The City of Victoria considers itself Canada’s bicycle capital — by royal decree.Now it can lay claim to being Canada’s bike lane cost king after its ‘all ages and ability’ cycling path network was completed for $65.5 million — almost double the $37.1 million budgeted for the project. That works out to about $2 million per kilometre for each of the 33 kilometres built. City planners attributed the overruns to concurrent infrastructure upgrades — like EV chargers — that weren’t part of the original project scope..That’s in addition to sidewalk upgrades, crosswalks, traffic lights and underground utility upgrades.“Over time, what we’ve taken on is a much more broader approach to improve other road assets as we go to minimize long-term costs and also impacts to the public,” Ross Kenny, the city’s assistant director of transportation told the city’s local Chek News.About $28 million of the total project cost was contributed by the provincial and federal governments, including $3.6 million from Jonathan Wilkinson’s Natural Resources Department..Project proponents says the bike lines will reduce the number of cars on the roads. Unlike cities like Calgary, Victoria’s temperate climate means that it has the highest number of people who regularly commute by bike to work in Canada at 5.3%. About 95% of residents now live within 500 metres of a bike path.But not everybody in the city is happy with the outlay. A group calling itself the ‘Grumpy Taxpayers of Victoria’ — and it pays a few — says there are other higher priorities in the city, including public safety, housing, drug abuse and homelessness.Overpasses and entire interchanges have been built for less.“Generally, Grumpy Taxpayers has been supportive of bike lanes over the years at $36 million. At more than double that, we’re certainly less supportive,” said vice-chair Stan Bartlett.
