St. John's cycling: Trying to commute around town

I was in St. John's for a couple weeks and had a chance to check out the bike lanes in the city. 

Living on the west coast of Newfoundland, I hear concerns from other cyclists who live in town, about the city's failing bike infrastructure. 

Or, to be more accurate, near non-existent system.

So, I took to the streets around St. John's —during mid-day traffic on a Friday — with seasoned cyclist Robin Whitaker.  

A nice path that leads nowhere

We left the CBC and went out on this beautiful wide path along one of St. John's busiest roads, Prince Philip Drive. 

The path is designed to allow two-way bike traffic, along with pedestrians. When the path ends, there's even neat stop signs, for cyclists, before crossing to the next section. 

It's a great path, but the problem is it goes nowhere. Except a stretch along Prince Philip Drive. 

The small stretch took us to one of the biggest intersections in the city, Columbus Drive and Thorburn Road, and left us with no other path to connect to — and certainly not easily. 

One of the many reasons Whitaker avoids commuting in that area.

"It's not exactly a sort of inviting place for people to walk or bike either. I mean — the ambience isn't exactly pleasant." 

Why can't we all get along 

After we made our way around that mess, we headed down Empire Avenue. 

Which was exactly how I imagined it would be.

A high traffic road with little room for cyclists, except in traffic itself. Which is fine by us, but not so much fine with the motorists we were around.

Everyone's busy and in a rush to get from one end of town to the other. The last thing the traffic that day needed was to be slowed down by some people pedaling their bikes. 

Which I assume was the case with the man that blatantly cut us off. He saw us coming but was eager to make his left turn first, a few more seconds we would've been on his bumper.

Debris-filled lanes

There was some strange paintings on the side of the road, where we tried to ride, but it was unclear to us if it was intended for cyclists or not. 

Much like most road shoulders this one wasn't inviting to ride along. The rocks, the debris and other random objects crowded the space.

There was a hubcap, which Robin unfortunately ran over. Thankfully no harm was done to her or the bike. 

One thing this lane definitely isn't made for is day time parking, and that was made clear by the number of no-parking signs along the road. 

But, that didn't stop motorists from parking right in the middle of the lane. Conveniently under the no-parking signs.  

Whether it's a bike lane or not, we were pushed into the traffic because of these illegally parked vehicles.

Perhaps a little education to start

We eventually ended up farther down Empire Avenue closer to the university. Cars are passing us with out giving us a metre of space. Which is a reality for any cyclist on the roads. 

Drivers do this, and they shouldn't.

If you don't have the space to pass us safely, then wait. No one can be in that much of a rush.

I feel a little bit sympathetic for the City at this point. They're the ones that have to fix this mess and make St. John's more bike friendly. 

We're in an area where there just isn't any physical room to make a proper bike lane. The houses are practically built on to the side walks. 

But, this is where more education for motorists would be most helpful, simply because there's no physical solution -- at least not that I can think of in a few minutes of cruising the roads. 

Whitaker agrees with me, but has some suggestions.

"A little bit of awareness on the part of people in vehicles about what it feels like to be cycling at close quarters with motor vehicles might go a long way."

Challenges ahead

I haven't come close to hitting all the issues. I mean, this was a twenty minute ride.

There's lots of other issues such as construction, potholes, and overall terrible pavement.

This is not about a blame game. No one is saying cyclists are right, motorists are always wrong and the the City should know better. 

I mean, yes, that's sorta what's being said -- but the idea of this is to get people talking, and be aware of what's going on when you see a cyclist on the road.

The City does have a task force in place to help make St. John's bike friendly. There's lots of work to do.

Whitaker is working on that committee she says the team doesn't have any real say, other than collect suggestions and bring them to the table for the City to decide. 

Whitaker can't say for sure if the City is committed to making the improvements but is is hopeful that councillors will make it happen. 

"Do they want to really commit themselves to improving cycling in the city -- or improving, you know, the conditions for cycling in the city? That's something, you know, council has to decide if it's a priority."