After a resident came forward with concerns, Saanich council has now unanimously voted to ask the Capital Regional District (CRD) to remove bollards on bike trails it oversees.
Bollards were initially put at the entrance to the bike trails to prevent vehicles from driving down them, but now as bikes get wider, some cyclists say they are more of a safety issue.
“Basically, the bollard is there to deal with the hypothetical possibility of a vehicle entering the trail, but it presents a very real and tangible impact and risk to trail users,” Teale Phelps Bondaroff said of the motion he brought to council.
“And those risks include people not seeing them late at night, crowded trails, but also we have an expanding range of typologies of bikes. I get around town to the bike trailer, it’s quite wide you get some very narrow fits and unless you’re perfectly lined up you could clip a bollard and that could impact knock you over.”
Phelps Bondaroff noted that the active transportation policy in Saanich puts bollards as a last resort, and he hopes that the CRD will consider doing the same.
“This is a request in the CRD to remove those bollards and then you’d only ever add the bollards if there was a problem spot basically, weighing that precautionary principle in favour of not having a bollard and only adding one if one is needed,” Phelps Bondaroff said.
In addition to asking the CRD to remove the bollards from bike trails, the motion asks the CRD to gather data on how many collisions with the bollards occur on trails and to consider removing the bollards as part of the project to widen and add lights to the Galloping Goose.
The Galloping Goose and Lochside Regional Trail are the two major active transportation trails that go through Saanich that the CRD oversees.
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Laura Brougham
