Ottawa's transportation committee recommended segregated bicycle lanes for Laurier Avenue at a meeting Wednesday.
If city council agrees, it will end a 30-month process of planning and debate. The $1.3 million pilot project could appear as early as this summer, according to a city report.
The plan is to place a bike lane on each side of the street beside the sidewalk, shielded from cars by concrete curbs and waist-high posts.
Several cycling advocacy groups laud the proposed plan, such as Citizens for Safe Cycling and Cycling Vision Ottawa.
“We want to see a capital region where more women, seniors, families, cyclists from all walks of life are eager to get on their bikes and are comfortable riding the city streets,” Dianne Cox of Cycling Vision Ottawa told the committee.
“I was very much in favour of Somerset . . . and that's what I voted on early on in discussions,” said Alex de Vries, of Citizens for Safe Cycling.
He said he changed his mind because Laurier Avenue is wider than Somerset Street, closer to Ottawa River, and free of city buses and garbage trucks.
However, hotel managers along Laurier Avenue say the proposed setup would hinder tour buses, guests, ambulances and fire trucks.
“Laurier will become the most congested street in the downtown area,” said David Smythe, general manager of Lord Elgin Hotel at 161 Laurier Ave.
Some condominium managers object to the plan because nearby parking spaces would be moved farther from their buildings, onto Gloucester and Nepean streets.
Frank Paterson organized a letter-writing campaign in three condominiums totalling 1,200 residents and forwarded 170 letters from them urging councillors not to build bike lanes outside their buildings.
“Residents will lose numerous parking spaces where their family, friends, health-care workers, contractors, delivery people et cetera currently park,” he told the committee, reading from a statement.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes supports the lane but she voted to end it at Bay Street so parking spaces farther west on Laurier Avenue could be salvaged for condominium residents. The committee voted against her.
The proposed plan includes 44 all-day parking spaces on Laurier Avenue between the bike lane and car traffic, a reduction from the 166 parking spots currently operating outside rush hour. Another 122 spaces would be added along Gloucester and Nepean Streets to make up the difference.
All that extra space would cut into the roads. Gloucester Street would lose its bike lane and Laurier's heavy traffic would be reduced to one lane in each direction. Right-on-red turns may be disallowed along Laurier. The city report suggests the new traffic levels would remain within the city's guidelines, but it warns traffic jams may become more frequent.
The lanes would stretch from Bronson Avenue to Elgin Street, at which point traffic lessens and cyclists could ride to the canal over new signage painted on the existing car lanes. The lane can't reach the canal right away because it would need to cross Ontario court house land beside City Hall.
The city would maintain the lanes for at least 24 months. After the pilot period, city staff would present the transportation committee with a report including a business survey, a cyclist survey and traffic statistics.
City council will discuss the project Feb. 23. If council approves the plan and the March budget, construction can begin.