Calgary cyclist calls for increased winter biking accessibility

A Calgary bike commuter is voicing concerns over the maintenance of some city bike lanes and pathways during the winter.

Hanna Garvey, a regular cyclist in the city, says the City of Calgary needs to do more to make winter biking accessible.

“Calgary is slated to maintain about half of the pathways throughout the winter. But in reality, some of them are not very well done. Some of them are not done at all,” Garvey said.

“While the infrastructure is there, it’s not necessarily maintained well enough to encourage people to use it.”

In her commute to the University of Calgary (UCalgary), Garvey uses a maintained bike lane three to five days a week. She says her typical route is usually less time-consuming than driving or taking transit.

“There’s a couple really popular routes … downtown, along the Bow River, that kind of thing, where they’re really well maintained, and it’s done really fast,” Garvey said.

“But people don’t just teleport onto those paths. Getting there can be really difficult.”

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Calgary’s Snow and Ice Control policy classifies downtown cycle tracks as priority one, which are cleared within the first 18 hours after snowfall. But where garvey’s concerns lie are outside of the city’s high traffic areas.

“Accessing the paths that are well done can sometimes include vaulting over windrows or a very bumpy ride over iced-over footprints. That kind of thing,” Garvey said.

The policy classifies marked on-street bike lanes as “priority two,” which means they’re cleared on day two, or within 18-36 hours after snowfall ends.

In a statement to CityNews, Calgary’s transportation department encouraged citizens to educate themselves on the city’s priority plan to understand how the city responds to snow by visiting calgary.ca/snow.

They also added that those with snow and ice concerns can report them by calling 3-1-1.