Downtown Edmonton business owners call out transit lanes expected this summer

Business owners along 101 Street in Edmonton’s downtown are calling out a city plan to create a dedicated transit lane in front of their businesses — feeling the city isn’t listening to their concerns.

Richard Liukko runs Freecloud Records in downtown Edmonton. He’s one of several business owners in the area calling out city plans to turn this lane into a dedicated transit lane by the end of this year, removing street parking during daytime hours during weekdays. 

“The main problem is, all the parking in this area is private. So there’s not really any public place to park, and one of the recommendations was for people to park in the neighbourhood to the west, and we don’t feel having commercial traffic parking in residential areas is right,” said Liukko.

Liukko says he and other businesses aren’t against efficient transit and traffic measures, but depend on public parking for their businesses. Feeling a two-block dedicated bus lane won’t help transit flow.

“We are not opposing rush hour restrictions whatsoever. We have supported them the whole time, but we didn’t receive any positive support from the city in giving our businesses some kind of help, especially in tough economic times like today. “

Councillor for the neighbourhood Anne Stevenson told CityNews the city has done extensive studies on the benefits of creating a dedicated bus lane, but reminds business owners that the project will be reviewed in six months. 

“I’ve also encouraged businesses to really closely monitor the impact to their establishments. If we have some very clear evidence that shows some drops in lunch hour visits when these go forward. I think that’s really important data that could help in refining this approach,” said Stevenson.

But for other businesses on the street, they don’t feel they’ll be heard at a review after they say their opposition isn’t being heard. 

“Unfortunately, I feel that is — no better way to say it — a bit of fluff. They say they’re going to review it in six months, but I think that once it’s in, it’s just going to stay,” said Way Lieng Choy, the owner of FX Audio.

CityNews reached out to the City of Edmonton’s transportation planning department, which responded in a statement saying, “The City has met with interested parties in the area to learn how to best mitigate local impact while balancing transit service performance, traffic flow, safety, and City policies.”

Adding, “In response to the feedback from businesses, the City has recently adjusted parking options on 108 Avenue west of 101 Street and changed the operational hours of the transit lane to end at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.”