Yellowknife resident Becca Denley is an avid bike rider and she’s looking to encourage more people to get involved with some help from the city.
Denley, who was speaking on behalf of the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, presented what’s called Decreasing Barriers to Active Mobility to city council on April 22. According to the plan, she suggested three types of bikes people could choose from: a city bike, an electric trike and a cargo bike.
“We will create a free bike-share program for Yellowknifers who want to try a more active way of commuting to work, school or their daily errands,” said Denley. “Providing these free of charge help people try things out without committing to the cost right away.”
The plan well aligns with the city’s own goals of limiting carbon emissions, added Denley.
It also comes with what Denley called pilot projects and top of that list is an increase in places to store someone’s bike. Denley asked council to allocate an area at city hall or the 50/50 lot to be donated for new secure bike parking. In addition, she asked for some protected bike lanes for Range Lake Road for the summer.
But that wasn’t all Denley wanted to talk about during her time at the dais. She’s also looking for support for art walks. Denley is looking for permission to start painting crosswalks and for city workers to clean them before the painting would begin.
“I am working with a group of volunteers that have created a program for elementary and high school students to create colorful, vibrant crosswalks in front of each of their school’s in Yellowknife,” she told councillors.
Denley presented a schedule which showed a classroom program starting the week of May 6, followed by painting half of the city’s crosswalks the week of May 20. The other half would be done the week of May 29.
For Coun. Rob Warburton, he said it’d be an understatement to say he’s keen about traffic calming.
“I think this is a way of addressing a lot of the conflict we have in the city around bikes and cars and kids,” he said in response to that.
Nothing’s set in stone yet for Denley, but the wheels of progress are turning. For her, the biggest hurdle at the moment seems to be funding, which would come from the Healthy Choices Fund.
As for when that could happen, Denley said she should hear about that in the near future.