Missed the meeting on New St cycling options Guelph-Burloak? Summary here
Options for cycling on New Street from Guelph Line east to Burloak range from painted bike lanes to boulevard paths/cycle tracks beside the sidewalk, with estimates ranging from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars.
These options were presented by city staff at a public open house May 24, to gather input. You can read the handout at the meeting on the city’s website here: New St Cycling
Broadly speaking the options are:
- narrow the road (road diet) to install on-road bike lanes, either standard width or “buffered” with an extra width of paint. Depending on the road section, either a centre turn lane, or lanes of traffic would be removed to accommodate the bike lanes. A trial repainting of the road could be done to determine impact on traffic and cycling, at a cost of roughly $270,000.
- widen the road to add two standard width on road bike lanes. All existing lanes of traffic would remain. Cost approximately $1 million.
- Add a concrete bicycle path beside the sidewalk in the boulevard on both sides of the street. No impact on traffic or road widening; some tree removal required. Most expensive option at around $4 million. Part of the high cost arises because the existing sidewalk would have to be removed and replaced to lay the two paths, one for pedestrians, one for bicycles, side by side.
The costs are very preliminary and would be further detailed once an option is chosen and engineering and other studies are undertaken. But the estimates give a picture of the range of costs among the different options, from a few hundred thousand to a few million.
Staff will prepare a report for the July 12 committee meeting outlining options and costs for committee’s consideration. Recommendations will then go to council July 18 for a vote. Residents can register to speak at either meeting. Stay tuned for the release of that report.
You can also provide your input directly to staff here:
905-335-7671 ext. 7485
June 3, 2016 @ 9:20 am
I hope the city goes with the bike paths next to the side walks, on the boulevard. I just feel that my kids are way safer off of the road level, and I love riding with my kids. At present if we’re on New Street we break the rules and use the sidewalks because people drive like lunatics down that road, and it’s a lot safer for us to watch out for pedestrians than to trust drivers to watch out for us. “Shared” lanes are a bad joke (drivers don’t share them), and too often on Lakeshore have I seen drivers using the bike lane to get around traffic because they can’t wait two extra seconds to get to that red light. I expect it the same or worse on New Street if bike lanes are placed on the roadway – the first rule of thumb is that if it looks like a car will fit there, impatient drivers will use it if they think they can get away with it.
Even if the city chose a cheaper option of putting a bike path on only one of the boulevards, the situation would be an improvement over what we have now.
Were there any preferences spoken by anyone at the meeting?
June 2, 2016 @ 10:14 am
The cheapest option, the “road diet”, sounds like a disaster for traffic, given that New St. is one of very few roads connecting all the way from downtown to Oakville. As it is, there are times when there is heavy congestion there and the buses end up running late enough to ruin their connections. As a cyclist, I would be afraid of impatient drivers smearing the bike lanes to cheat the traffic.
The middle ground solution of widening the road to accommodate for new bike lanes would be ok, but again, as a cyclist, I am more comfortable when I don’t have to share space with cars on busy streets. Things get kind of dicey at intersections, even when there is a bike lane. You are sitting there waiting for a light to change or whatever, and hoping that right-turners will watch for you and not kill you. I really like the multi-purpose paths on Fairview, and was kind of surprised that something similar didn’t get at least partially built during the recent construction on New Street, as most of the side boulevards were getting torn apart anyway — it seemed like a great opportunity to put some ashphalt up there when they were done.
June 1, 2016 @ 5:30 pm
AS STATED MANY TIMES BEFORE, I AM OPPOSED TO BICYCLE PATHS AND DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE TIME AND TAXPAYERS MONEY BEING USED TO PROMOTE SUCH THINGS WITH THEIR LIMITED USE. AS A FORMER CYCLIST, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY CYCLISTS ARE WILLING TO RISK LIFE AND LIMB WHEN THE ROADS ARE NOT SUITED TO THIS ACTIVITY. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE NOT REGULATED TO REQUIRE INSURANCE OR WHY THEIR DO NOT REQUIRE SAFETY INSPECTIONS. FORTUNATELY FOR AT LAST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR THE BIKE LANES ARE DESERTED.