Bike lane for Penticton

[seewood]

Thought about this thread today as I was driving south along Fairview today. Small scooter towing a shopping buggy heading south, passing a fellow pushing a shopping buggy heading north. They stopped and had a chat as I drove by..

Few bikes heading north on main, bike on the sidewalk heading south on Winnipeg and a few on the sidewalk heading east on lakeshore dodging walkers and dogs on leash..

Have yet to see any real use of commuters, shoppers or any really using the lane. Way more on Government or other roads to get around on bikes.

[twobits]

Thought about this thread today as I was driving south along Fairview today. Small scooter towing a shopping buggy heading south, passing a fellow pushing a shopping buggy heading north. They stopped and had a chat as I drove by..

Few bikes heading north on main, bike on the sidewalk heading south on Winnipeg and a few on the sidewalk heading east on lakeshore dodging walkers and dogs on leash..

Have yet to see any real use of commuters, shoppers or any really using the lane. Way more on Government or other roads to get around on bikes.

So Yup we built it.......but they have not come. Why would that be? Perhaps the provided lanes are not to the riders standards?

[spooker]

*removed*

[XT225]

A Bait bike program like Kelowna has implemented would be a good start. It might actually encourage people to ride downtown to work, shop, etc but with the amount of bike theft that occurs here at the present time, its not going to happen.
ps: and please don't suggest Project 529; that only possibly prevents "frame theft"; the rest of your bike is fair game for these low-lifes.

https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#378968

[Steve-O]

That post from Spooker regarding the bike lane on the bridge in Vancouver speaks volumes to the direction cycling is headed.

And your post speaks volumes on your lack of understanding of both median local age demographics (Penticton 52 and Vancouver 41) as well as differences in weather between here and Vancouver. Generally, I don't think you think very much at all else you would easily see these two plain and obvious differences between bike lanes here and bike lanes in a fair weather Metropolis like Vancouver. Can't fix......?

Hey, hey. Your learning. Posting some stats. Well done.

I have to admit to being a little surprised that the age difference is so wide. Only 8 years apart if you use average age, and that's still a larger gap then I would have thought. Penticton is doing some smart things to attract younger people to the area. Someone else pointed out about the weather in the Okanagan Valley being great for year round riding and that's been my experience as well.

I can see your bike lane getting good numbers in the years to come.

[twobits]

And if you cannot comprehend what a huge difference a Median age of 11 yrs between Vancouver and Penticton is, you need to do some serious "book" learning. If you think that is a small demographic anomaly, you are one of those truly uninformed voters that gets to vote just because you have a civic address. For lords sake Man....11 yrs of difference in median age is a quantum difference in the stats world and proves you have little to no concept of local population wants or more importantly.....taxpayer funded needs.
And BTW......Penticton is not doing some smart things.....it's a sales job by senior City spandex managment with the support of a few councilors that wont be here after the next election cycle.
Ya know.....the ones making over 6 figures in salarly that can actually afford to buy an electric vehicle and then ride their bikes to work on their private 8 million dollar travel lane and then tell us all we just need to adapt to the new reality.

[Steve-O]

I can see your bike lane getting good numbers in the years to come.

Its the future. Pretty much every city is heading that way.

You don't like it. Shrug. That's your prerogative.

[seewood]

Pedal down the bike lane this afternoon to Slackwater . Benefit for Apex Fire "Brigade" 3-9 pm. Just don't loose sight of your bike or it will be gone in a flash.. otherwise drive down I guess.

[twobits]

Pedal down the bike lane this afternoon to Slackwater . Benefit for Apex Fire "Brigade" 3-9 pm. Just don't loose sight of your bike or it will be gone in a flash.. otherwise drive down I guess.

This fundraiser could've at least been held where a decent beer could be bought. Slackwater is actually a good name for the joint.

[twobits]

Pedal down the bike lane this afternoon to Slackwater . Benefit for Apex Fire "Brigade" 3-9 pm. Just don't loose sight of your bike or it will be gone in a flash.. otherwise drive down I guess.

This fundraiser could've at least been held where a decent beer could be bought. Slackwater is actually a good name for the joint.

[seewood]

This fundraiser could've at least been held where a decent beer could be bought.

I don't mind some of their beer at all. I happen to know the family that own it, great people. Place was busy at 4, live music was good. Silent auction items were decent, including an original 1960's advertisement poster for Apex in a great frame.
I did see one old bike locked up outside.
A very few on the bike lane and did see one fellow on an electric stand up scooter that must have been doing 50+ kmh southbound. He was moving.

Some of the Cannery is not bad but I rarely buy it.
Bad Tattoo, been there twice, meh.

