In an attempt to make Ottawa streets safer for cyclists, the city will be working on establishing segregated bike lanes on Gladstone Avenue.
City planners are examining Gladstone Avenue as the potential best option to implement an east-west segregated cycling route through Centretown. A cement curb, or vertical posts known as bollards, will separate cars and bicycles.
While the proposed initiative is aimed at providing a safer option for cyclists travelling downtown, it’s expected the idea will draw objections from car drivers.
The transportation committee passed a motion on Jan. 6 to commission a city-wide cycling safety review after last year’s unusually high number of cycling accidents in the city of Ottawa.
Gladstone Avenue is the favoured choice because it runs through Centretown from Preston to Elgin Street, Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet says.
But, there isn’t much room for an extra lane, he adds.
In order to accommodate segregated bike lanes, planners would have to take out street parking, says Pierre Johnson, assistant to Doucet.
That issue is where William Bruce, vice-chair of the Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee, says he expects a fight – no matter what location they choose.
“There’s a lot of people who are going to be up in arms if they’re going to lose their parking spots and if they’re going to lose a driving lane for cyclists,” he says.
Only 1.7 per cent of Ottawa’s population cycles as commuters, Doucet says.
That small number means cyclists can expect to go head-to-head with a lobby group of car drivers.
Bruce says drivers would be unlikely to approve of these big changes made just to benefit a small group of people.
According to Charles Akben-Marchand, chair of the transportation committee for the Centretown Community Citizens Association, segregated bike lanes aren't the only change needed to keep cyclists safer.
“There are still the intersections to contend with, and you still have to make sure people know how to use [the segregated lanes] as well,” says Akben-Marchand, a former president of Citizens for Safe Cycling.
It’s hard to put in a segregated lane without causing someone some distress, Doucet acknowledges.
But for Centretown, the narrow streets and side-street parking force cyclists to merge with automobile traffic – something not all cyclists know how to do safely, he says.
Last summer, a van struck five cyclists in Kanata in a bicycle lane proving just a separate lane for cyclists isn’t quite sufficient, Bruce says.
This, and other accidents in the collision-heavy year Ottawa has seen, prompted the roads and cycling advisory committee to demand a physical barrier between cars and bicycles.
Most of the accidents occur because the bicycle lanes are lacking safety features and road organization favours the car, Doucet says.
Last September, Melanie Harris was killed on Sussex Drive where a bike lane merges into a shared cycling and bus lane.
“Everyone has known for years that it was dangerous.
Thirty per cent of the cyclists are riding on the sidewalk because it is so dangerous,” Doucet says.
“She was obeying the law, but she got killed.”
Car drivers feel entitled to the road because we have a heavy automobile mentality here, Bruce says.
Doucet says he agrees, stating that we’ve built our society around driving for 50 years.
It’s hard to break 50 years worth of habit, he says.
Council expects city staff to report back with their route choice in April.