Five years after COVID, Sarah Mills still pondering life's mysteries
Sarah Mills looks back at the COVID pandemic and some of the questions she asked herself to stave off boredom. Mills say...
With the streets as empty as ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, some local cycling enthusiasts think now would be the perfect time to add some temporary bike lanes to some of the city’s streets.
“I think as all of us are doing right now, we are kind of on the fly, thinking about how we can respond to the pandemic. And I think one thing that I felt that I can do is advocating for safe, open connecting spaces for people to get around the city as we move into spring,” said Tyler Rittinger.
“I do believe that we can come up with a way of finding safe, connected routes and allow people the physical distance. I don’t know what those streets might be, but I think there are citizens that know, in their own neighbourhood, what those streets might be that would allow people to move around.”
Rittinger’s idea consists of taking one lane of certain streets and temporarily changing it into a bike and pedestrian lane. He believes people can still get some fresh air and exercise while maintaining proper social distancing protocols.
“We are in a bit of a reset. We can actually see how much public space is dedicated to vehicles,” he said.
“I’ve been walking with my wife and kids every morning across the traffic bridge and the Broadway Bridge, and (seeing) pedestrians politely giving up these narrow sidewalks to one another, and I think it’s only going to get more difficult come spring.”
One example of the type of changes he’d like to see comes from a project he and his children did last summer.
“We set up something called the red cup project. (We) made a temporary protected bike lane to extend the bike lane from 8th street heading south to 5th on Victoria avenue,” said Rittinger.
“Right now the city has put in a beautiful bike path from the traffic bridge to 8th and then it stops. So I think once the snow melts, probably next week, (we) are going to re-do something like that, another red cup project.”
When asked why this is needed, if the city streets already have less traffic, Rittinger pointed to data collected from other cities.
“There is some data showing that when vehicular traffic is way down like it is right now, those that are using the roads, sometimes take advantage of the space and there are more speeding vehicles,” he said.
“I think even saying that the streets are open, it doesn’t really invite people to get out on that street if there is still going to be fast traffic coming through. People right now are really taking that message of stay home, unless you need to, but I also know that it is OK to get outside and go for a walk or go for a bike ride.”
