Correspondence: Email Re: Lack of adequate parking on Erskine Lane
Email from Melinda Price-Wiltshire expressing frustration with high-density development and lack of street parking on Erskine Lane.
From: Melinda Price-Wiltshire Sent: April 23, 2026 11:20 PM To: Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca Subject: Lack of adequate parking on Erskine Lane
Dear Mayor and Council --
I have to say I was more than a little frustrated to read this week about the planned installation of bollards along Erskine Lane. Almost a year ago (June 19, 2025) I sent a letter to View Royal Engineering Dept, with copies to Council and Planning, about the lack of foresight when it came to installing a bike lane on Erskine instead of Talcott. I was greatly disappointed that no one from Council took the time to reply; neither did Ivan Leung from Engineering address my concerns any substantive way. I understand that you've received upwards of 25 complaints about cars parked in the bike lane, but I suspect there are just as many Erskine residents who question the town's wisdom in approving so much high-density development on a single street without ensuring adequate parking.
As a resident of Erskine Lane since 2022, I feel frustrated that I was given no opportunity (at least none that was well-publicized) to weigh in on planning decisions for my street. I'm an avid walker and have no need to park on Erskine, but I understand the numerous residents who do. Installing bollards or concrete blocks will simply ensure that a sizeable length of the street goes completely unused, at the taxpayer's expense. I have yet to see a bike on Erskine, even when the bike lane is empty. Please consider whether the same green objectives might be met by switching the bike corridor to Talcott, and providing adequate vehicle space for the amount of development you approved on Erskine.
Thanks for reading this missive (and perhaps responding).
Best,
Melinda Price-Wiltshire -14 Erskine Lane
My letter to Engineering, Planning & Council/ June 19, 2025:
Dear View Royal Engineering Dept., and anyone else this might concern ---
Although I'm in support of the town's plan to encourage alternatives to driving, I have a big objection to the recent installation of a bike lane in place of street parking on Erskine Lane. Perhaps there were public announcements and discussion opportunities over the last year that I missed, but I was truly gobsmacked to discover that View Royal had decided to permanently do away with the parking we had been waiting patiently over two years of construction to access again. My husband and I were aware that a bike lane was in the plan, but had assumed provision would be made for both parking and cycling.
Judging by cursory observation, I can't help thinking that Erskine Lane has borne a significant percentage of all the housing development in View Royal over the last few years, development which isn't yet complete. Regardless of actual numbers, if there's any street in this town that merits some additional car space for residents and visitors, surely ours ranks high on the list. In my three years of living here, I have yet to see a bicycle make its way up Erskine to Watkiss, although I did see two pedestrians with a stroller in the brand new bike lane last week. I'm all in favour of bike corridors between the Galloping Goose and Watkiss Way, but I can't help wondering what hastily devised memo led the town to choose Erskine instead of Talcott Rd. as one of those corridors. Talcott currently provides ample parking along both sides of the street for a few dozen households and their visitors. Erskine is home to hundreds of units, with more coming, yet all curbside parking has been removed.
Sadly, no amount of idealism is likely to reduce the reliance of most households on cars, particularly outside the downtown core. In fact, many families need two vehicles in order to ferry children back and forth while another parent travels to an outlying job, and this reality is not likely to change. And as it stands, the bike lane depriving said families of additional parking is not actually a connector. Until the development at the bottom of Erskine is completed and that part of the road paved, this so-called corridor is mere greenwashing, designed to look good in the View Royal archives without actually providing a practical service. Like the new sidewalks on Watkiss Way that end without warning, the cycling lane is curtailed by the inefficient narrowing at the top of Erskine, and is currently non-existent at the bottom, so any potential cyclist coming up from the Goose still has to navigate traffic. And both the lane and the barely used sidewalk are so generous in width that I can't help thinking the roadway could easily have been configured to accommodate parked vehicles as well.
There has been so much in the way of trench-digging and paving and re-digging and repaving of Erskine in the last three years that I don't think it's excessive of me to request that View Royal look at things again. I realize we're past the point where the sidewalk can be redone, but if provision can't be made for both parking and a bike lane, then perhaps the powers-that-be could take another look at Talcott. Talcott definitely has room for a bike corridor on one side and parking on the other, and we need parking spaces on Erskine. Cars may be uglier than painted white lines and fancy sidewalks, but they're not going to go away. Please make life a little easier for Erskine residents and taxpayers.
I would very much appreciate a reply, and assurance that my concern will be followed up. Thank you for hearing me out.
Best,
Melinda Price-Wiltshire (14 Erskine Lane)