It’s not every day that you get to attend a press conference involving a cycling tour of downtown Canmore with the Mayor! But it really was the best way for the Town to show us all of the great new improvements they’ve undertaken to make both cycling and driving around town easier and more conflict-free.

Some of the improvements we were shown, included in the above photos, were green paint and ‘elephant feet’ on high-traffic crosswalks like the one on Bridge Road to increase visibility and indicate a crossing for both pedestrians and cyclists as well as the improved merge point from the pedestrian bridge onto the shoulder bike path, the new dedicated bike lanes on 7th Avenue, a section of 4th Street that is designed to give priority to pedestrians and cyclists connecting to and from downtown via the new bridge over Spring Creek, the new bike path at the Boston Pizza railway crossing, and the ‘Sharrow’ road markings indicating the preferred area for bikes on Main Street and similar arterial roads that also encourage cyclists and motorists to share the road.

After our press conference/cycling tour, I spoke with the Town’s Engineering manager Andy Esarte who says much of the effort is to encourage predictable behaviour, respect, and the reduction of conflict between cyclists and motorists.

In total, about 25 kilometres of Canmore’s roads now or will soon have shared or dedicated bike lanes.  Also, thanks to many of the new bike racks, shelters, and lockers around town there are now about 280 bike parking spots in the heart of Canmore, and that doesn’t include bike space provided by private businesses.

For more details on the new bike lanes and lines, click here.