File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Multi-use pathways are a form of harm reduction and we should build more

Dec 8, 2023 | 12:30 PM

THE ARMCHAIR MAYOR ARGUED THIS WEEK that multi-use pathways will present more problems than solutions in the future, thanks to the proliferation of hybrid transportation options in our community.

Mel is certainly correct that more and more people are choosing e-bikes to get around here and e-scooters may be on their way.

We will have to reckon with walkers and joggers commuting in the same lanes as those powered modes of transportation, but that doesn’t make multi-use pathways obsolete.

Canada’s cities, for better or for worse, are still overwhelmingly set up for vehicular traffic — cars and trucks and tractor-trailers.

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For the foreseeable future, the most dangerous potential conflict will not be between pedestrians and e-bikes, but between cyclists and vehicles.

In other words, the chances of a cyclist being injured or killed in a collision with a vehicle are far greater than the same thing happening to a pedestrian in a collision with an e-bike or e-scooter.

If there are places where all three modes of transportation can be separated, that’s great. You see bike lanes in addition to vehicular travel lanes and sidewalks in urban centres like downtown Vancouver.

Vehicle drivers complain about inconvenience, but they’re the ones with the least to lose in a collision. That’s just the laws of physics.

It doesn’t make sense to build out every part of every city like it’s downtown Vancouver, but separating the 4,000-pound vehicles from everyone else is a good idea.

In the case of the multi-use lane proposed for Lansdowne Street that council rejected this week, there were certainly issues.

Lansdowne is no ordinary street. It’s commonly used by heavy truck traffic to get through the city or get to the Mission Flats area.

While studies have shown narrower vehicle lanes actually make people drive more slowly and carefully thereby reducing collisions, the same logic that applies to passenger vehicles may not apply to a parade of B-train chip trucks.

In spite of that rejection, the principle is still good — get both cyclists and pedestrians away from the behemoths that threaten to squash them like bugs.

We should hope city staff go back to the drawing board and come back with another multi-use proposal.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.