New bike lanes in the City of Markham
Markham’s growing bike system recently received three new additions! While the bike lanes are short in distance, it’s a small part of the larger Active Transportation Master Plan. Continued rigorous studies, discussions with experts, stakeholder and public engagement, these bike lanes provide alternative transportation methods to help decrease traffic, contribute to a healthy community, and improve connectivity for everyone in Markham.
You might hear the classic blame on bike lanes for bad traffic and dangerous driving, but the proof is in the pudding: bike lanes keep cars off the road—and it increases safety for everyone. Extensive research from Canada and the world have proven time and time again that good cycling infrastructure decreases congestion while widening roads increases traffic.
The process of building bike lanes
Building a bike lane requires rigorous steps. The city uses this guideline for designing the cycling network in Markham (there are 11 types of bike lanes!). In this whole process, engineers, design professionals, stakeholders, and the public are engaged. In the City Council, all matters related to cycling are discussed at the Cycling & Pedestrian Advisory Committee. These public meetings can be watched on the city website.
How do we build better cycling infrastructure?
Admittedly, the coverage of these new bike lanes are small, which is why we need to demand for more. To speak before council at a council or committee meeting, deputations can be made in-person, online, or in-writing. To give an in-person deputation, you can:
- Submit the request to speak online before the meeting,
- Submit the request to speak in-person before entering the council chamber by filling out the blue “Request to speak Form”, or
- Submit the form during council chambers as staff distribute the form.
When the meeting makes it to the agenda item of deputations, you, the deputant, will be called upon at your turn to give a maximum five minutes speech. The same process happens for an online deputation, except that you can only request to speak through the online form. To submit a written request, an email must be sent to clerkspublic@markham.ca by 10AM on the day of the meeting.
If speaking before councilors is not your thing, Your Voice Markham is an online platform that allows you to easily voice your opinion on on-going projects. Whenever there is a major project coming through, the city will always have public engagement events that you can participate in.
Remember, you can always send an email to your local councilor!
This article was submitted by Dina Dong, a representative of Re-orienting, Advocating, Imagining a better Markham (Re-AIM), a grassroots advocacy group focused on building a better and complete community in Markham. To learn more about the organization and how you can get involved, email reaim.markham@gmail.com.