Photo: Zane Bitere / LETA
Updated at 16.42.
Today, the Traffic and Transport Affairs Committee of the Riga City Council decided to change the traffic organization on Aleksandra Čaka Street from September 1, preserving only one bicycle lane.
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The bike lane will be maintained towards the center. Public transport will run in this direction on a common lane with other motorized vehicles.
In turn, there will be no bicycle lanes in the direction from the center, but two lanes will be created – one for public transport, and the other – for other road transport.
At the same time, the Traffic Department has been instructed to develop solutions for transforming Barona Street into a pedestrian and bicycle street by April 1 of the next year, while giving the tram priority.
At the meeting of the committee, very sharp discussions took place, which mainly concerned the organization of work in the Riga City Council. Both members of the opposition and representatives of non-governmental organizations criticized the thinkers that the said solution of traffic organization has not been discussed anywhere so far. This was not among the options developed by the Traffic Department, nor was it considered in joint meetings with non-governmental organizations.
It was criticized that the working group, which had to analyze the situation on Marijas and Čaka streets, offering solutions to reduce congestion, had not been convened for four months.
Coalition members received very sharp reprimands from non-governmental organizations, who indicated that it was not clear where such a solution had arisen. It was criticized that during the Čaka Street cycle lane experiment, the necessary data had not been collected to allow further decisions to be made and problems to be resolved.
For example, it is still unclear what the delays to public transport were before this experiment and what they are now.
As Oto Ozols, a representative of the association “City for People”, emphasized, this decision is a significant negative step backwards. After removing one of the bicycle lanes, cyclists will continue to ride on the sidewalks in Čaka Street, endangering pedestrians.
He informed that about 200 cyclists were leaving the center at the intersection of Čaka and Bruņinieku streets in an hour away from the center. This is a flow of people that will be “placed on the sidewalks”.
In his opinion, this is a signal that the promised changes in Riga will not happen.
Urban activist Maris Jonovs called for an extension of the experiment and for the work that has not been done. For example, in order to speed up public transport, trolleybus lines need to be modernized so that trolleybuses do not brake at each intersection and stop. In addition, trolleybuses brake even when the streets are empty and there are no cars or bicycles.
The situation can be improved by avoiding duplication of routes, reducing the time when transport is at stops, equipping stops with platforms, installing smart traffic lights, etc. All this would improve the flow of public transport, but it is not talked about, Jonov said.
He emphasized that there was no such traffic organization scenario on the table last week. Jonov rhetorically asked MPs what they would tell their constituents, who had promised change, more humane conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, but instead a two-kilometer-long cycle section was being removed.
Jonovs emphasized that cyclists would not use Barona Street unless significant improvements were made to it, as the bicycle infrastructure on this street was already too narrow for everyone to use it.
In addition, the street will continue to be used by motorists, because Barona Street has a lot of parking lots, large courtyards, and people will want to leave them at the same time as cyclists.
The representative of the coalition Justīne Panteļeva stated that this was a very difficult vote and showed which deputies are ready to work and which are ready to remain at the level of visualizations. The only faction that had advocated for the preservation of bicycle lanes on Čaka Street was the “For / Progressive” faction.
In order to avoid that the bicycle lanes disappear from Čaka Street at all, the faction has agreed to this compromise.
Panteleev agreed with the allegations made about not involving experts in the development of such decisions and promised to correct this situation in the future.
She called for a determination that the Traffic Department should develop proposals on how to significantly improve the traffic infrastructure on Barona Street, so that cyclists who had previously used the bicycle path on Čaka Street towards Purvciems could be transferred to this street.
Vadim Falkov, a deputy of “Svarkas”, emphasized that due to inaccurate planning, the good idea of bicycle lanes in the eyes of the public has been devalued. Therefore, we should stop now and evaluate everything thoroughly.
He encouraged the construction of three transport lanes on Čaka Street. In the direction of the center, there would be one public transport lane in the middle of the road and the other for other transport, but away from the center there would be a common lane for road and public transport. However, Falkov’s proposal was rejected.
The deputy called on the deputies of the Riga City Council to think and not to destroy the organization of traffic on Barona Street. He emphasized that after the deputies’ votes, specialists would be forced to design the “Titanic”, which eventually sank.
LETA has already reported that today the Traffic and Transport Affairs Committee of the Riga City Council once again considered the issue of preservation or elimination of experimental bicycle lanes on Čaka Street.
At the previous meeting of the committee, the specialists of the Traffic Department, representatives of the office of the Danish architect and urban planner Jānis Gēl, as well as various non-governmental organizations and experts were heard.
The experiment was initially planned to be implemented by the spring of this year, but later it was decided to continue it until September 1. The experiment was intended to ensure the operation of temporary bicycle lanes in Marijas and Čaka streets in the section from Elizabetes Street to Ērgļu Street.
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