Worried that a pedestrian is going to get “smoked” by a speeding cyclist, Victoria council is calling on the Capital Regional District to tackle growing congestion problems on the Galloping Goose trail.
Coun. Shellie Gudgeon said there’s a huge safety problem on the trail and a number of options — including signs and widening or twinning the trail — have to be examined.
“There’s no ‘watch out for cyclists’ signs for pedestrians. Somebody’s going to get smoked. … The opportunities for danger are everywhere,” Gudgeon said.
Councillors agreed Thursday to have Mayor Dean Fortin write to the CRD calling for design improvements and additional rights of way to address capacity and safety issues.
John Luton of the Capital Bike and Walk Society said there has been talk at the CRD for a number of years about widening sections where the trail is only three metres wide.
“The friction between pedestrians and cyclists is very real,” Luton said. “There have been collisions and I certainly hear complaints, but there aren’t other easy solutions other than widening it.”
Safety is a concern, especially in the area between the Selkirk Trestle in Victoria and the Switch Bridge over the Trans-Canada Highway in Saanich, said Coun. Ben Isitt.
“We want commuter cyclists to see the Galloping Goose as being effective. We want a way for them to fly along, but we have to make sure that that doesn’t threaten pedestrians and recreational cyclists in the process,” Isitt said.
Isitt and Fortin had proposed a resolution calling on the CRD to plan for widening the trail between the trestle and the Switch Bridge.
Widening the trail, particularly in the Cecelia Ravine area, which would require blasting, would be challenging and would mean “hard conversations with people who love the area, including me,” Isitt said. “But I think there’s a way to do it.”
Other councillors felt widening wasn’t the only option that should be considered.
Coun. Pam Madoff said rather than suggesting widening, the city should ask for a “broader, solutions-oriented approach” to finding ways to fix the problem. “It’s really to the point where I’m finding pedestrians just do not want to go there,” Madoff said.
Coun. Geoff Young said it’s not obvious that widening the Galloping Goose is the way to go. “One of the possibilities is that … we accept that we need two trails side by side — one for pedestrians and one for wheeled vehicles.”
Young said work being done on the E&N Rail Trail has demonstrated the cost of construction differs considerably between a wide single trail and two narrower trails. “To build a single wide trail is typically more expensive,” he said.
Young said the time is right for a public debate on the issue because the trails are “obviously very successful.”
“They’re becoming significant for transportation and these conflicts are arising. Every once in a while, we get reports of more and more serious incidents.”
Rather than just focusing on the prospect of widening, the debate should be started about how multi-use trails like the Galloping Goose can be made safer for the public in general, Young said.
— With files from Jeff Bell
