A mysterious bike lane popped up along Saskatchewan Drive overnight, but it wasn’t in place for long.
The guerilla bike lane appeared along the south side of Saskatchewan Drive, just past 109 Street, Thursday morning.
It appears someone used a stencil to paint fake bike lane symbols along the roadway. Pilons were used to block off the lane from vehicle traffic and yellow tape was used to separate the opposing lanes of bike traffic.
“Somebody must have taken this on their own action to do this. The primary concern, of course, is the safety of people using the facility,” Daniel Vriend , general supervisor of Urban Transportation with the City of Edmonton, said.
Vriend said some city employees spotted the bike lane on the way to work; pictures also popped up on social media.
City crews were on scene Thursday morning attempting to use a pressure washer to remove the paint. A sandblaster was also used to try to get the paint off.
In the end, crews used black spray paint to cover the fake bike lane symbols. The city said it will come back with grinders to properly remove the markings.
“It is serious and we did take steps to change it back to a normal state as soon as we did find out about it. There is the potential for serious safety issues here with confusion on the roadway,” Vriend said.
The guerilla bike lane was roughly 200 metres long.
At this time it’s not known who is responsible.
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