Bell: Danielle Smith government takes on Calgary's mayor over bike lanes
This is Grade A baloney.
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Bike lanes were pushed because we were told the city needed bike lanes, the more, the merrier, because it would make Calgary more world-class. It would be cool. A few people mentioned we could be more like hipster Portland.
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Some advocates saw Calgary becoming the Amsterdam or Copenhagen of North America.
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Put in bike lanes and lots of them and those bike lanes would be jam-packed with cyclists.
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Build them, they will come.
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Cyclists here, cyclists there, cyclists everywhere.
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When the city 'consulted' Calgarians on bike lanes, it was like when you were a kid and your parents 'consulted' with you before shoving that ugly-tasting cough syrup down your throat.
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Stop whining, bike lanes are good for you.
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Originally, there were a few bike lanes put in on a try-it-out basis. The idea barely made its way through council. There was pushback.
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But Calgarians paying attention knew how this movie was going to end.
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There was absolutely no way city hall would decide anything but bike lanes were a roaring success. The paper-shufflers and activists and think-alike politicians could fill in the score before the game was played.
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The lanes became permanent. More lanes went in. More lanes are planned. All of them are seen as roaring successes.
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Dan McLean is one councillor who is already slimed on social media so the rage of cyclists will be water off a duck's back to him.
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McLean wants to take a deep dive into the locations of bike lanes, the use of bike lanes. He wants to see the numbers.
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