Your bike lanes are the mayor's punching bag
Alright, you gotta hear this one. Our mayor, Jyoti Gondek, is out here saying the province's whole thing about taking over bike lane decisions is "symbolic virtue-signalling." For real though, this feels like it's been bubbling under the surface for a while. Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen is apparently looking at legislation that would give the province more say in what we do with our bike lanes right here in Calgary. And honestly, it just feels like another one of those head-scratching moments where folks outside the city think they know what's best for how we get around.
It's a wild card, right? Because on one hand, you've got people who see our bike pathways, especially along the Bow River, as one of the best things about Calgary. You can get from Edworthy Park all the way to St. Patrick's Island without touching a car, most days. Then you've got others who just see bike lanes as traffic bottlenecks, especially on places like 12th Avenue downtown. And now the province wants to wade into that whole conversation. It's like they've hit a dry well on other issues and decided to cap this conversation for us.
### What This Means for Calgary
* **Local Control:** This is about who gets to decide how our city develops. Should folks in Edmonton dictate what happens on 17th Avenue or in Kensington?
* **Future Development:** If the province steps in, it could really slow down or even stop future bike infrastructure projects.
* **Downtown Core:** Think about how many people commute by bike to the core now. This could impact everything from Bridgeland's morning rush to folks getting to the Stampede grounds without a vehicle.
This is Calgary — we've seen the boom, we've seen the bust, and we showed up anyway. But having the province tell us how to stripe our roads? That's a new kind of bust, if you ask me.
Cassidy Redcloud, MiTL Sports Desk, Calgary.
You know Keith and the crew are gonna have some thoughts on this one. Catch 'em live every morning at mornings.live.