The City of Victoria plans to have a bike lane go along Humboldt Street to where it dead-ends at Vancouver Street, then turn north for half a block to Pakington Street (which is one block long), then down to Cook Street.
This assumes bikers are going down to Cook Street Village or the waterfront.
Why would they plan such a route which has bikers going an extra block after crossing Vancouver? Alternatively, if bikers are going north, they could simply turn north from Humboldt at Vancouver, which is what they mostly do now.
It would be much safer and shorter for bikers to turn right off Humboldt and go one block to the four-way stop at Southgate Street, where they can easily continue down Vancouver or take Southgate to Cook.
There is already no parking on one side of Southgate, so using this route does not require any expensive changes by the City, and residents on Pakington would not then lose their own parking along one side of the street.
Losing this parking will create multiple problems on Pakington, which already does not have enough parking. At least two buildings in this block do not have parking for all residents, and most do not have parking for visitors, family and workers such as gardeners, etc.
It is already difficult to find parking on adjacent streets to Pakington, as people already use these streets for parking prior to walking down to Cook Street Village, which lacks enough parking as it is without bike lanes eliminating more.
Monitoring bike traffic on Pakington over a three-week period (I can see them from my window) I have noticed no more than six people on bikes in a day, usually less than that. So why destroy the parking for full-time residents for the few bikers who probably won’t use this new route anyway as it is longer and not as safe.
It is obvious whoever is planning this route has either not visited the area or certainly not found out the facts from residents who live in the area.
Ann Ballard
Victoria
