Bike lanes (aka active transportation lanes, mobility lanes, or, as one commenter online called them, Weeeeeeeeee!ling lanes) have been in the media a lot lately!

So, what is the status of Edmonton's bike and active transportation network? We sometimes get accolades from around the world for the progress that's been made in the City, and certainly there is a very loud minority of people that hate them, for a variety of reasons. 

Read on to learn about:

• How Edmonton's Active Transportation Network grows
• What the Current Active Transportation Network looks like
• What the Network is currently missing

Bike lanes mean freedom of movement, safer streets, and healthier communities. But they need your voice — especially now.

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How Does the Network Grow?

Edmonton's bike network has typically grown in three ways:

1. Neighbourhood Renewal
2. Arterial Renewal
3. One-off Budget Allocations

Neighbourhood and Arterial Renewal 

The history of Edmonton's Neighbourhood Renewal Program dates back to before 1987, when the City did not conduct much renewal work in neighbourhoods. Roads, sidewalks, and sewers were at the end of their lifecycle, leading the City to initiate renewal work over the next 20 years, servicing 52 communities by 2009.

In 2009, the program was further developed to include a cost-effective, long-term plan to address Edmonton's neighbourhood transportation needs. The program aims to renew and rebuild roads, sidewalks, and streetlights in existing neighbourhoods and collector roadways, balancing the need to rebuild in some neighbourhoods with a preventive maintenance approach in others.

Each year, a quarter of the City's local roads are assessed visually for the condition of pavement, curbs, and sidewalks, and ongoing maintenance programs address areas requiring repairs and maintenance.

The Neighbourhood Renewal Program involves various types of work depending on the state of the roads, including preventive maintenance, overlay, and reconstruction. Preventive maintenance involves resealing roads to extend their lifespan, while overlay involves repaving roads and treating sidewalk panels to eliminate trip hazards. Reconstruction involves repaving roads and replacing streetlights and sidewalks.

The program also includes specific initiatives such as Collector Road Renewal, which prioritizes bus routes, and the Northeast Road Reconstruction Program, which focuses on roads with special drainage enhancement and selective concrete repair.

In Edmonton, a significant portion of the current Bike Network has been added through the Neighbourhood Renewal program. Projects like Garneau, Strathcona, Inglewood, are excellent examples of active transportation and traffic safety infrastructure being added at a time where the local roads and sidewalks are being replaced due to their poor conditions. Often, adding these features reduces the construction cost or ongoing maintenance costs since roads are the most expensive asset that the city builds, and they are a major cost driver for increasing operating expenses for the City. 

More recently, 132 Ave has been getting expanded space for people outside of cars through several coordinated neighbourhood renewal projects. In this case, the City increased the budget across these projects by a total of only $9 million, which allowed them to add 7.5km of protected active transportation infrastructure, traffic calming, and landscaping, which connects several schools, seniors homes, and businesses together without sacrificing a significant amount of parking, and while maintaining enough capacity for the traffic volumes in the area. 

Edmonton has the following Neighbourhood Renewal projects upcoming:

Northeast

Northwest

Southeast

Southwest

Central

Budget Allocations

This ad hoc approach to growing the network has only happened twice (that we're aware of), in 2016 council approved $7.5 million to build out the 7km downtown bike network, and in December 2022, council approved $100 million to fill in gaps city-wide. 

The estimated cost to build out a comprehensive bike network has been estimated to be over $200 million. Compared to car infrastructure projects, which routinely cost more than $100 million for even small, local roadway expansions, this would be a low cost way to massively expand the transportation network, improve accessibility for a wide variety of potetial users, and enable greater freedom of mobility for all Edmontonians!

What Does the Network Look like?

Prior to 2017, the Active Transportation Network looked like this:

This nework features a significant portion of Shared Use Paths (now typically referred to as Multi-Use Paths or MUPs), shared streets, and painted bike gutters. There is a small, but disconnected network in the downtown and Whyte Ave area, though these are primarily narrow MUPs along the River Valley.

