Long before the sun rises, when the streets are still quiet, and most porch lights blink their last few minutes, Nigel Swytink-Binnema is already awake. He reaches for his phone to check the morning forecast.
It’s a small ritual that shapes his whole day, helping him decide precisely how many layers he needs before heading out.
Once he settles on the right clothing, he packs his lunch, crouches beside his bike, and squeezes each tire. Swytink-Binnema says that this is more of a habit he doesn’t even think about anymore—a quiet check that makes his two-wheeled commute along the Bow River Pathway feel smooth and safe, even on paths that not many Calgarians touch.
Swytink-Binnema’s biking hobby began at the age of 14, which wasn’t a lifestyle choice so much as a practical one. Now that he is well into his adulthood, he has realized that riding his bike is simply faster and far less frustrating than waiting for the bus.
“It was kind of empowering more than anything else. I kind of took the bicycle to be more than just a means of getting around in the summer or just a means of having fun,” said Swytink-Binemma. “[I] took it to be a legitimate form of transportation.”
This decision has slowly reshaped his life over the past six years. Now, he barely uses his car, opting instead to let cycling carve a different flow to his days—one that often feels more essential than optional.
Starting in the central Northwest quadrant, Swytink-Binemma bikes along Banff Trail to the C-Train station, boards with his bike and continues the rest of his commute into downtown.
Even with this routine feeling efficient on most days, Swyntik-Binnema says his daily commute is not “nearly enough.” Between ongoing construction and Calgary’s efforts to improve road infrastructure and bike lanes, the progress feels like it’s going at a “snail’s pace already.”
This frustration is shared by many cyclists across the city. Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen recently urged Calgary and Edmonton to pause or cancel bike lane projects, raising concerns among cyclists and advocacy groups who say the move threatens to drag progress backward. Dreeshen’s move follows similar legislation in Ontario.
At the same time, newly elected Mayor Jeromy Farkas has yet to outline a clear direction for bike infrastructure—leaving many wondering whether Calgary’s momentum will stall for good.
A glimpse into the history of Calgary’s bike lanes
Today’s uncertainty is rooted in a much longer story. In 2011, Calgary launched an ambitious Cycling Strategy to make the city one of North America’s premier cycling destinations. It came with a target of 180 kilometres of painted bike lanes by 2020.
More than a decade later, the city has reached only about 46 kilometres—far below its goal, according to the Sprawl.
Cyclists and organizations alike are expressing concerns about how this idea draws the city back. Calgary mayor, Jeromy Farkas, has not presented a concrete plan for the future of bike lanes.
“I thought we were moving in the right direction. I’m not happy to hear that they’re trying to pause things,” said Lonni Balbi, founder of Bike to Work Day Calgary.
Still, early projects showed what was possible. Calgary opened its first downtown cycle tracks in July 2013 along Seventh Street S.W. and Eighth Avenue, and usage climbed almost immediately.
The City of Calgary’s 2013 Bicycle Program Yearbook, created under former mayor Naheed Nenshi, recorded 1,160 daily trips just two months after the track opened. This number went up from 470 beforehand, while sidewalk riding in the area dropped to less than one per cent by year’s end.
The yearbook also revealed who was using the network the most: outside of downtown commutes, cyclists from the Northwest quadrant dominated pathway and lane usage—riders like Swytink-Binnema who still rely on the system every day.
More recent data tells a similar story: between January 2024 and November 2025, the city’s interactive traffic counts show the highest bike volumes on Fifth Street North of 10th Avenue, with usage climbing sharply during the summer months.
Yet even as the data show increased demand, the city’s progress has stalled, and it is now confronting political pressure that may slow further progress.
To pause or not to pause?
Despite these patterns of steady and sometimes growing ridership, the political conversation shifted in April 2025, when Dreeshen called on Calgary and Edmonton to remove or cancel bike lanes on major roadways.
In a letter to Edmonton’s City Hall, he argued that they “obstruct traffic congestion” and construction—interfering with provincial plans to expand road networks—in addition to the cancellation of the multi-year $95 million project to build multiple bike lanes in the city.
Three months later, Dreeshen wrote a similar letter addressed to Calgary’s former Mayor Jyoti Gondek to express his concerns with the city’s approach to bike lanes.
“As our urban populations continue to grow, we need to seriously consider how to maintain adequate capacity for motor vehicle traffic flow for current and future traffic needs, not reducing capacity,” said Dreeshen.
Dreeshen hopes that Edmonton and Calgary’s city councillors can understand how and why bike lanes should not interfere with driving lanes.
“At the end of the day, the goal is to make life better and to make sure that people spend less time in traffic and more time at home doing the things that they love,” he said.
But Dreeshen isn’t alone in this conversation.
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean supports this idea and says that bike lanes in the city are not being used to their full potential. In fact, he advocates removing some lanes and reviewing them.
Last year, Ontario legislated Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act. This bill requires provincial approval to remove vehicle lanes for new bike lane infrastructure. This new law aims to fight gridlock—a situation of traffic congestion.
Following an Ontario court appeal, Dreeshen expects Alberta to follow these initiatives. He continues to meet with Edmonton and Calgary officials to urge them to address bike lanes that pose hazards or inconvenience car commuters, and to take specific measures to resolve these issues.
Where cyclist safety falls short
The City of Calgary recorded an average of 34 bicycle fatality and major injury collisions. This decreased from an average of 33 in the past three years.
This report shows that, despite a decline in emergency department visits due to bicycling accidents since the pandemic, cyclists still account for one of the highest categories of emergency visits after motor-vehicle incidents.
This proportion, however, is greater than their share of police-reported collisions—suggesting that many bike-related collisions go unreported.
Christian Hipolito resides in East Village, a community filled with bike lanes, near Bow River, a major intersection for pedestrians, cyclists and pets.
What seems to be a convenient place for him and his family, bikes, pedestrians and residents don’t always.
“There are times when the bike lanes and the sidewalks do converge into one path, which kind of gets a little scary, especially if you’re trying to cross, because, for some reason, the pedestrian isn’t first [priority],” said Hipolito.
While bike lanes do exist in the East Village, Hipolito wants a clear distinction and separation between cyclists and pedestrians.
“We’d have to rely on hearing the bells or being much more aware. But it’s kind of hard nowadays, especially since a lot of people like to wear headphones, especially for myself.”
Calgary’s cycling organizations weigh in
Doug Clark, president of Bike Calgary, handles a nonprofit organization dedicated to making a difference in Calgary’s cycling scene. It focuses on creating a more convenient and comfortable environment for all city users.
Clark has been an avid cyclist and regular commuter since the 1970s. In the late 1980s, he biked from the suburbs into downtown, giving him a front-row seat to the city’s evolving cycling landscape.
Drawing on years of watching Calgary’s bike system take shape, Clark points out that the Seventh Street cycle track was the city’s first prominent project of its kind in 2013.
“Putting in a piece of infrastructure that doesn’t connect somewhere to somewhere else, it just exists as an island in itself, really, isn’t that helpful,” he said. “You need to have that network concept.”
Doug remembers seeing usage increase almost immediately, with cyclists feeling safer and less anxious about sharing space with cars.
