Why Stouffville Needs Bike Lanes

 

Source: York Region

With only 1 km of bike lanes in the core of Stouffville, it's discouraging to cycle around town. The map above shows the cycling map of Stouffville. Fortunately for recreational cyclists, Stouffville has many off-road trails, as depicted in the green markings. However, the only bike lane is on a short portion of Ninth Line, as outlined by the orange line. 

As York Region describes, a bike lane is "a portion of the roadway designated for the exclusive use by cyclists indicated by signage and pavement markings." Since there are basically no bike lanes in Stouffville, the average person would ride their bike on the sidewalk. If you've ever biked on the sidewalk,   you've probably faced the difficulty of serving past pedestrians. The sidewalk isn't safe for cycling, but neither is the road! The roads have no space for cyclists in busy areas such as Main Street and Weldon Road. 

For students of Stouffville District Secondary School, biking to school and home is a nightmare – the sidewalks are lined with students, making it difficult to maneuver around pedestrians. Amanda Wong recalls her experience of cycling after school, saying, “I rang my bell three times, and a guy on the sidewalk still didn’t move.” However, cycling on the road would also be dangerous with the heavy traffic before and after school.”

Although cycling isn't common amongst most adults of Stouffville, many children and teens rely on cycling to travel around town. Therefore, bike lanes would still benefit a significant population of Stouffville. Vithusha Vakinthakumar, like many youths, wishes there were bike lanes because “there are constantly people on the sidewalk, and [she] can’t ride on the road because of the cars." Also, bike lanes would encourage non-cyclists in Stouffville to start biking because of their accessibility. 

Bike lanes have countless other benefits, such as reducing traffic and promoting healthy lifestyles, as I discussed in my previous posts. It would become much easier to transport around Stouffville if there were dedicated roadways for cyclists, and it's time the town constructs another kilometre of bike lanes.