For a Sunday afternoon, I'd be thinking more would be using the bike lane. No shortage of the " spandex bandits" out on South Main, Eastside road, Government. Now my knee has heeled up pretty good, I'll have to see if my " spandex bandit" shorts still fit.

[spooker]

Went and enjoyed the heck out of Peachfest this weekend ... of course I had to do more research on the bike lane ...

Chatted with one of the guys running the bike valet Saturday morning at the Farmers Market ... when I mentioned the argument about the median age being "too old" I got a good chuckle ... his response, "that's our clientele" as a senior was picking up his bike and another older couple was coming from the bike lane to leave their bikes at the valet ...

Sunday morning I had a great boot around town, down Lakeshore and back then down to Skaha Lake and back ...

The new bike lane was great until just before Duncan ... then it was confusing until I was able to get over to S Main ... thankfully being early Sunday morning the next 1.5km along a 4-lane road with no cycling infrastructure wasn't too hairy ...

Saw so many different types of cyclists out there on the ride ... people talk about Government St but it's alright, nothing that will help bring out new cyclists, a lot of bad pavement and drainage grates ... had a good encounter with a bunch of traffic diverters dumped in the bike lane ...

I have to keep hope that the bike lane will eventually be finished ...

[XT225]

I have to keep hope that the bike lane will eventually be finished ...

The only thing that is certain is that because of their lack of wisdom and having been sucked right into this bike lane fiasco, any councillor who voted FOR it, will definitely be "Finished" come the October Municipal elections.

Note: interesting that since you do not live here, you missed knowing/trying the long established bike/walking path that starts at Front Street and ends up on Wade AVe/Government Street, and then a short two blocks up Government St to the KVR, which can get you all the way to Duncan Ave and Atkinson Street. The "locals" know that route well. Its becoming clear now why this new route is so expensive; the bridge at Industrial Ave and Atkinson is all torn up and being widened to accomodate the new lanes. Had the city had the brains to continue the lanes down a bit farther on Fairview Road, they could have avoided any bridge changes and connected via Industrial Ave to Atkinson AND a 2nd route over to the Channel to the very popular Channel path.

[spooker]

I have to keep hope that the bike lane will eventually be finished ...

The only thing that is certain is that because of their lack of wisdom and having been sucked right into this bike lane fiasco, any councillor who voted FOR it, will definitely be "Finished" come the October Municipal elections.

Note: interesting that since you do not live here, you missed knowing/trying the long established bike/walking path that starts at Front Street and ends up on Wade AVe/Government Street, and then a short two blocks up Government St to the KVR, which can get you all the way to Duncan Ave and Atkinson Street. The "locals" know that route well. Its becoming clear now why this new route is so expensive; the bridge at Industrial Ave and Atkinson is all torn up and being widened to accomodate the new lanes. Had the city had the brains to continue the lanes down a bit farther on Fairview Road, they could have avoided any bridge changes and connected via Industrial Ave to Atkinson AND a 2nd route over to the Channel to the very popular Channel path.

But my purpose wasn't recreation, it was to find out how things are connected from the perspective of using a bicycle for transportation ... I rode my bike the channel pathway later in the day but that was to go back and retrieve the vehicle and pick up everyone's floats etc ... if I'm using my bike for recreation I'll plan a multi-day bikepacking trip, get away from everything ...

Not sure why I'd want to use the channel pathway to get to the beach on Skaha ... then I'd have to deal with highway traffic before getting close to where I'd want to be ... the idea is to encourage people to ride their bikes when it fits, not scare them by disconnected pathways, high traffic, or long detours ...

[XT225]

But my purpose wasn't recreation, it was to find out how things are connected from the perspective of using a bicycle for transportation ... I rode my bike the channel pathway later in the day but that was to go back and retrieve the vehicle and pick up everyone's floats etc ... if I'm using my bike for recreation I'll plan a multi-day bikepacking trip, get away from everything ...

Not sure why I'd want to use the channel pathway to get to the beach on Skaha ... then I'd have to deal with highway traffic before getting close to where I'd want to be ... the idea is to encourage people to ride their bikes when it fits, not scare them by disconnected pathways, high traffic, or long detours ...

My route that I mentioned is shorter and far less traffic than the new routes. Good for recreation OR transportation (if you are brave enough to leave your precious bike anywhere, locked or not). The council had no clue that there were/are existing routes around already that would cost zero to promote; as I mentioned before, the spandex senior managers did a great job of snowing council and SOME members of the public; now we all (except out of towners) pay the price for their mistakes. October cannot come soon enough!