At a Monday news conference, Dreeshen confirmed his office is looking to table a new bike lane bill in the fall.<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s mayor said the bill isn\u2019t needed, but he\u2019d rather work with the province and be collaborative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would prefer not to have any legislation, because I think we\u2019ve been very thorough in how we\u2019ve developed it,\u201d Knack said.<\/p>\n
He added that he and the transportation minister met last week to speak on the issue. Knack said he walked away feeling \u201cencouraged\u201d and said that Dreeshen committed to making data-informed decisions.<\/p>\n
Knack said the city has been making decisions based on evidence since the first bike lane was installed more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
More drivers mean more space needed, minister says<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s main concern, Dreeshen said, is when bike lanes take away driving lanes from motorists. He cited a demand for space as the province grew by more than 400,000 new drivers in the last six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you take that lane away, that has a whole bunch of cascading effects on people that live in that area,\u201d Dreeshen said, adding that it affects parking, can make it difficult for seniors to get around, and affects emergency vehicles.<\/p>\n
Dreeshen said he would be focused on \u201cproactive\u201d bike lane planning, but confirmed that the government might be reactive with \u201cpoorly placed bike lanes\u201d in Edmonton and Calgary.<\/p>\n
Knack said he would agree with the minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking to take away lanes of traffic on busy arterial roadways. That\u2019s not how the city of Edmonton has been doing this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2506e732e773c08c74e980107363d392.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
New bike lanes west of 97 Street along 132 Avenue have reduced a four-lane road to a two-lane road in Edmonton on Oct. 3, 2025. The change has left some residents with no parking in front of their homes.<\/p>\n
Plans raise questions on provincial overeach<\/p>\n
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also attempted to craft laws involving city bike lanes. His government worked to remove three major ones in Toronto, but was halted when an Ontario court ruled the decision was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Sandeep Agrawal, a professor at the University of Alberta\u2019s School of Urban and Regional Planning, said Dreeshen\u2019s plans sound very similar to what the Ford government did. He also said that legislating bike lanes, among other things, is well within the scope of the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cMunicipalities are creatures of their respective provinces, and the province can pretty much do anything it wants,\u201d Agrawal said.<\/p>\n
But with cities becoming more populated, and expanding the current road network being costly, he said, there are limits to what can be done to maximize the space for transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to be prudent and make sure that that space is used in the most effective way and provide different modes of transportation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some in Edmonton are saying the potential bill is inflammatory and is being used to distract people from the news around Alberta separation and the recent breach of the Alberta electors list.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things I believe the government is trying to divert people\u2019s attention away from,\u201d said Terry Skidnuk, who is a board member with Paths for People, a non-profit that advocates for active transportation in Edmonton.<\/p>\n
Bike lanes help provide affordable and sustainable transportation, Skidnuk said, adding that evidence shows they have been a boon for cities.<\/p>\n
He also said that for a province to govern a city\u2019s bike lanes threatens municipal autonomy and is an overstep.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the local administration who has the best understanding of the needs and what\u2019s going to work best for a city in terms of moving people efficiently,\u201d Skidnuk said.<\/p>\n
lnewbigging@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n @liamnewbigging.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/nubigin<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack is defending the city\u2019s approach to bike lanes, but said he\u2019s willing to collaborate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3561,3091,18624,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-42571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-andrew-knack","9":"tag-bike-lanes","10":"tag-devin-dreeshen","11":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}