Dundas trail link would connect five area schools

Planned projects in Dundas on Hatt Street, and from the Rail Trail to Highland Park Drive, would provide key local links within a city-wide cycling network.

Hatt Street is already the subject of a few ongoing reviews in preparation for a future reconstruction expected to include new cycling infrastructure, and Cycle Hamilton is pushing for the city to move ahead with a project included in its Recreational Trails Master Plan that links four southwest Dundas schools with an Ainslie Wood school in what’s been described as a crosscity cycling superhighway.

“Dundas could be a key part of it,” said Cycle Hamilton board member Kevin Love.

Love is an advocate for completion of the trail link through Sanctuary Park from the Hamilton to Brantford Rail Trail to Highland Park Drive. He said it’s a valuable link that will connect Sir William Osler, St. Bernadette and Dundas Valley schools on Governors Road to Dundana on Dundana Avenue and St. Mary at Rifle Range Road in Hamilton.

“We’re calling it the five school project. It’s an entirely car-free route to school,” Love said.

He acknowledged the completely paved connection would be relatively expensive, but suggested it would result in savings on road maintenance and busing — an ongoing challenge for school boards — while providing a safe route for children and adults alike within an eventual city-wide network.

But the project is currently at least five years away and has no budget attached.

“We have to fight for the money for it to be implemented,” Love said.

City staff presented five options, with concept drawings, for cycling infrastructure design on Hatt Street at a community meeting on Nov. 20.

Options included bike lanes in a centre median with vehicle parking on both sides of the street; conventional (painted) bike lanes on both sides with parking on one side and wider sidewalks and conventional bike lanes on both sides with parking on both sides.