The other day, I headed west on my bike for a hop downtown on the 7^th Avenue S. Bike Route, which according to city hall really isn’t a bike path – the signs had been put up a number of years ago to alert car drivers cyclists use the road too. It isn’t as busy as an arterial and links to trails at Henderson Lake and the green strip.

Within a half block of the start of my trip, 13^th Street threw up an obstacle. As I waited for traffic to clear, a young woman pulled up beside me. Cycling across the intersection didn’t seem promising, so we decided to walk our bikes across.

“They’ll stop for me,” she said confidently.

If you cycle on the east side of the river valley, that’s your lot, unless you’re in one of the newer areas. For a room full of cyclists at the library this week, car-bike incompatibility was at the heart of a discussion on what can be done about it.

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and spend a lot of money to make it better,” said D’Arcy Kavanagh, who with wife Lynda offered a 45-minute presentation on the health, environmental and economic benefits of providing space and services for cyclists. The PowerPoint slides showed what it’s like for cyclists in Europe and elsewhere in Canada and what it could be like here.

A slide of 13^th Street illustrated one dilemma for cyclists – two lanes of traffic with space for parking that at places becomes four lanes, with a parking lane in some blocks, not others. Nowhere along 13^th Street will you find a painted line that designates a space for cyclists. And, good luck crossing from south to north.

“It doesn’t take much to paint a line so that both car drivers and cyclists know their place,” said Lynda.

It’s the least that should happen here, it was generally agreed. One passionately promoted a coulee-top bridge between west and east so the river valley isn’t a barrier to cycling seniors, youngsters, families, and students.

Since cars have been around, the focus has been on accommodating them. Traffic laws and systems favor cars, but cars and bikes share the road. Advantage cars. Cyclists are not supposed to share sidewalks with pedestrians, although one at the session suggested breaking the law by riding on the sidewalk would beat getting hit by a car on the street.

You’d think that since more bikes than cars will be sold in Canada this year, those who could level the travelling field would move up the city’s transportation master plan schedule that looks at cycling improvements over 10 years.

One transportation department official at the meeting said $400,000 a year is planned for cycling path enhancements starting in 2010 but suggested some might start this year.

Those hoping to see change can get involved through a City Cycle Circle planning process by e-mailing bikebridge@shaw.ca with ideas.