![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20181217_101005.jpg\")
<\/a>Marciniak says that the college could apply more pressure on Saanich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[Saanich] loves to say, \u2018Oh, we\u2019ve got these active transportation plans,\u2019 [but] you look at the state of the bike lane that leads to the school and it\u2019s a total mess,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
District of Saanich spokesperson Megan Catalano says the district is aware of the debris that is being deposited on the roadway; when asked if Saanich knew who it was being deposited by, Catalano says, \u201cI can\u2019t really elaborate further than that; no. We don\u2019t have a definitive answer on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur bylaw enforcement section is aware of the complaint, and the district is assessing whether there are any additional options available to address the road debris at that location,\u201d says Catalano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Catalano says that Saanich has increased the frequency of street sweeping in the area in the meantime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe do only have one street sweeper, so we\u2019ve increased kind of to the maximum allowable [frequency] while keeping up sufficient service levels in other areas of Saanich,\u201d she says, adding that she cannot comment any further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Camosun manager of campus sustainability Maria Bremner says that the college has written two formal letters to Saanich, as well as written numerous emails and made phone calls to the municipality. Bremner says that a company, which she did not name, based on Alan Road, is \u201csomewhat responsible\u201d for the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MacNutt Enterprises is a topsoil provider based on Alan Road; they did not respond to requests for an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bremner confirmed that a Camosun student recently broke a bone after being struck by a vehicle about a kilometre from the patch of road Marciniak is concerned about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think these are things that are important for anyone on that corridor to know about; these are issues,\u201d says Marciniak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lot of times when people ride and see similar problems, says Marciniak, they don\u2019t bring it up because \u201cyou think it\u2019s just something that you\u2019re experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo know that there\u2019s other people that are getting injured, that are getting hit by cars, that are also experiencing these unsafe conditions\u2014other Camosun students\u2014I think it\u2019s important for the community to know,\u201d says Marciniak. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for students to know, for the college to know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bremner says the college would like to see bike-lane issues on this corridor get fixed so that students can feel safe using active transportation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an ongoing problem for quite some time,\u201d says Bremner, who says it\u2019s been an issue since she started at the college in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bremner, who is also a cyclist and has experience riding the stretch Marciniak is concerned with, says the big issue is debris, but also the topography of the landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need a longer-term infrastructure fix on this,\u201d she says, adding that she requests regular street sweeping from Saanich. \u201cIt\u2019s a bylaw issue. We definitely would like to see some work done on that. We would like, in an ideal world, that that lane should be safe for cyclists. The college would like to see, obviously, arteries coming to and from both of our campuses to be safe and to encourage people to want to get on their bikes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marciniak\u2014who says it is hard to believe Saanich can let this happen given the strong advocacy they take on active transportation\u2014points to bylaw 8.07 out of the District of Saanich\u2019s Streets and Traffic Regulation Bylaw, which states \u201cno person: (a) Shall cause, suffer or permit loose material to be deposited or accumulate or\u00a0remain upon any sidewalk, street or public place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Marciniak and Bremner say that part of the problem is also the volume of vehicles on the road, especially during rush hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTraffic\u2019s backed up there, but you got cars backed up on the left side. You can\u2019t go into the lane; if it\u2019s really bad or if there\u2019s rocks or gravel, you basically have to almost come to a stop,\u201d says Marciniak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BC Transit recently put a new bus stop near the area of concern, right next to the bike lane that Marciniak says is \u201clike a mud pit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bremner says that she will be prioritizing this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven that the progress on this particular area has been so slow, it\u2019s definitely something that I would like to prioritize from my end to put further pressure on Saanich to address in a timely way,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marciniak says that he will continue to use the Interurban corridor, but he wants to see the problems get fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomehow nobody can step up and see that it\u2019s an issue and get it dealt with,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marciniak says it feels like there\u2019s no short-term solution but the college could put more pressure on Saanich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe if they raised this issue a little bit more,\u201d he says. \u201cThe college loves to say, \u2018We\u2019re all about sustainability, we\u2019re all about renewable energy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bremner says there is a \u201cwhole laundry list\u201d of priorities in the Saanich municipality around active transport. She says the college would like to get this issue \u201cbumped up in the queue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve responded to the letters, but I think a true response would be doing something about it,\u201d says Bremner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Camosun College student is concerned about the state of the bike lane on Interurban road near Camosun College\u2019s Interurban campus. Third-year electronics student Philip Marciniak has been cycling to the Interurban campus for three years; he says that in November he came \u201cwithin a foot or so, maybe a bit less\u201d with a car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-7-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16891"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16961,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16891\/revisions\/16961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}