In 2017, the City of Edmonton added the following routes to create the downtown bike network:

Most notably, the 102 Ave fully protected bike lanes and the first portion of the protected 83 Ave bike lanes (plus the raised sidewalk extensions along 106 Street) are added. The start of a proper network in the downtown area begins to form, and overall connectivity improves (people can actually get downtown on some safe pathways). By the end of 2017, the overall network looks like this:

Still very little infrastructure in the north or south, east or west, but the central part of the City is becoming connected. These are the most walkable, bikeable areas, and overall this is a good starting point.

Since 2017, the bike network has evolved slowly, and in a very disconnected way, through neighbourhood renewal. Since these projects pop up all around the City based on the current state of the infrastructure, any active transportation lanes or traffic calming measures that get added don't necessarily end up being connected to each other. Thankfully, City admin and council recognized this issue, and the growing demand for a safer, more connected network, and in 2022 the Rapid Expansion Project was approved! This funded 87km of new active transportation infrastructure city-wide, plus new snow removal equipment, expanded bike parking facilities, and more for $100 million. 

The $100 million project started in 2023 with route prioritization, and in 2024 the first construction got underway. This project will add the following bike lanes over 2024-2026:

IIn addition to this, there are several neighbourhood renewal projects adding active transportation infrastructure, further densifying and connecting the overall network. The City hasn't published a map of what the network will look like in 2026, but we can confidently say that overall connectivity is improving, with lots of room for further improvement.

What is the Network Missing?

To ensure that cycling is a reasonable and approachable choice for anyone who might want to utilize it, an active transportation network must feature the following:

1. Feel safe

2. Be actually safe

3. Connect people to destinations

4. Be navigable

Safety

Being safe and feeling safe aren't always the same thing. For a transportation network, both feeling safe and being safe are of the utmost importance. Unlike driving, where the vehicle's occupants are encased in several tonnes of protective steel, airbags, and safety features, insulating the driver and their passengers from any external threats, cyclists, pedestrians, scooters, and other non-vehicle transportation methods can feel exposed. Despite this, active transportation tends to be a safe mode of transportation, and thankfully, the majority of drivers are safe, aware, and respectful. Nonetheless, the number one threat to active transportation comes from drivers, and unfortunately, many safety features in vehicles make them safer for the occupants but less safe for those outside of the vehicle. This is why the perception of safety is driven primarily by separating active transportation users from vehicles (this is called modal separation). 

But, modal separation is important for all users, not just cars and bikes. Cyclists feel fast to pedestrians, and drivers feel fast to cyclists. By keeping people who are getting around using different modes apart from each other, everyone is better off. 

Studies on perception of safety have consistently found that cyclists feel safe when using fully protected and separated infrastructure. Sharrows and painted bike gutters are not perceived as safe (they have also been found to be less safe than doing nothing) and shared sidewalks are typically not preferred by anyone - drivers don't like that cyclists can seem to 'come out of nowhere', cyclists don't like that they are exposed at intersections, and pedestrians tend to dislike sharing space with cyclists. 

Once Edmonton completes its $100 million active transportation build-out, several critical safety issues will still need to be addressed. The rapid build approach means the City has prioritized speed over quality, and that has resulted in a patchwork of low-quality shared streets, painted bike lanes, and narrow multi-use pathways. While better than nothing in the short term, these treatments will need upgrades — and in some cases, complete replacement — to keep people safe in the long run.

Low-Quality Multi-Use Pathways

Many new multi-use pathways (MUPs) are not designed for long-term safety. They are often squeezed into narrow boulevards, lack proper separation at intersections, and force cyclists to interact with inattentive drivers. Once upgraded, MUPs should feature:

• Continuous crossings that maintain the same level and material across driveways and minor intersections.

• Daylighting and curb extensions to improve visibility and slow turning vehicles.

