that do exist, and more laws put into place outlining exactly what cyclists are and are not allowed to do on the road.
The ICBC website has general guidelines about helmet safety and whatnot and the BC government website has some laws in regard to cyclists on the road. Clearly however, not enough people are checking these laws before they start riding.
Victoria recently released a plan to expand the bike lanes in 2020. This would definitely benefit the community at large, however, the City of Victoria have to fix the problems with them first. This way, when the new bike lanes do come in Victoria will have stayed true to their promise to have bike lanes that are accessible to all and not just some.
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