Spoke Club

Paths for People founders Conrad Nobert and Anna Ho are taking back the streets of Edmonton.

- Omar Mouallem

EARLIER THIS YEAR, on a frigid March morning, Conrad Nobert locks up his bicycle and crosses 102 Avenue, a multi-lane road in downtown Edmonton. This summer, it will begin its transformation into a separated bike route connected to a seven-kilometre-long grid of safe cycle tracks.

Until then, Edmonton will have the dubious honour of being Canada’s largest city without a dedicated downtown bike lane. But that’s changing thanks to Paths for People, the organization Nobert, a computer programming teacher, founded with his friend, neighbour and fellow parent Anna Ho, an environmental engineer. Since 2014, the pair has pressured the city to make it safer to be a cyclist or pedestrian in a place Nobert describes as resolutely “car first.”