Everything you need to know before Monday's decision on downtown bike lanes

City councillors are being asked to approve the expansion of bikes lanes to three downtown streets. Here's the latest on cost, timing and potential design.

City councillors being asked to approve expansion of lanes to three downtown streets

Guy Quenneville · CBC News · Posted: Apr 26, 2019 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 26, 2019

Saskatoon city councillors are being asked to approve to an expansion of the city's downtown bike lane network. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)

After years of research and debate, Saskatoon city councillors are poised to decide on Monday whether to create an expanded downtown bike lane network.

Provided councillors pull the trigger — which is not a given, considering recent protracted debates on other hot potatoes such as fire pits and composting — Monday's council meeting will settle the issue.

The city has set active transportation as one of its main goals and wants the number of people in the greater Saskatoon metropolitan area who cycle to work to be more than just two per cent (as reported in the 2016 census).

This chart from the last federal census shows how Saskatoon commuters get to work. Only a small number say they do so by bike. The city could like to improve that statistic. (City of Saskatoon )

But skeptics, including downtown Saskatoon businesspeople, have questioned the financial and practical costs of investing more in cycling infrastructure.

A small selection of city councillors sitting on the city's transportation committee has already backed the expanded network plan. That plan would see interconnected, on-street bike lanes installed on downtown portions of 19th Street, 23rd Street, and either Third or Fourth Avenue.

The city is recommending bike lanes on Third Avenue, 23rd Street and 19th Street in Saskatoon's downtown core. (City of Saskatoon )

Committee member Randy Donauer was the lone opponent to that plan. But it's not the first time bike lanes have divided city council.

In November 2017, Donauer, along with councillors Troy Davies, Bev Dubois and Darren Hill, voted against keeping try-out bike lanes on 4th Avenue. They were outvoted by six others, including Mayor Charlie Clark.

CBC Saskatoon has reached out to all councillors and the mayor this week to see where their thoughts currently lie on the expanded network.

Councillors have three options to choose from:

The city's recommendation: approving the expanded network with Third Avenue as the north-south prong. Construction cost, including other improvements to pedestrian spaces: $3.7 million.
Approving that same network, but with the current Fourth Avenue bike lanes approved as the north-south prong. Construction cost, including other improvements to pedestrian spaces: $3.7 million.
Not moving ahead with the expanded bike lane network and removing the Fourth Avenue bike lanes. Cost: $35,000.

The city hopes to get federal funding, meaning Saskatoon taxpayers would only have to cover 27 per cent of the cost.

Councillor Ann Iwanchuk said she's going into Monday's meeting with an open mind and will make her final decision then, but that she is currently leaning toward no bike network, "based on the feedback I have received so far."

"As is with polarizing issues in the community, I am confident we will have a significant number of individuals and stakeholders communicating to council on the matter," fellow councillor Darren Hill said.

"I believe I owe it to the citizens of Saskatoon to enter council chambers with an open mind so that I can consider all the information provided."

Donauer said he would, "be waiting until I hear all the presentations," while councillor Sarina Gersher said she expected to dive into the city's reports on the matter this weekend.

Third Avenue would encourage more biking: group

At recent public consultation sessions, only a small pool of people cited their preference. Out of 100 people, 78 said they preferred Third Avenue. The rest said Fourth Avenue.

Cathy Watts with Saskatoon Cycles says the biking advocacy group prefers Third Avenue because it would connect directly to the new Traffic Bridge (which has multi-use pedestrian pathways on both sides) and Victoria Avenue (which has newly-installed, off-street raised cycle tracks).

"One of the big problems that we have with [the current] downtown cycling network is it's not connected to anything," Watts said. "It's probably no wonder that people say nobody's using the bike lanes. It's four blocks and then where do you go?"

Hard to please everyone

Connie McConnell, the president of the Saskatoon Cycling Club, says the club prefers neither Third or Fourth Avenue; it just wants a cycling network, period.

"We're just happy that accommodations are being looked at to make cycling more of an everyday thing for more people in a safe manner," McConnell said.

No option will please everyone, McConnell added.

Businesses on Third Avenue initially bristled at the prospect of losing parking spots to the planned bus-rapid-transit (BRT) system. The city then switched its recommendation for a downtown BRT line to 1st Avenue, opening the door to bike lanes on Third Avenue.

