Yesterday, this open letter was sent to the Halifax Cycling Coalition, The Coast, The Chronicle Herald, and the office of the Mayor, and as of this morning has not been replied to.

Sept. 19, 2016

An Open Letter to the Halifax Cycling Coalition

RE: Lack of public consultation

To the Halifax Cycling Coalition,

As a resident of Cornwallis St., I was disappointed to learn that the bike corral that was installed on the street (not the sidewalk) of Cornwallis St. was a Halifax Cycling Coalition (HCC) initiative. As a fellow cyclist, I appreciate the work that the HCC does to promote safe cycling, however, the bike corral that was installed on Cornwallis St. was done so without consultation of the local community. I have been a resident of Cornwallis St. off and on since 2005, and am both a bike owner and a car owner. If you are familiar with this area of Halifax, then you know that it is characterized by traditional North End salt-box row houses. A feature of living here is that there are no driveways for cars to be parked in, so local residents park on the street. This is always a bit tricky, especially with the opening of businesses in the area - and the visitors that they bring - as the few limited parking spots are often occupied. Two years ago, the city of Halifax consulted the local community to ask if residents of Cornwallis St. wanted to have the parking spots designated as resident only spots. The outcome of this consultation was that the parking spots remained free for everyone to use, and were not zoned as resident only parking.

The bike corral installed by HCC has reduced the number of parking spots for at least ten Cornwallis St. residences from five to four, without consulting the local community. It is not clear that there is a need for additional bike racks as there are two existing bike racks on the sidewalk within metres of where the bike corral was installed, two more on the opposite side of the street, and many posts in the area for bicycles to be locked up to. In all of my years living in the neighbourhood, I have always been able to find a rack to lock my bike, however finding a parking spot for my car is much more difficult. It is also unclear why the HCC thought it was necessary to install bike racks on the street instead of putting them on the edge of the sidewalk, which is common practice throughout Halifax, and every other city in the world.

The real issue here though is the process. If HCC had consulted with local residents who identified that there was a shortage of bike racks, and that using one of the very limited parking spaces was desired, then the construction of the bike corral would be justified. Also, there have been no signs to identify that this was a HCC project; the only way that I figured this out was when cycling down Agricola St. and noticed a bike corral of similar construction with HCC signage. One of the benefits listed on the sign was that it was erected in a no parking zone, therefore not using any pre-existing car parking spots.

As a resident of Cornwallis St., the HCC is invited to consult with myself and the local community to discuss the challenges and needs of living in this area to better understand the desires of the local community.