Cowan Heights cyclist says residents not being consulted on bike lanes

The head of the CowanHeights Community Association says people in her neighbourhood have not been properly consulted regarding bike lanes in the area, despite comments made by St. John's Coun. Art Puddister.

On Monday, Puddistertold council that "bicycles aren't being used" in bike lanesaround CowanHeights and Airport Heights, and that the spaces would be better utilized for vehicleparking.

• St. John's Coun. Art Puddister moves to turn bike lanes into parking

Maureen Power, who is also an avid biker, saidthe neighbourhood association is unaware of any consultationwith people in the area regarding the bike lanes, which calls into question Puddister's claim. She feels the city had several opportunities to engage with the associationand have never done so.

"They didn't actually contact us or talk to anybody in the community about what we wanted," she told theSt. John's Morning Show.

"We have so many issues that need to be addressed, sitting in your window counting cyclists is probably not the best use of [Puddister's]time."

A safety issue

Power posted a poll in the Facebook group for the neighbourhood association, asking CowanHeights residents if they wanted to keep the bike lanes. She saidit resulted invirtual 50/50 split, with slightly more people actually voting to keep the lanes for just bicycles.

While she says there probablyare streets where the bike lanes are underused, Powerand other bikers douse them everyday and would like to be part of the conversation around getting rid of them.

Power feels ultimately bike lanes exist to protect people from accidents, and to eliminate them sends a message that parking is more important than the safety of cyclists.

"Why not encourage something that is meant to protect people?" she said. "How can you not implement something that's there for safety reasons?"