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Bike Lanes and Bollards, a Video Journey Concerning Saanich’s Road Setup on Mann Ave and Surroundings

By Alex Cook
Nov 09, 2024

Bike lanes and bollards (Video by Alex Cook)

A sequel to the popular video has now been posted:
Bollocks to Bollards Nov 12th IMG 9808

And a threequel has been posted as well:
IMG 9809

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Saanich council pushed through protected bike lanes to Saanich Mann Ave and area, without offering residents any notice. This is the result – even though there was an overwhelming majority who disapproved of this plan that affects the people who live here and pay their property taxes.

This is a series of videos that I will be sharing with the public as I search for cyclists in my area.

Please note – I will be fair, non biased and if there is support with use I will video and share the users. If possible I will interview them to see if they ever felt “unsafe” before these protected bike lanes – or if the new protected bike lanes are the reason they are now choosing to use them.

Personally I believe that Saanich council is using Mann Ave as a litmus test to gauge local area temperature as they prepare to redevelop N Quadra and McKenzie areas as they prepare to move Saanich Yard Works and develop this area with “over densification” reducing our quality of life we have come to appreciate on Vancouver Island.





See also: Saanich Road Diet Hypocrisy – Video by Alex Cook – CRD Watch Homepage

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3 responses to “Bike Lanes and Bollards, a Video Journey Concerning Saanich’s Recent Road Setup on Mann Ave and Surroundings by Alex Cook”

  1. Citizen Avatar
    Citizen

    Since you wanted input from cyclists, here’s my perspective. There are many different groups of cyclists based on level of interest and comfort. I’m in the “strong and fearless” group, and will ride no matter what. There’s another group of people who will never ride regardless of the conditions. And the majority of people lie in the “interested but concerned” group. They won’t ride when they have to squeeze between parked cars that could open their doors onto them, and cars passing them at 40km/h. We have conditions like these on Mann ave, a residential street that’s really a through road.

    I can handle riding in those conditions but greatly prefer separated infra. And most importantly, if we want lots of people to cycle, which will improve public health and take lots of cars off the road (meaning less cars in your way at every light, among many more important benefits), then we have to make it feel safe for the people that aren’t cycling right now. Counting cyclists isn’t an effective way to measure the potential of a project. Nobody rode on Shelbourne until recently because it’s a dangerous 4 lane road where everyone does 50-60. But when the protected lanes are finished, suddenly thousands of Saanich residents will feel like cycling is an option.

    The “majority of people” that were opposed were the people who spoke up about the issue. The silent majority of people are mildly supportive of these changes and don’t have the time or care enough to comment. People against things, be it building more housing or making streets safer, are usually a very loud minority, but because they are loud, they and council believe these people represent the will of the broader public.

    Re: your video. Infra is not a vanity project – the reason there’s a gap on Glanford is because it costs money to improve roads and municipalities are lazy and try to use as little money as possible.

    Most of your tax dollars are going towards policing, but the municipality has zero control over how that money is allocated. Taxation without representation. Cycling infra on the other hand, is a very, very small portion of the public works budget and more is spent on paving, underground infrastructure, etc.

    I mean, it’s obvious you’re going to disagree with everything I write here. You claim to be unbiased but clearly think there is some kind of evil plot to deprive people of their suburban lifestyle. I look forward to being able to afford to live in the city I was born in thanks to this ‘over densification’.

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  2. Citizen Avatar
    Citizen

    So many disingenuous complaints.

    “No traffic, no pedestrians and… surprise! No cyclists!” IE none visible of the other groups that you don’t care to complain about, but importantly none from the group that you DO want to complain about in your video. Just you filming on what looks like your phone from the car. Benefit of the doubt you were being responsible and wearing a go-pro on your head instead of filming yourself breaking the law.

    Pedestrians walking safely on a side of the street where there is still no sidewalk and probably never dared to walk before. The horror.

    If I’d recklessly steered into that van, “that would’ve been a head-on collision”. Because… bike lanes. Do you hear yourself?

    “Lots of breaks in the barriers for property driveways, but no where to park”. Except for those [very large] driveways you just mentioned and featured in the video.

    The one cyclist you did see in your 3 minute drive didn’t use the Mann ave lanes, so I assume the implication is that “cyclists wont even use them”. That cyclist continued on to wherever he or she needed to go. It obviously wasn’t all the way down Mann ave. If you need to go south, are you going to arbitrarily and needlessly go east? This is a critical point: just like drivers need infrastructure to get them from point A to B, so do cyclists riding for utilitarian needs.

