Halifax protected bike lane gets go ahead on Rainnie Drive

Halifax will soon be getting its first protected bike lane, a type of lane that physically separates cyclists from vehicles.

The pilot project will see a 300-metre bike lane constructed on Rainnie Drive on the one-way portion of the street which runs up until Gottingen Street. That portion of the street recently converted to one way as part of the work on the roundabout at North Park and Cogswell streets.

There will be one lane of vehicle traffic heading into the downtown, a row of parking for vehicles to the right, plastic posts on the right side of the parked vehicles to create a barrier, then the bike lane and sidewalk.

The bike lane will run in both directions and each lane will be 1.5 metres wide, separated by a yellow painted line in the middle.

The construction work could begin and be completed as early as this fall, says Hanita Koblents, the city's active transportation coordinator.

Protected bike lanes are good for all

Hanita Koblents, the active transportation coordinator for the city, says protected bike lanes offer a number of benefits, and not just for cyclists.

"There are benefits for a lot of road users," she said.

For pedestrians using the sidewalk, there is now more space between them and vehicles. For drivers, it means they don't have to share the space with cyclists.

Koblents says that in cities where protected bike lanes have been installed, it has led to a significant increase in the number of cyclists.

"When you give them a separate right of way to travel on, all of a sudden bicycling becomes very comfortable," she said.

The Halifax Cycling Coalition is a fan of the idea.

"The city says that they want more people biking. It's this kind of infrastructure that's going to do it," said board member Blair Barrington.

He says one of the important things about this project is that the city has clarified that it is OK to put a bike lane on the outside of parked vehicles.

"Up until now, that hasn't been done in Halifax. In North America, it's standard practice in a lot of cities," said Barrington.

Long-term vision

Longer term, the hope is that the pilot project could get turned into a protected bike lane that would run all the way from Rainnie Drive to Brunswick Street and eventually reach the Halifax Central Library. However, that would take some time to come to fruition, cautions Koblents.

"There's still a lot of details that need to be worked out with regard to that," she said.

The city issued a tender for the work in August and the winning bid just needs to be signed off by Richard Butts, the city's chief administrative officer. Bids were received from Dexter Construction ($98,850), Atlantic Road Construction and Paving ($114,885), Ocean Contractors Limited ($130,750) and Basin Contracting ($170,417).