Cycling advocates from Calgary and Edmonton are delivering thousands of handwritten postcards to the Alberta legislature on Friday, asking the Alberta government to abandon planned legislation that could restrict new bike lanes and permit existing routes to be removed. Bike Calgary and Edmonton-based Paths for People organized the delivery, which is intended to bring residents’ experiences to Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen before the legislation is introduced this fall.

The Calgary group is bringing hundreds of postcards collected over the summer. They will join more than 2,000 gathered in Edmonton at festivals, markets, bike shops and community events. Organizers say the messages describe parents riding with children, students who cannot afford cars and people who can no longer drive. Safety, affordability and independence recur throughout the accounts.

The postcards are addressed to Dreeshen. Paths for People board member Terry Skidnuk said in a release: “These postcards show that bike lanes are not about politics, they’re about people.” Skidnuk also said: “We are asking the government of Alberta to carefully consider residents’ lived experiences and to respect municipalities’ ability to make transportation decisions based on local needs.” The postcards are scheduled to be handed over at 8:15 a.m.

Bike Calgary’s Doug Clark said the proposed approach could threaten the usefulness of Calgary’s routes. “I think it’s going way too far to say, ‘let’s just rip out entire sections,’” Clark said. “We have a very delicate network. It has very little redundancy. Any construction or anything that happens on it really puts a dent in the ability to move around outside of a car. “So protecting what we have and and building on it is absolutely necessary.”

The province has said it wants to address concerns about traffic congestion and road capacity, particularly in places where bike lanes have replaced driving lanes. This summer, it launched an online portal to collect complaints and asked about effects on business access and emergency response times. Dreeshen has said the legislation is being developed to make transportation infrastructure work for all road users.

Aaron Budnick of YEG by Coalition said bike lanes have become part of a broader social dispute. “It feels like this whole bike lane topic has become a culture war issue, where instead of looking at facts and data, we’re playing to online talking points,” Budnick said. “(The postcards) will be delivered to Minister Dreeshen to let him know that people in the community want to see more bike lanes. We want to see the ones we’ve already got protected. We don’t want to see them lost because they increase safety for all users, including drivers.”

The campaign responds to provincial legislation expected this fall that would give Alberta more influence over bike lanes. Advocates argue that the change could limit new routes and force municipalities to remove existing ones at taxpayer expense. In Calgary, Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson has said local bike lane decisions should remain with the city.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas has also criticized the province’s focus on the issue, previously calling it “symbolic virtue-signalling.” Clark hopes the postcard campaign will prompt the government to reconsider its role. “We just want to hopefully provide a voice that may temper that, or maybe, like I said, return that decision back to the cities and not waste taxpayer money on the province doing things that the city is more than capable of doing.”

Based on reporting by CTV News Calgary.