Henderson Bike Route

One of the single busiest bicycle destinations in Greater Victoria is UVic. I remember biking there in the 1980s and the lack of separation on the roads between bikes and cars. I remember Henderson Road and remember the way the road encouraged speed through its wide lanes and the danger at driveways hidden behind parked cars. It is not one of the safer routes to UVic for a bike.

Work has been done to provide access to the campus for bikes from all directions. One of the clear routes that needs to be there is the one up Foul Bay Road and then along Henderson onto the campus. But beware.........

here lurk NIMBYs!

People living along Henderson Road have opposed the loss of their on street parking to bicycles.
Oak Bay council continues their decidedly non green ways by voting down the bike route in favour of allowing more cars to park along the road. It seems that Hazel Braithwaite, Frank Carson, Allan Cassidy and Joh Herbert are all opposed. The Mayor, Chris Cawstonm, along with Nils Jensen and Pam Copley are in favour.

All I can think is that the councilors opposed are in some way wanting university students to get less exercise and not do as much as they can towards a cleaner environment.

Safer Cycling Oak Bay has a petition in favour of the route - I will be signing and hope others will as well.

What I find most bizarre is that the house along Henderson all seem to have more than enough space to be able to have six cars parked there - two in the garage and four on their driveway. The number of times per year that you need to be able to park more than six cars at a house is very, very limited. There is enough parking nearby that there is no need for on street parking. Drive along this road and look for yourself. When I looked I could not find a house that would be more than 100 metres for a place to park.

It is this attitude in Oak Bay by the residents of Henderson Road and the council why we will see very few concrete actions that reduce green house gases. Realistically green house gases will be dealt with through carbon sequestration and not through major reductions by the public