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Nanaimo can do better with bike lanes

Addition of a bike lane anywhere is always helpful, however this was not as necessary as improvements would be to some other roads.

To the Editor,

Re: Nanaimo fosters use of alternative transportation with bike lanes, Aug. 27.

As an avid cyclist, both for cardio fitness on our many hills, and for nearly all my errands, I read with amusement about the city’s back clapping with the addition of a bike lane on Dover Road.

Dover Road is a relatively short, straight wide road. Addition of a bike lane anywhere is always helpful, however this was not as necessary as improvements would be to some other very winding, far more busy, and downright treacherous commuter roads, for example Hammond Bay Road.

Having lived in Stephenson Point for 10 years I daily face travelling south or north on what is historically a cowpath, and remains a narrow, often winding, but ever increasingly busy traffic corridor.

Some areas on this road have no shoulder and only limited, not elevated sidewalk, let alone any section of this road being marked as designated bike lane. Some areas a cyclist would quite literally have to throw themselves over a cement divider, or into a ditch or into thorny blackberries to avoid traffic coming too close.

This road remains a thoroughfare for speeding traffic, often well above the 50km limit, a death threat for deer, and a constant challenge to ever-vigilant cyclists and pedestrians alike. Speed traps would help. Widening where possible would help, with additon of upgraded sidewalks and cyclist lanes where feasible.

Meanwhile, living where I do, I face this challenge daily, and hope to live to tell the tale.

Arlene TuckerNanaimo