City officially installs painted bike box at intersection where cyclist was killed

The City of Saskatoon has painted a bright green box and bike lane on Wiggins Avenue at College Drive to increase safety for cyclists.

In May 2023, Natasha Fox, 33, was struck and killed by a concrete truck while biking at that intersection. The driver of the truck was not charged in her death.

The new bike box, which includes a designated spot for cyclists at the front of the traffic lane, is meant to improve visibility and reduce the "conflict points" between cars and cyclists, the city said in a news release.

Signage indicating "no right turn on red" was also installed at the intersection, along with new signs for a reduced speed limit of 30 km/h for a portion of Wiggins Avenue.

College Drive and Wiggins Avenue is the most bicycled intersection in the city, and the second highest volume of pedestrians in the city, according to a report brought to city council following Fox's death.

James Arnold, a board member at Saskatoon Cycles, says while the new infrastructure is an improvement in general, it required a lot of lobbying to get it done.

"Something had to be done after Natasha Fox was killed," Arnold said, standing beside the newly finished bike lane. "It should have happened before then."

Arnold says he spent some time talking with cyclists and pedestrians who all thought the bike box was a good idea, but it still left them feeling vulnerable.

He says he has observed several vehicles driving into the designated cyclist area instead of coming to a halt at the stop line. 

"Ideally we would have a wider road with actual physical barriers or something to tell motorists to stay out of the cycling area," he said, "but we don't have that here and there are some constraints on the intersection."

In late April city council voted in favour of the painted bike box and lane, against the city administration's advice, which said the painted infrastructure would create a perceived level of safety that may be false because it is not a protected bike lane.

Earlier in September, an unsanctioned bike lane and box was spray-painted in the spot where the official one is now located.

One resident, Nick Pollet, called the temporary spray-painted lane "tactical urbanism," which he described as a grassroots community action meant to inspire change in the government.