City council asks for public's help designing new bike lanes

City officials are promising Edmontonians more public consultation on bike lanes in the future.

Administrators have admitted they didnt communicate well with people living in the neighbourhoods where bike lanes were proposed in the past.

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In terms of the cycling, what we could have done better, we probably could have communicated a little bit better, we could have engaged better, and planned a little bit better," said Tyler Golly, the citys general supervisor of sustainable transportation.

Listen to Tyler Golly's full interview on CBC's Edmonton AM

Golly said Edmontonians can expect to be more involved in future decisions.

What we've heard from the public is that they want to have more say in the decisions that are being made for cycling and a lot of things, to be honest. We're hearing more and more they want to be involved throughout the process for engagement.

Now, the city is looking for feedback on proposed bike lanes in Old Strathcona and downtown. As a first step, Golly said the city wants feedback on where exactly the new routes should go.

Four possible routes have been proposed for the Old Strathcona path, which may run down either 81st, 82nd, 83rd or 84th Avenue. Downtown, the route will either be on 102nd or 103rd Avenue.

A new advertising campaign called What the Bike? is aiming to update how the citycommunicates with the public about the lanes.

A big thrust of the advertising campaign is to raise awareness that we want to be doing this stuff better and we need the publics help in order to make it better, said Golly.

The city has also added a discussion space on its website to give people a chance to write in their own comments about how the bike lane issue is being handled.

The discussion page on the citys website will remain open until May 29.

City council will decide on funding for the two proposed routes in the fall.