Cyclists might have to start paying to ride in Hamilton

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Cyclists could soon start having to pay the city of Hamilton to ride around town. A few city councillors want to look into the idea of licencing bicycles to help pay for projects that make the roads safer to bike.

The total cost to add bike lanes to the Claremont Access is more than two million dollars.

It’s just one of dozens of projects in the planning stages that are part of the city’s master plan to build the bike network.

“Since our bicycle lane master plan is taking a lot of lane kilometers out of the service for motorists being converted for bicycle lanes maybe it’s time to start licencing bicycles again.” said Ward 12 councillor Lloyd Ferguson.

” If you’re a user and you’re looking for these expenditures to expand and increase safety with bike lanes, and you really believe in that, then maybe you should have some skin in the game.” said Ward 8 councillor Terry Whitehead.

Ward 2 councillor Jason Farr wants to prioritize the bike lanes on the Claremont Access after kindergarten teacher Jay Keddy was struck and killed by a pickup truck while cycling up the access last spring. But says licencing bikes is not the way to go.

“We should be debating instead how we allocate the reserve and how we can build the reserve in other ways.”

The city of Toronto recently studied the idea of licencing bicycles to pay for similar projects, but that idea was voted down just this past September.

Hamilton city staff has been asked to look into the study.