Do you have some plan or idea to change Edmonton for the better?

This question is at the heart of my work. Because I write about the various plans and schemes in play around Edmonton, people often send me their own suggestions on how this city might be improved. Today I’ll share two ideas, one plan for sidewalk bike lanes and one for a permanent swimming hole on the North Saskatchewan River.

The first idea comes from avid cyclist Lilly Szkorupa, who has spent her life working as a teacher overseas and in Canada. Szkorupa’s idea is to help solve our bike lane woes by allowing cyclists on city sidewalks. Instead of spending money creating bike lanes on our roads, we would increase the size of our sidewalks so they can be shared with cyclists.

“I am still active and adventurous, having cycled from Saigon to Hanoi on my 65th birthday earlier this year,” Szkorupa said in her note. “In fact, cycling is the reason I’m writing. I feel it (shared sidewalks) is the ideal solution to our problem. It works perfectly in Tokyo, where I last encountered it. The idea again popped up as I watched crews replacing sidewalks in our area. If they were just a tad wider, they could easily be divided ... As it is, I see more cyclists, including myself, on most sidewalks than pedestrians. The cost of the proposal would be minimal.”

In her letter, Szkorupa included a clipping from a recent National Post guest column written by another lifelong cyclist Brian Dexter, 76, of Georgetown, Ont. Dexter also advocated sidewalk cycling, saying it can be done properly. “My rules for sidewalk riding includes no racing, yielding to pedestrians, warning of my approach, checking every crossing, street and driveway, and being willing to walk if there’s congestion.”

I’ve always wondered why the major push for bike lanes in Edmonton didn’t centre on sharing sidewalks and multi-use paths. While cars and bikes don’t mix so well and road space is at a premium, most of us have useless front yards. Perhaps folks might be more amenable to selling off a few feet of front yard for a wider sidewalk/bike path than to lose the parking in front of their house for a bike lane.

Sidewalk riding is already common here, it’s encouraged and successful on multi-use trails, and the notion of simply making all new sidewalks and converting some older ones into wider multi-use trails has merit.

The second suggestion, this one for a permanent swimming hole on the river, comes from Paul Bunner, a longtime city journalist and Cloverdale resident.

“Instead of the proposed fake beach that doesn’t touch the water, we could build a real swimming hole, or holes, by building weirs that create calm, deep holes below them. I got the idea while kayaking past the Walterdale Bridge construction site recently. Just below it the contractor has installed large interlocking steel panels that extend out into the river about 50 feet from the south bank. Paddling in behind them I was suddenly and completely becalmed in a huge, deep pool ... It might take some occasional dredging to keep the pools from filling with silt. A few loads of sand or smooth pebbles could be used to make the beach easy to walk on and they could be ringed with buoys for safety. In the winter, they could be turned into skating rinks. What do you think?”

I love this idea. The best places to swim on the river right now are on slower moving channels or inlets beside river islands. It’s doubtful we’ll erect a weir across the river, as that idea was looked at and rejected in 1974, 1995 and 2006, but perhaps some kind of water-calming structure can be created similar to what Bunner sees in the bridge construction area.