240th at Albion Elementary Gets a New Protected Bike Lane

In response to a petition by a local resident, the City of Maple Ridge implemented some safety measures at the intersection at 240 St. and Hill Ave., in front of Albion Elementary School.

Parking-protected bike lane along west side of 240 St. at Albion Station housing complex.

Bike lane ends at Albion Elementary School; provides a safe way for students to bike to school.

One of those measures consisted of a parking-protected bike lane along the west side of 240 St. Many residents, in particular drivers, expressed their frustration with the design in the Albion Neighbours Facebook group. They complained that they can’t see oncoming cars when exiting from the Albion Station strata complex just north of the school, due to the parked cars.

Parked cars cause visibility issues for drivers

In principle, it’s a great idea to put bike lanes between parked cars and the sidewalk because it makes people feel much safer than just having a white line for separation. It’s really important though to ensure sightlines provide drivers with sufficient visibility, not only of oncoming cars, but also of people using the bike lane. The City may need to remove some parking spaces on either side of the driveways. 

Another issue that was brought up by drivers, is that the car lanes are now narrower, which some say may make it more likely that car mirrors are going to get damaged. The purpose of narrower car lanes is of course to make drivers slow down.

If these parking spaces are mostly used by parents dropping off and picking up their kids at school, there’s of course the challenge to get out of/into the car, especially with kids. The good thing is that there’s a wide buffer between the bike lane and the parked cars, which will help to get kids in and out of the cars.
It looks like the city engineers will have some tweaking to do. Hopefully by making some changes, everyone will end up happy.