New poll finds Nenshi supporters more likely to be in favour of bike lanes
53% of Nenshi supporters back bike lanes compared to 12% of Smith supporters, 9% of Chabot's
A new poll suggests that Calgary voters who support incumbent mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi are more likely to support the city's bike lanes.
The poll by Mainstreet/Postmedia surveyed a random, stratified sample of 1,000 eligible voters and found support for bike lanes overall was low in Calgary.
For comparison purpose only, a probability sample of this size would yield a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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Only 30 per cent of people surveyed said they were in favour of downtown bike lanes, while 55 per cent of respondents said they opposed expanding the bike lanes to the suburbs.
Fifty-three per cent of people who identified themselves as Nenshi supporters were in favour of the inner-city bike lanes and 55 per cent supported expanding the network.
Smith, Chabot supporters opposed
By comparison, 80 per cent of respondents who said they supported mayoral candidate Bill Smith were opposed to bike lanes downtown and 74 per cent said they didn't want to expand the network outwards to the suburbs.
Mayoral candidate Andre Chabot's supporters were only nine per cent in favour of the downtown network and 10 per cent said they were open to the idea of expanding them to the suburbs.
Cyclists in the city say it will take some time for Calgarians to get used to bike lanes, and mutual respect between cyclists and drivers will help pave the way.
"Both bikers and motorists can be frustrated but I think that just comes from not being used to having cyclists in the city," said Maria Tsoukalis, who has parked her car in favour of commuting by bike.
Bike culture will come around, says cyclist
"I think if there's more education, the more motorists get used to the bike lanes, get used to signals, and the same goes for cyclists, the more they can understand the rules of the road also applies to them as cyclists, then I think that'll ease some of the frustration on both sides," she said.
Zam Ramirez cycles all year and believes cycling culture in Calgary will come around.
"It's just a matter of respecting each other and eventually, no matter what, people will always have a different opinion, but it's just a matter of getting used to it," she said.
Voting day for Calgary's municipal election is Oct. 16.