In August 2025, Leger conducted a poll of Edmontonians to find out what issues matter most heading into the municipal election. The results showed a city worried about money, poverty, housing, services, and growth. The full poll is available here: Leger Media Report – Edmonton Omni August 2025.
Despite the bluster from columnists like Lorne Gunter, bike lanes weren’t even on the list. But here’s the twist: bike lanes are not a side issue—they’re a powerful tool that can help address almost every top priority identified in the poll. From lowering taxes to improving safety, bike lanes punch far above their weight.
The August 2025 Leger poll found that Edmontonians’ top priorities include lowering taxes, reducing poverty, improving services, fixing roads, boosting business, and addressing climate change. Bike lanes may not have made the list, but here’s the key: bike lanes directly contribute to solving nearly all of these issues.
They keep taxes lower and reduce city spending by lowering infrastructure and maintenance costs.
They fight poverty by providing affordable mobility and linking people to jobs and services.
They make city services like snow clearing and garbage pickup more efficient.
They improve road safety, extend road life, and reduce collisions.
They boost local business and attract new industries by making Edmonton more livable.
They strengthen public transit by improving first/last mile connections.
They make life better for vulnerable communities, seniors, and kids by giving them safe travel options.
They reduce emissions and help meet climate goals at a fraction of the cost of other strategies.
In short: bike lanes aren’t just for cyclists—they’re one of the smartest investments Edmonton can make to address the very issues residents say matter most.
When most people think of bike lanes, they picture painted lines on the road, or maybe the concrete-protected tracks downtown that can feel a bit controversial at times. But what if I told you that bike lanes are actually one of the smartest, most cost-effective tools Edmonton has to solve its biggest challenges?
This isn’t just about cyclists. Bike lanes connect to issues that matter to every Edmontonian—whether you drive, take the bus, rent, own, or just want to see the city managed better. In fact, when we line up the priorities from the most recent Leger poll (August 2025), bike lanes provide solutions to nearly every one of them.
The poll showed that Edmontonians are concerned about the following topics for the October election:
Lowering taxes — 43%
Reducing poverty — 27%
Reducing spending / fiscal restraint — 26%
Improving availability of low-income or social housing — 21%
Improving basic services (garbage, snow clearing) — 19%
Improving roadway infrastructure — 17%
Support for business and economic growth — 16%
Improving and expanding public transit infrastructure — 16%
Improving the lives of vulnerable communities — 15%
Reducing the size and cost of municipal government — 15%
Infill housing and redevelopment — 14%
Promoting economic diversification — 13%
Attracting new businesses to locate in Edmonton — 11%
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions / climate mitigation — 10%
Improving public safety and policing — 9%
Improving recreation, cultural, or leisure facilities — 7%
Investing in arts and culture — 4%
Bike lanes didn’t make the list - despite all the efforts of the UCP to make this an election issue and deflect attention from their various scandals.. But here’s the surprise: bike lanes actually connect to and help address almost all of the top-ranked issues.
This blog will unpack Edmonton’s top voter issues from the poll, and show how bike lanes, surprisingly, help move the needle on all of them. And yes, we’ll back this up with data, stories from Edmonton, and lessons from other cities.
1. Lowering Taxes & 3. Reducing Spending
Bike lanes save money. Full stop.
Roads are some of the most expensive infrastructure a city maintains. Building, repairing, plowing, and sweeping them costs billions over their lifecycle. Sprawl makes this worse—new suburbs require endless kilometres of roads and pipes. Bike lanes, by comparison, are cheaper to build and much cheaper to maintain.
Take Calgary as an example: their downtown cycle track pilot cost around $5.5 million, a fraction of the cost of a single suburban interchange. Yet the return was huge—boosted business activity, more people downtown, and safer roads.
London, Ontario found sprawling growth would cost $2.7 billion more in capital and $1.7 billion more in operating costs over 50 years compared to compact, multimodal-friendly growth. Bike lanes are one piece of that puzzle: they make compact growth work.
