Calgary cycling group calls for less talk, more action

The president of a Calgary-based cycling promotion group is worried there's been too much talk and not enough action when it comes to making roads safer for cyclists.

"What we really need are dedicated bike lanes and they need to be protected," saidGary Beaton, president of the Calgary Tour de Nuit Society, which encourages cycling in Calgary.

Nicole Jensen, a city transportation planner, said 180 kilometres of bicycle lanes will be installed by 2020.

"This year we're looking at implementing about 10 kilometres, so we are absolutely going to have to be ramping up our efforts," she said, adding the city is hiring new staff to phase in the strategy quickly.

ButBeaton is concerned the city isn't moving quickly enough to implement the programs.

Hiscomments come ahead of a visit by Andreas Rhl, bike program manager in famously cyclist-friendly Copenhagen.

Rhl temporarily left his Copenhagen post to take up an eight-month stint at the Vancouver office of Canadian consulting firm Urban Systems Ltd. to work on transportation projects in Western Canada, including Vancouver's cyclist and pedestrian strategy.

He is set to speak in a talk hosted by the city and Urban SystemsWednesday evening at John Dutton Theatre in the CentralLibrary in downtown Calgary.

Beaton is concerned Calgary is wasting time bringing in consultants from other cities.

"Transportation needs to start talking to cyclists," he said. "And they need to start talking to drivers and some of the other stakeholders and we haven't really seen them doing that."