• Intersection priority treatments, especially at locations with poor stop-line compliance — a known and ongoing risk for anyone biking in Edmonton.

Shared Streets and Painted Bike Lanes

Edmonton’s so-called "bike network" still includes:

• Bike gutters marked only by a stripe of paint,

• Sharrows placed in fast traffic lanes,

• Parking-protected bike lanes where people are still forced to ride in the door zone.

These are not safe — and in many cases, they’re worse than doing nothing. They encourage dangerous behaviour from drivers and give cyclists a false sense of protection. Upgrades should include:

• Full separation via concrete or curb-protected lanes,

• Proper local street bikeways with diverters, parking reductions, and traffic calming,

• And the complete removal of sharrows.

Protected Bike Lanes Still Need Safe Intersections

Even the best protected bike lanes offer little help where it matters most: at intersections. While cycling beside traffic can feel dangerous, the greatest risk comes from interactions at crossings — where drivers turn without looking, roll through red lights, or edge forward into crosswalks. Safer intersection design can save lives. Key improvements include:

• Reducing turning movements, especially at uncontrolled intersections or where a dedicated signal phase would prevent conflict.

• Corner islands and set-back crossings to physically separate bikes from turning drivers.

• Daylighting, curb extensions, and continuous crossings to improve visibility and encourage driver yielding.

• Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs) that give people walking — and ideally also riding — a head start before cars move.

• Eliminating slip lanes, which promote fast, sweeping turns that endanger people crossing.

• Restricting right turns on red, particularly where stop-line compliance is poor.

Confusing and Contradictory Signage

Poor signage causes hesitation and dangerous decision-making for both cyclists and drivers. Some examples:

• 102 Ave through Glenora: A stop sign for drivers and a yield sign for cyclists using the MUP — both can’t have the right-of-way, and it sends mixed signals about who’s supposed to stop.

• 97 Ave near the High Level Bridge: A slip lane has no yield sign for drivers, yet cyclists crossing the shared path are told to yield. This leads to dangerous misunderstandings.

• 110 Street MUP at 100 Ave: Cyclists are told to stop at a marked crosswalk while drivers face signs that suggest they must yield — resulting in conflict, confusion, and close calls.

Fixing these inconsistencies is simple: signage should reflect actual legal right-of-way, and priority should be clearly marked and easy to understand.

Un-Ban Sidewalk Riding

The City claims that sidewalk riding is unsafe, yet continues to build wide sidewalks and label them as multi-use paths. Meanwhile, cyclists are expected to ride on the road in areas with no safe infrastructure, and snow removal standards often leave bike lanes unusable in winter. Realities that need to be acknowledged:

• Many areas lack safe, connected infrastructure — especially in the outer suburbs.

• Winter conditions routinely eliminate painted or curb-protected lanes.

• Bike parking, beg buttons, and curb ramps are almost always located on sidewalks.

Most people who bike already use sidewalks when it feels safer, and do so without issue. The current ban is rarely enforced, but when it is, it often targets marginalized people. This isn’t just inequitable — it may be discriminatory. Instead of criminalizing survival behaviours, Edmonton should legalize sidewalk riding where it’s done safely and with care.

Connectivity

A transportation network is only useful if it connects people to the places they actually want to go. In Edmonton, drivers benefit from a vast, uninterrupted web of roadways. Highways, arterials, and collectors form a city-wide grid that allows for quick and convenient travel across long distances, with few gaps and few dead ends. You can drive anywhere, at any time, on infrastructure that prioritizes speed, continuity, and access to every part of the city.

For people on bikes, the experience is very different. While Edmonton has made important progress, the cycling network remains fragmented, indirect, and often disconnected at key points. Many routes abruptly end at major intersections or force riders onto sidewalks, gravel paths, or painted gutters. There's often no clear or safe way to cross rail lines, rivers, or freeways. And in winter, snow removal standards leave many parts of the network unusable. Most people can’t afford to gamble on whether their bike route will be clear, safe, or even passable.