In Edmonton, every trip made by bike instead of car reduces road wear, congestion, and maintenance expenses. This keeps taxes lower by keeping infrastructure costs down.
Transportation is the second largest household expense after housing. Owning a car in Edmonton costs about $14,000 a year (insurance, gas, maintenance, depreciation). For low-income households, that’s devastating.
Bike lanes offer a real alternative. They make cycling safer and more reliable, giving families without cars (or those trying to go down to one car) an affordable way to move around the city. This is particularly important for those living near new infill or social housing.
Take the 119 Avenue bike lanes: they connect affordable housing areas with shopping, schools, and services. Families living nearby can realistically cycle to meet their needs without a car.
Affordable housing + affordable transportation = real poverty reduction.
Edmontonians consistently complain about snow clearing and garbage pickup. Here’s the thing: services are harder to deliver when the city is stretched out thin.
Bike lanes actually help. More people biking means fewer cars blocking snow routes, less wear on roads, and smoother operations for city crews. Plus, when paired with compact growth, bike lanes mean services are delivered more efficiently: more houses per kilometre of road.
In Copenhagen, garbage collection routes were redesigned around cycling lanes and compact growth patterns, saving millions in operating costs. Edmonton can learn from this model.
Wait—bike lanes improve roads? Absolutely.
Protected bike lanes act as “traffic calming.” They slow vehicles slightly, reduce lane widths, and create safer intersections. The result? Fewer crashes, less damage to roads, and longer-lasting pavement. Cars and trucks pounding wide, fast roads cause massive deterioration. Safer speeds = longer road life.
For example, Edmonton’s 102 Avenue bike lanes downtown reduced collisions by over 40% in their first year, protecting both cyclists and drivers. Safer streets are cheaper streets.
Want thriving local businesses? Give people safe ways to bike there.
Multiple studies show bike lanes are good for business. In Toronto and New York, merchants worried bike lanes would reduce car parking. But the opposite happened: sales went up, because cyclists shop more frequently and stop more often. In Calgary, the downtown cycle track network boosted visits to local cafés and shops.
In Edmonton, 124 Street businesses have quietly supported safer bike lanes because they know customers want to arrive safely by bike. Bike lanes literally deliver customers to Edmonton’s doorsteps.
Transit doesn’t work in isolation. It needs riders—and those riders often need safe ways to reach the bus stop or LRT station.
This is where bike lanes shine: they provide the crucial “first/last mile” connection. People can bike safely to the LRT, lock up at a secure station, and complete their journey. This increases ridership and justifies more frequent service. Without bike lanes, that link often feels too dangerous.
Bogotá’s “Ciclorutas” are a perfect model: integrated cycling networks that feed directly into transit hubs. Edmonton could replicate this for its Valley Line expansion.
Bike lanes are an equity issue.
Women, seniors, children, and new immigrants are all less likely to bike in cities without safe infrastructure. But when protected lanes are added, participation skyrockets. In Vancouver, for example, women’s cycling rates rose sharply when separated lanes were built. Vulnerable communities gain mobility, independence, and access to jobs and services.
Think of seniors in Oliver or Boyle Street. With safe bike lanes, a mobility scooter or trike ride to the grocery store becomes realistic. That’s empowerment and it helps people age in place and with independence.
This one is simple: governments are big because cities are expensive to run. The fewer kilometres of road you need to plow, repair, and police, the smaller the staff and budget required.
Bike lanes reduce car trips, reduce demand for new roads, and shrink the city’s long-term liabilities. That means less government overhead. It’s leaner, smarter city-building.
A report from Halifax showed that compact, bike-friendly growth patterns cut service costs per household by nearly 20% compared to sprawl. Less road, less government.
Bike lanes and infill go hand-in-hand. People living in denser areas often prefer alternatives to driving, because destinations are closer together. Safe bike lanes make infill neighbourhoods more livable and attractive.
