Newspaperguy

A regional bus service, connecting the communities of the South Okanagan and the Central Okanagan, would be nice. South of Kelowna and Westbank, there's one small city and a number of small towns. Those without cars have a hard time getting to the out-of-town businesses and services they need.

Ekdog

Even more physically-separated bike lanes like the ones we have now. Since they were built, bicycle commuting has experienced a renaissance in this city. Thousands of people who would never have dreamt of riding a bike to work are doing just that.

The next step: ban private vehicles from the city center.

Ned_Detroit

My one, or rather first and biggest wish, would be one that the federal government rather than my city would have to grant: Make bicycle safety and rider training a requirement for any motor vehicle operators licence to be issued by the states or any federal agency, e.g the military, this would include a bicycle road test, in traffic, with the only exceptions to for valid medical reasons in which case a simulated road test and extended written or verbal test would be required. Any disbursement of federal highway funds to states would be contingent upon them meeting this standard.

Cyclaholic

I'd be happy to see a system where each road user pays their share and nobody subsidises anyone else..... starting with motor vehicle registrations and fuel taxes that cover 100% of the cost of building all the necessary infrastructure to accomodate motor vehicles.

rhm

I want a legal mandate that all locations that can be reached by car can also be reached by bicycle. So if you have a bridge across a river, for example, either bikes should be allowed on it, or there should be a separate bridge for bikes (and pedestrians).

I live near a car rental agency placed on a road where bicycles and pedestrians are not allowed; so you need a car in order to go rent a car! I mean, really, who thinks of these things? (They get around the problem by offering to come pick you up; but IMO that shouldn't be necessary).

Mattrek

If I could have one wish, it would be more observant drivers (and I know that is an unrealistic want). I know all of the laws and rules of riding my bike on the streets and I follow them, but I cannot tell you how many times I have been blown over by a passing car that thought it would be funny to go 65 mph past me and throw a McDonalds cup in my direction (good thing that people around here don't have good aim).

Roody

Then cyclists should have to pay a share also. How would you collect from bikes if you're using fuel taxes to collect from cars?

mattm

a huge umbrella covering the city would be great.

Machka 

I'd be happy with a bus service between the southern part of Edmonton and the Edmonton International Airport. I cannot believe that the airport does not have public transportation connecting it to Edmonton!! While they're at it, they could extend the bus service as far south as Leduc.

If they could have that in place by mid-December, it would be perfect!!

JMRobertson

Small town here... ~12k pop...

My wishes are two:

Maintain the shoulders as if they were roads... perhaps better than the roads.
Enforce traffic laws for both moterists and cyclists.

That would do it

urodacus

a million bucks every birthday would be nice. applied retrospectively, too.

thanks.

zoltani

Fight to speed up the EIR and lift the bike plan injunction. Take it to the courts if necessary and treat it as a public safety issue. We cannot live with no new bike infrastructure for another 3 years!

bikinpolitico

Dedicated bike paths or bike boulevards. We are actually working on this with a petition to the city in Austin.

gerv 

I'm of two minds about the issue of bike routes separated from car traffic. These seem to help newbies get out and do some travelling by bicycle. But for complete ability to use the bike as transportation, you need to be able to get out in traffic. The reason is that existing (car) routes usually take you exactly where you want to go. Bike paths *might* if you were lucky but are often placed in areas (down by the river... for example) subject to flooding or heavy snow... which makes the route impassable at some times in the year.

My approach would be to have some bike paths... something not extensive enough to cover an entire city... but to mix that with many routes that have been modified to slow traffic down significantly. This kind of infrastructure should NOT cost a lot, could be really efficient (ie, cost to implement vs. mile-of-bike-route) and would leave a lot of the natural green space in the city as green space rather than another level of infrastructure to maintain.

jefferee

Bike lanes on all freeway crossings, or more pedestrian/bike bridges.

Just about all of the roads crossing the local freeway are four-lane arterials with fast, and often heavy, traffic. Taking the lane through an interchange in a 60 km/hr (35 mph) zone is no fun and there are places I can't get to by bike without doing it.

politicalgeek

It's been interesting this week using the bus system again. I just hopped back on after about 2 years (last apartment really didn't have convenient bus service) before I try to ditch the car next week (looks like it will be car max after all) to see all my options. Trying to plan a simple errand 7-8 miles away (high congestion area) is turning into a 3 bus, hour and a half odyssey.

Transit needs to improve dramatically here in NA.

HarryStoddard

Amen. Wider bike lanes would be nice too, ones that don't taper off into traffic or skimpy lanes in the door zone. Either sounds nice.

simonofsocal

Wow, do have to pick only one? I could give you a list a mile long, but lets just stick to top three.

#1 Sweep the shoulders. This tops my list because it's something the city can actually take care of, but refuses to do. I'm lucky that the streets out here are wide and most have good shoulders, but so many of them haven't been swept in so long that they're just unusable.

#2 Add some car free paths(biking, MUP, whatever will keep me from dealing with cars all the time), I've got two excellent recreational trails in the nearby mountains, but there are absolutely no paths going through town.

#2.5 I just learned about Rails to Trails, and I've got to see if I can get this done out here. There's an old line that runs straight through downtown, it comes in from the southwest and terminates 2.5 miles north of the major cross streets. This would be perfect for me and a good quarter of the city.

#3 This is more county or state than city, but there is no way (for me) to get between (most) cities around here, except by car. Separate highways for bikes would be a blessing, but I'd settle for four lane roads with wide shoulders. I refuse to ride on two lane roads where the speed limit is above 45, no matter how good the shoulders are. 45's not too bad on it's own but, you have to tack on 15+ for speeders (everyone) and most roads are actually 60+. So, that means riding along side pickups and the odd semi doing 75. This is my decision, and I live with it(car free with a girlfriend 2 cities away), but that's doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

Allen

I would be happy with even a single bike rack being placed anywhere in the town limits.

Newspaperguy

I ride on a lot of two-lane roads where the limit is higher than 45 and where the shoulders aren't all that good. Most are quite pleasant for cycling. They're quieter and less busy than the main roads and the motorists tend to give me a fair amount of clearance. I also ride on one highway that's four lanes with good shoulders but I don't like it as much as the two-lane roads. It's busier and some of the motorists are going a little too fast.

bicyclridr4life

BAN motorized vehicles! ON A "GOOD" DAY 99.99999999% of the drivers in this town act like they got their driver's license from a box of Cracker Jacks!

Ekdog

My city is seriously lacking in that department, too, but help is on the way: after being pressured by local cycling groups, the city has bought 2,000 bike racks, which they are supposed to start installing this week. Can't wait!

militantmuffin

Wow, there are so many things my city needs to do, first of all, more bike lanes/wide shoulders on main roads(to their credit, they're working on this), possibly a reduction in speed limit to make it safer for us to ride on said main roads, MORE BIKE RACKS(this is huge.) and definitely better public transportation. I live in a collage town and the fact these things are even still issues actually amazes me.

hotwheels

I sheepishly wish I could complain about those damn street car drivers......outside the frequency of the street sweeper -not much.

JeanCoutu

I thought it was property taxes that pay for infrastructure?