The proposed segregated bike lanes could block access to underground parking on Laurier Avenue.
Despite strong objections voiced by the head of the Bank Street merchants’ association, City of Ottawa officials say the proposed pilot project for segregated bike lanes along Laurier Avenue will be put before city council as planned.
Gerry LePage, executive director of the Bank Street Promenade BIA, has cited traffic congestion and potential hazards at loading docks and underground parking exits as key reasons to put the brakes on the plan.
“Ottawa should be pursuing segregated bike lanes, just not on one of the busiest arterial roads of the downtown with 6,000 cars turning right per day,” LePage recently told the Ottawa Citizen. “Resignalling of an entire street, redoing the geometry of the street is an absurd amount of work.”
Despite repeated requests for further comment on the project, LePage could not be reached.
But city transportation project manager Colin Simpson says the issues raised by LePage would be common problems no matter which downtown street is chosen for the route.
“Even in Copenhagen, Denmark where bikes have 50 per cent of the moto-share, businesses there still continue argue against the idea of bike lanes – even after all the great success they have had,” says Simpson.
The $1.3-million segregated bike lane project would turn Laurier Avenue into an east-west bike route for cyclists downtown, with concrete curbs being used as a buffer from traffic.
“We are only talking about changing Laurier Avenue for the two peak periods during the day,” says Simpson. “The rest of the day it is already only one lane each way.”
According to Simpson, it will only take cars between 60 and 90 more seconds in the morning traffic to travel the entire 1.3-kilometre stretch of Laurier with special bike lanes.
Simpson says although some parking spaces will be lost along Laurier Avenue, under the proposal 24 additional spaces will be added, along both Gloucester and Nepean streets.
Somerset Street initially looked as though it would be chosen for the bike-lane pilot, but Somerset businesses lobbied against the project, arguing that it would result in fewer parking spaces and hurt the area’s commercial sector.
But not all downtown businesses are worried about potential negative impacts.
“I don’t think it will disrupt everything too much,” says Sylvie Parent, manager of Hillary's Cleaners on Laurier Avenue.
“Most of our clients work downtown anyway,” she says. “They don’t usually drive here, they walk.”
Simpson says the bike lane will not just benefit cyclists, but “enhances the pedestrian environment” and keeps them safely away from moving vehicles.
“Pedestrian traffic is almost double that of cars on Laurier Avenue,” he notes. “Walking is by far the most common way of getting around downtown.”
Simpson says to address the concerns about cyclist safety, the city will launch an “ambitious communication education program” before the bike lane is in place.
The program would educate pedestrians, cyclists and delivery drivers on how to approach new features like the gaps in the buffer zones that would allow cars and trucks into loading zones and underground parking.
Simpson says the program would be similar to the one being used to educate motorists about the new roundabout in Orleans and would use videos and citywide ads to demonstrate the proper use of the bike lanes.
The segregated bike lane proposal will be delivered to the public transport committee on Jan. 5.
City council is expected to vote on the project two weeks later.