That’s why Edmonton needs a hierarchy of cycling and active transportation networks, designed for real-world utility — just like the road network is.

A Hierarchy of Connectivity

1. Active Transportation Arterials (Always-Available Network)

   • Purpose: Connect each ward to its neighbours and to key citywide destinations.

   • Features:

     • Fully protected infrastructure (not shared, not painted).

     • Year-round usability with priority 1 snow clearing.

     • Continuous routing across intersections and barriers.

     • Proactive enforcement of bylaws (no illegal parking or encroachment).

   • Goal: A grid that always works — the backbone of citywide mobility for people biking, walking, using mobility aids, or scooting.

2. District Connectors

   • Purpose: Link neighbourhoods to key destinations like schools, employment centres, rec facilities, LRT stations, and commercial hubs.

   • Features:

     • Still safe, but may include local street bikeways or protected segments.

     • Medium snow priority with rapid clearing after storms.

     • Clearly marked and designed for comfort and predictability.

   • Goal: Enable most trips within a district to happen without a car.

3. Local Routes

   • Purpose: Connect individual homes and residential areas to the broader network.

   • Features:

     • Low-speed streets, traffic calming, and signage.

     • Short segments that feed into district connectors.

     • Often require only minimal upgrades or interventions.

   • Goal: Ensure everyone has access to the network within 400m of their front door.

Building this kind of connectivity is not easy in a mature city. Utilities, drainage corridors, buildings, existing roadways, and institutional resistance all present barriers. But those barriers exist in every city — and the cities that have succeeded didn’t wait for perfect conditions. They made strategic investments, prioritized cycling in planning and budgeting, and treated it as a real mode of transportation, not a hobby.

Connectivity doesn’t mean building everything at once — it means building with intention, closing critical gaps, and making sure that the network works as a network, not just a collection of isolated projects.

Navigation

A transportation network only works if people can figure out how to use it. For newer cyclists, people biking outside their usual neighbourhood, or anyone trying to make a one-off trip to a new destination, navigation can be a major barrier. Unlike driving, where major roads are clearly signed and smartphone apps offer turn-by-turn directions with real-time updates, Edmonton’s bike network offers few cues to help people understand where they are or how to get to where they want to go.

One of the unique challenges in Edmonton is that much of the active transportation network avoids major roads — which makes sense for safety, but not for visibility or legibility. Many high-quality bike routes are tucked into residential side streets or alleys, often without signage to indicate they even exist. Meanwhile, destinations like schools, shops, parks, and rec centres are often located along arterials where protected infrastructure is absent, intermittent, or hidden on a nearby street. This disconnect between the network and where people are going makes it harder to find routes, harder to trust the system, and harder to encourage new riders to try it out.

What Edmonton Needs for Better Navigation

1. Clear and Consistent Wayfinding Signage

   • Every turn, junction, or decision point should be clearly marked — just like a road sign tells drivers where to go.

   • Signs should indicate nearby destinations (with distance), network names or routes, and connections to major infrastructure like MUPs, LRT stations, and bridges.

   • Consistency matters: one city-wide style with colour-coding or symbols to indicate arterial, district, or local routes helps build user familiarity.

2. Visible Infrastructure Placement

   • Where possible, high-traffic or high-value cycling routes should be adjacent to major roads to increase visibility and discoverability.

   • When routes are placed on side streets, corner signage or overhead signs should indicate that a bike route is nearby — a "network ahead" approach, like you’d see for highways or exits.

3. Integrated Digital Tools

   • Edmonton should work with or develop tools that provide turn-by-turn cycling navigation, prioritizing safety and comfort, not just speed with fulsome knowledge of the bike network and infrastructure quality.

   • Real-time updates about snow clearing, detours, and construction could be displayed through apps or integrated into existing open data platforms like OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

4. Network Maps in Public Spaces

   • Just like transit maps, Edmonton should install network overview maps in key public areas: transit stations, recreation centres, libraries, and busy trailheads.

