Ever since we started living in Kelowna five years ago, I’ve been impressed with how the city is full of bike lanes. Even many of what I think of as side streets have bike lanes. As well, there is the Mission Creek Greenway that is something like 18km of trails that are shared by cyclists, runners and riders with their horses. All in all a pretty bike friendly city. At least the roads are.
My complaint is the motorists. Actually just a few who don’t remember that bikes are sharing the road.
For instance, last night I took a quick bike ride down to our church from our apartment. (remember it’s part of my training plan?) Maybe a 7 or 8 km trip there and back. To do so, I decided to ride down Lakeshore Drive. Lakeshore has been upgraded recently and the bridge near our apartment now sports a nice new bike lane and sidewalk. It’s a great improvement except it wasn’t useable when I rode through there last night. Some unthinking motorist (actually about four of them) had decided to park on the bridge and just off of it. Even though it was clearly marked that this was a bike lane and parking was not allowed they had entirely blocked both the sidewalk and the bike lane.
The result of some unthinking motorist’s decision was that I couldn’t safely ride down that part of the road. I had to stop and wait for a lot of traffic to go by before I could continue on my way. Lakeshore is a very busy thoroughfare. Not what was intended by improving the roadway. Maybe something could be done to help motorists realize they are not the only ones using the road and a little consideration is in order.
Other than that, I’m really enjoying cycling around such a beautiful city.
What’s your take on cycling in Kelowna? Add your comment below.