Think about it: would you rather live in a “walk-up” in Oliver with bike lanes at your doorstep, or on a cul-de-sac in the far south with no safe connections? Infill without bike lanes feels incomplete.
In Portland, pairing infill zoning reforms with bike infrastructure led to measurable increases in cycling mode share. Edmonton’s Zoning Bylaw Renewal could create the same success if matched with strong cycling investment.
Edmonton knows it needs to diversify beyond oil and gas. One of the best ways to attract new industries is to offer a city where people want to live.
Bike-friendly cities consistently rank higher on “livability” indexes, which matter to companies choosing where to set up. Knowledge-economy workers, tech start-ups, and creative industries are drawn to vibrant, active, connected cities. Bike lanes are part of that package.
Look at Austin, Texas or Portland, Oregon—both attracted tech clusters partly because of their reputation for quality of life and active transportation.
Business attraction is about more than tax incentives. It’s about showing potential employers that Edmonton is forward-thinking, livable, and competitive.
A city with strong cycling infrastructure signals: “We invest in people, sustainability, and quality of life.” That message matters, especially when competing with Calgary, Vancouver, or Toronto for talent.
Bike-friendly branding is an economic strategy.
This one is obvious: bikes don’t burn gas.
But the impact is bigger than most think. A global study found protected bike lanes can reduce emissions at a rate ten times more cost-effective per dollar than other transportation strategies. Cities like Bogotá saved thousands of tonnes of CO₂ annually by building bike networks.
Edmonton’s Community Energy Transition Strategy names active transportation as one of the most effective tools for cutting emissions. Bike lanes are the infrastructure that makes it possible. In fact, driving is a major driver of climate change, and reducing car dependency is one of the few levers that cities have to help mitigate climate change.
Bike lanes make streets safer for everyone—not just cyclists.
Research shows separated lanes reduce collisions by up to 53%. Cities that built them saw 44% fewer road deaths overall. Why? Because they slow cars, clarify intersections, and reduce chaos.
That means fewer police resources tied up in crashes, fewer lives lost, and safer streets for pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists alike.
When talking about safety, people often focus on 'violent crime', but they ignore safety issues caused by driving. Drivers kill more people annually than every type of weapon combined, plus they seriously injure so many more than that. We are all more likely to be harmed by someone driving a car than we are gang violence, a homeless person, or other sources of 'crime'.
Cycling isn’t just transportation—it’s recreation. Cycling is a fun activity that can be social and bikes are an excellent way to commute to other types of recreation, cultural, or leisure facilities. Bike lanes connect people to trails, parks, and recreation centres. They make it easy for families to cycle to soccer practice, or for teens to bike to the library.
On 83 Avenue, the new protected lanes link Old Strathcona to Mill Creek Ravine—combining transportation and recreation in one corridor. That’s how you build a healthier, happier city.
This one might feel like a stretch, but hear me out: arts and culture thrive in active, people-filled spaces. Bike lanes help bring people into those areas, supporting festivals, street performances, and public art. Just look at the bike parking at the Fringe or any farmers market in the city - they are overflowing! Bikes fit naturally into human-centric spaces and places.
A car-dominated street is noisy, intimidating, and hard to linger in. A street balanced with bike lanes and wider sidewalks invites strolling, exploring, and cultural expression.
Think of Nuit Blanche or Fringe Festival—events like these thrive when streets are designed for people, not just cars.
The Leger poll (August 2025) shows what Edmontonians care about: taxes, poverty, services, safety, housing, climate, and growth. Bike lanes touch every single one of these. They’re not just “nice to have.” They’re essential infrastructure.
In short:
Bike lanes save money.
Bike lanes reduce poverty.
Bike lanes support businesses.
Bike lanes improve services.
Bike lanes fight climate change.
Bike lanes make streets safer.
And yes, they make cycling better too.
If Edmonton wants to tackle its biggest problems head-on, the humble bike lane is one of the sharpest tools we’ve got.