Bike lane plan raises concerns
Change from Donald Street to busier McArthur criticized as ‘dangerous’
On most spring, summer and fall mornings, David Weatherall loads his son, Felix, into a bicycle trailer and takes off.
The pair ride through their Overbrook neighbourhood and over the Adàwe Crossing to the toddler’s child care centre in the ByWard Market.
Because there isn’t a good eastwest connection to the bridge, Weatherall and others have been eagerly waiting for the city to improve cycling facilities on Donald Street, as outlined in the 2013 Ottawa Cycling Plan. Which is why a recommendation from city staff, endorsed last week by council, to install bike lanes on McArthur Avenue instead came as such a surprise.
“Out of nowhere, this plan materializes,” Weatherall said.
Donald Street, south of and parallel to McArthur, was initially slated to get painted-on sharrows to advise drivers to share the road.
The city now plans to use paint, signs and concrete planter boxes to reconfigure McArthur from North River Road to St. Laurent Boulevard, reducing vehicle traffic to two lanes and making room for new, 1.5-metre-wide bike lanes. Transportation planners and city councillors say it’s a better plan.
“I’ve heard loud and clear from cyclists that sharrows are not infrastructure and they’re certainly not the way you either encourage cycling or keep cyclists safe, so in my mind, sharrows on Donald is never going to be a solution,” said Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum.
McArthur is wider and presents an opportunity for continuous bike lanes, which wouldn’t be possible on Donald without a lot more work and money, he said.
An initial pot of $70,000 might increase slightly and will be matched by the federal government for a total budget available in the range of $140,000 to $200,000.
But if Donald Street has slower vehicle traffic and was identified as the ideal local route, Weatherall wonders why the project couldn’t just be done in stages?
“That way you would have the foundation of the correct bike path to build on, instead of empty promises to consider Donald in the future,” he said.
Transportation planner Zlatko Krstulic says the city is trying to get away from partial implementation to avoid “a patchwork of bike lanes that disappear at intersections, which is where you need them the most.”
The upside of Donald Street, however, is its direct connection to the Adàwe bridge over the Rideau River, which is hugely popular with cyclists.
Getting to McArthur will mean cyclists have to do a short jog north along the Rideau River pathway, then cross North River Road to reach the new McArthur bike lanes.
Weatherall says the bridge “deserves to be connected to something that brings the residents of Overbrook safely to it.”
Slowing cars on McArthur has been a community priority for years, but opponents worry cyclists in unprotected bike lanes are being proposed as the buffer to calm traffic.
“That’s dangerous,” Weatherall said, adding there will be too many opportunities for moving cars to cross into bike lanes they haven’t previously had to share the road with.
“I wouldn’t use it if I was biking alone, let alone pulling my kid in tow,” he said.
Added another Overbrook resident, Shay Purdy: “In my opinion, sharrows on a natural cycling corridor are better than forcing a mixed bag of half-measures onto a high-traffic street like McArthur.”
Sarah Partridge of the group Vanier Cycles added the plan to put the McArthur bike lanes between parked cars and moving traffic is not a safe design.
“The bike lane should be against the sidewalk at all times and ideally protected with a concrete barrier,” she said.
Nussbaum said he intends to continue exploring cycling solutions for Donald Street.
The city is collecting public feedback on the plan until March 22.
I’ve heard loud and clear from cyclists that sharrows are not infrastructure and they’re certainly not the way you either encourage cycling or keep cyclists safe ...