Build off-leash areas and the dogs will come

What do bike lanes and Trout Lake dog park have in common [“Trout Lake dog owners get a reprieve”, web-only]?

When there weren’t many bike paths in the city, there were a lot of conflicts between cyclists and motorists, and cyclists and pedestrians. Cyclists weren’t following the rules, often riding on sidewalks and not sharing the road responsibly with cars.

In order to increase compliance with existing rules and decrease conflicts between these user groups, the City of Vancouver built more bike lanes. And it worked. While some conflict still remains, generally cyclists are off the sidewalks and sticking to designated lanes and streets.

This is a great analogy for off-leash dog parks. If the city wants to see increased compliance with designated off-leash areas and reduce conflict with other users of city parks, the Vancouver park board should be expanding off-leash areas throughout the city, not decreasing them.

> Jodi Stark / Vancouver

Comments

1 Comments

Andrea

Jun 14, 2014 at 2:48am

Absolutely right!