    But addressing your chief complaint: “there are no cyclists” (except that one guy who we already discounted). These lanes were *just* finished. They have yet to really connect to other safe, protected routes. Over time as a contiguous network is implemented, cyclists start to use it. Others who previously felt unsafe riding on streets with fast-moving vehicles passing closely will come out of the woodwork and give it a shot. This is not a guess. It happened in downtown Victoria: “No one uses the lanes!” to “Hardly anyone uses the lanes!” to silence and then switch to other complaints. Its currently happening on Tillicum where I both ride and drive nearly every day. I see more and more bike traffic there every time, and now at all times of the day. As other spokes are created and connected, crucially connecting people to places they need and want to go, usage will continue to increase.

    It takes time for a new change to get adopted. Look at the McKenzie interchange – it took a few years before it went from nice and smooth to constantly choked with traffic.

    If you build it, they will come. The problem with that statement is that it unfortunately holds for vehicle traffic, as much as anything else.

    If we build more and wider roads, they will eventually choke with traffic. If we build good, safe, connected and convenient options for other modes, many people will choose them. Without any other viable options of course we’ll all drive and increasingly find ourselves in the commuting hell we all dread, with no other option.

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  3. Jes Sugrue Avatar
    Jes Sugrue

    NOT IN OUR FRONT YARDS!

    These ugly cement blocks and hideous poles for extra-wide bike lanes wouldn’t have been placed across the highway in Broadmead, so why Royal Oak? You assaulted our lovely street at the expense of residents and their parking needs. Yes, needs.

    How does one age in place and maintain social connections when friends, relatives, care givers have no place to park? Have them park on some else’s block and walk to us? Hardly. How do we add a suite or carriage house to help pay for ever-increasing property taxes and ease the housing crunch and not offer parking.

    We aren’t a metropolitan city with subways and skytrains. We are a mobile society who need cars to get to the families and places we love, not just shops and appointments. Places our friends and families moved to because it’s become to expensive to live here. Beautiful BC isn’t just for the rich with multi-car garages. We have kin in places like Duncan, Nanaimo, Cobble-Hill, Comox, and more. We holiday all over the island, the province, the country. We can’t just get on a bike and do that. Buses don’t get us there, either. You are expanding your agenda at the expense of our needs and quality of life. (So don’t even get me started on how you are shrinking the number of parking spaces required for condos and such, so the rich get richer.) Your agenda does not make sense expect to the biking minority.

    Many of us just can’t take buses, for logistical or medical reasons. They aren’t regular or reliable – and are sometimes unsafe. They often don’t even show up. There are barely any shelters or benches. There are no posted schedules as there are in larger cities. This is an accessibility issues for those who aren’t plugged in be it due to age, income, or technological challenges. Why not fix the bus system, but stop stealing our streets for your pet cycling projects.

    You were not elected to spend millions to plant cement blocks and poles that dig up and narrow our lanes and increase the time in our commutes. That’s what polluting our air, the delays, the lack of “smart lights” that ease the flow of traffic. Talk about counterproductive! And why the extra wide, extra ugly ones that allows bikes to pass, but make it less safe for cars to navigate? It will be a nightmare in the winter.

    Paint works just fine in most neighbourhoods, including ours at a small fraction of the cost. $500K would buy a ton of paint.

    If the bike lanes had been standard width, or the city used some of the property they can curbside, or expropriated a few feet (maybe in exchange for reduced property taxes,) Saanich could have left parking on at least one side of the street so owners don’t have to encroach on parking on other streets where it’s already at capacity.

    Half a million! How about you spend that on trimming the overgrown trees on Mann (and everywhere) that encroach on the sidewalks and make it hard for pedestrians, some with walkers or buggies. And, by the way, when you do trim back the overgrowth at the cement level, you need trim all the way up the tree because we are not all 5 ft tall or walking leaning towers of Pisa. Go around and take pictures of that, why don’t you, instead of figuring out to steal more of our parking.

    As an aside, can you please get the bikes off the forested trails where they zoom around with careless disregard for those trying to enjoy nature. They zoom through, sometimes in large groups, destroying the terrain, with the churned off soil ending up in the creek. The bikes are getting bigger, faster – moreso the electric ones and mountain bikes. Most don’t use bells, or call out, which makes it perilous for the hard of hearing, or those trying to protect their leashed dog. They don’t “share the road,” they grab it, just as you do.

    Messed up priorities. JUST “UN” DO IT. Roll up your shirt sleeves and lift the damned blocks and poles out, out of your pockets, not ours. And next time, please vote for your constituents needs, not your misguided allegiance to cyclists. There is no “share the road” when you steal it.

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