But that option would eliminate about 54 parking spots on the street, according to the city. (Even more spots — approximately 58 — would be lost if Fourth Avenue is chosen.)

"We're going to be losing a lot," said Elsie Richardson, co-owner of Creative Compliments on Third Avenue. "We wouldn't mind having [the bike lanes] on Third Avenue if they just extended the sidewalks a bit just like they did on Victoria Avenue at the top of the Victoria Bridge."

The cycle track on Victoria Avenue, at the top of the new Traffic Bridge, runs even with the sidewalk. But this type of off-street bike path is not what's recommended for the expanded downtown bike lane network. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)

That's not what the city is planning, however.

All the proposed bike lanes would be on-street lanes, unlike the Victoria Avenue raised cycle track, which runs parallel to and on the same level as the sidewalk. (This does not include planned cycle tracks on Idylwyld Drive, which is a separate project that's already been approved in concept by city council.)

Regular-width bike lanes would run on both sides of 23rd Street and Third Avenue.

A sketch outlines what bike lanes on Third Avenue would look like. (City of Saskatoon )

Nineteenth Street would get bidirectional lanes on only one side of the street.

Bike lanes on 19th Street would run only one one side of the street and be bidirectional. (City of Saskatoon )

Monday's meeting is only about approving the location of the bike lanes. But recent reports from city hall show what the city potentially has in mind for the design of the network. Here are some highlights.

Avoiding driver-cyclist conflicts

Safety is top of mind for Saskatoon Cycles, the Saskatoon Cycling Club and the city. To that end, the city will install sturdy planters (see above photo) between the bike lanes and traffic.

Watts isn't a fan of the current bike lanes on Fourth Avenue because of what she describes as right-turning car drivers who do not yield to pedestrians and cyclists crossing an intersection, despite signs telling drivers to do so.

Signs asking drivers to yield to cyclists crossing at intersections already exist on Fourth Avenue. More are planned for the expanded network. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)

She wants actual signal lights to better clarify cyclists' priority crossing.

But the city is only planning such signals for 19th Street since that street's bidirectional bike lane will have cyclists travelling in the opposite direction of traffic. Right-turn-yield-to-cyclists signs, like the ones currently on Fourth Avenue, are planned for the other streets in the approved network.

Biking advocacy group Saskatoon Cycles would like to see more traffic signals under the expansion plan. (John Robertson/CBC)

"Until [we get signals], I will continue to feel very unsafe in the intersection," said Watts. "You don't even have to go very far to see how this can be done in some other community in Canada. It's everywhere."

"I would support that idea for sure," echoed McConnell. "As it sits right now, to rely on all drivers to check as really they should be, it's not working well."

To make cyclists and drivers more visible to each other at intersections, the city will create "bend-in" shifts along Third Avenue and 23rd Street.

The bend-in design is meant to improve visibility at intersections.

The city is also recommending a protected intersection at the corner of Third Avenue and 23rd Street, which could include corner islands to slow drivers as they round a corner where a cyclist is crossing.

A sketch of a potential protected intersection for cyclists. (City of Saskatoon )

What about the bus mall?

One thing seems to stand in the way of a continuous bike lane along Third Avenue: the Saskatoon Transit bus mall stretching over one block.

Fear not, the city says: the launch of the BRT system means the closing of the bus mall and "opening 23rd Street to bicycle and motor vehicle traffic."

The bus mall shown at the rear of this photo would be eliminated in the wake of bus-rapid-transit system, allowing the pictured bike lane on Third Avenue to be continuous. (City of Saskatoon )

Next steps

Assuming councillors approve either the Third Avenue or Fourth Avenue option, here's how the city says the project could roll out:

2020: completion of detailed design for all lanes
2021: construction of north-south route lanes.
2022: construction of 19th Street lanes.
2023: construction of 23rd Street lanes.

Construction is not slated to begin until 2022 because, "in reality, nothing is implementable tomorrow," said Jay Magus, the city's manager of transportation. "Nineteenth Street is blocked by [ongoing River Landing] construction, 23rd Street has the existing bus mall and significant work is required on how potential active transportation infrastructure intersects with BRT corridors."

Monday's city council meeting begins at 1 p.m. You can follow the meeting here.