The following bike lane request was sent to Councillor Collins and passed on to us, if you have any feedback, please post it here or email me at hbcf@cogeco.ca
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Councillor,
The above noted project is tentatively proposed as part of the 2020 Capital Budget Roads Program. City staff are working on a design for the resurfacing of Beach Blvd (full length). The Cycling Master Plan recommends bicycle lanes on this street. The plan to create bicycle lanes is to advance what is possible when the street is resurfaced, thus City staff are currently investigating opportunities. You may recall we discussed options at a meeting a few months ago; and staff’s goal is to encourage the faster cyclists to use Beach Blvd, and only permit slower/ relaxed cyclists to use the adjacent Beach Strip Breezeway multi-use trail.
Bicycle lanes on Beach Blvd would not remove existing auto capacity, and we plan to preserve on-street parking on Beach Blvd. Existing on-street parking is on the lake-side of the street (the other side of the street is currently posted “no parking anytime”). We therefore propose to only add a bicycle lane in one direction (southbound, towards Niagara) at this time because of roadway width constraints, and the space for this bicycle lane can be created by narrowing the “unused” asphalt between the two yellow centrelines (note the red ‘X’ in the image below). The following image helps to describe the concept:
With the extra encouragement for on-street cycling in the southbound direction; we envision that faster, more skilled cyclists will opt to use this street in both directions, even without a bicycle lane in the northbound direction. We have observed on-street parking usage along the street, and there are significant segments of low-usage of on-street parking along the lake-side of the street, where parking is permitted (thus space for cyclists). Once we have a preliminary design, we would ask to review it with you, including considerations for the parking issue you had flagged previously at the north end of the street by Jimmy Lomax Park.
We require your approval for this consideration of possible cycling infrastructure. A response via email is sufficient; but if you wish, we are available to discuss. The design stage of the project will make a final determination if the cycling component can be achieved. To meet deadlines for Capital Budget processing, we require your response in the next week or two.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Councillor,
The above noted project is tentatively proposed as part of the 2020 Capital Budget Roads Program. City staff are working on a design for the resurfacing of Beach Blvd (full length). The Cycling Master Plan recommends bicycle lanes on this street. The plan to create bicycle lanes is to advance what is possible when the street is resurfaced, thus City staff are currently investigating opportunities. You may recall we discussed options at a meeting a few months ago; and staff’s goal is to encourage the faster cyclists to use Beach Blvd, and only permit slower/ relaxed cyclists to use the adjacent Beach Strip Breezeway multi-use trail.
Bicycle lanes on Beach Blvd would not remove existing auto capacity, and we plan to preserve on-street parking on Beach Blvd. Existing on-street parking is on the lake-side of the street (the other side of the street is currently posted “no parking anytime”). We therefore propose to only add a bicycle lane in one direction (southbound, towards Niagara) at this time because of roadway width constraints, and the space for this bicycle lane can be created by narrowing the “unused” asphalt between the two yellow centrelines (note the red ‘X’ in the image below). The following image helps to describe the concept:
With the extra encouragement for on-street cycling in the southbound direction; we envision that faster, more skilled cyclists will opt to use this street in both directions, even without a bicycle lane in the northbound direction. We have observed on-street parking usage along the street, and there are significant segments of low-usage of on-street parking along the lake-side of the street, where parking is permitted (thus space for cyclists). Once we have a preliminary design, we would ask to review it with you, including considerations for the parking issue you had flagged previously at the north end of the street by Jimmy Lomax Park.
We require your approval for this consideration of possible cycling infrastructure. A response via email is sufficient; but if you wish, we are available to discuss. The design stage of the project will make a final determination if the cycling component can be achieved. To meet deadlines for Capital Budget processing, we require your response in the next week or two.