   • These maps could show the three-level hierarchy (arterial, district, local) and provide helpful context for new users — including elevation, major crossings, and important destinations.

Reliability

A transportation network is only useful if it works every time you use it — not just when the weather is nice or no one’s blocking the lane. For people who drive, the road is always there. No one randomly parks a forklift in the middle of the Whitemud or closes 137 Avenue for a storage shed. But for people biking, the experience is wildly inconsistent. A route that’s safe and accessible on Monday might be full of snow on Tuesday, blocked by a delivery truck on Wednesday, and fenced off for construction on Thursday.

For active transportation to be a reliable option — especially for commuting, school runs, and errands — the network needs to be protected from obstructions, enforced consistently, and maintained like real infrastructure, not treated like a park amenity.

What Undermines Reliability Today

1. Parking in Bike Lanes

   • It's still common to see vehicles — delivery vans, contractor trucks, even private cars — parked illegally in painted and protected bike lanes.

   • This forces riders to swerve into traffic, undermining the entire point of protected infrastructure.

   • Without regular and proactive enforcement, illegal parking becomes normalized — especially in commercial or mixed-use areas.

2. Construction Obstructions and Hoarding

   • Major construction projects often take over bike lanes for months at a time — whether for hoarding, equipment storage, or worker parking.

   • Rarely is a safe, protected detour provided. At best, riders are diverted to sidewalks; at worst, they’re told to “merge with traffic.”

   • If a construction site needs road space, it should come from vehicle lanes first, not bike lanes or sidewalks.

3. Employee or Utility Vehicle Misuse

   • City and contractor staff often park in bike lanes during maintenance, roadwork, or events — even when curb space is available.

   • These actions send a signal that bike lanes are optional, not critical infrastructure.

4. Inconsistent Winter Maintenance

   • Even when bike lanes are technically cleared, snowbanks at intersections, icy patches, and inconsistent plowing make routes unpredictable.

   • "Plowed but not passable" is still a failure. Priority 1 routes should be cleared curb-to-curb and on schedule — just like vehicle arterials.

What Edmonton Can Do to Improve Reliability

• Proactive Enforcement of Parking Violations
  Deploy targeted enforcement in known trouble zones, and treat bike lane obstructions like stopping in a driving lane — because that’s what it is.

• Construction Access Protocols
  Require all development permits to include a bike route continuity plan, and ban the use of bike lanes for hoarding unless a protected detour is in place.

• Protected Detours as Standard Practice
  Just as vehicle traffic is rerouted during road work, protected and signed detours should be mandatory for any disruption to high-value cycling routes.

• Clear Snow Clearing Standards — and Real Accountability
  Priority 1 bike routes should be cleared at the same standard and in the same timeframe as arterial roads. No missed segments. No pass-throughs. No snowbanks in the buffer zone.

• Make the Network Always Available
  Riders should never have to guess whether a route is usable. If Edmonton wants people to rely on biking as daily transportation, the network must be consistently open, safe, and uninterrupted — all year, every day, in every neighbourhood.

Summary

Edmonton’s bike network has made real progress — but it’s still missing the fundamentals that make cycling a viable mode of transportation for everyone, not just the brave or experienced. To build a truly functional active transportation system, the City needs to prioritize:

• Safety: Modal separation, protected intersections, and upgraded infrastructure

• Connectivity: A clear hierarchy of arterial, district, and local routes

• Navigation: Better signage, more visibility, and usable maps

• Reliability: Year-round access, proactive enforcement, and maintenance standards

Above all, the City must focus. That means building fewer, but better connections now — especially a reliable, ward-connecting arterial network — so every Edmontonian has at least one high-quality route they can count on, every day of the year. Only then can the network grow with confidence, build ridership, and truly shift how people get around our city.

What's Next?