Caution will be the watchword as the first leg of Victoria’s new separated bike lanes network officially opens Monday on a busy stretch of Pandora Avenue.
With cyclists travelling in both directions in a bike track on the north side of Pandora Avenue, while the roadway remains one-way for motorists, it’s going to take some getting used to for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians.
Steve Wallace, of Wallace Driving School, predicted the new bike track will be more of a learning curve than the traffic circles at McTavish Road and the Patricia Bay Highway.
“The triple bypass out there was supposed to prevent a heart attack, not cause one. It was quite a learning curve.”
Wallace noted that Victoria has a high percentage of senior drivers who don’t take well to change and a high percentage of cyclists who ignore rules of the road, including traffic signals.
“The main thing that people are going to have to get used to is the newness of the situation,” he said, adding that flag persons should be stationed along the bike lanes for at least a couple of weeks.
Mayor Lisa Helps, a cyclist, is excited about the opening and is not particularly worried about developing a two-way bicycle track alongside a one-way street for cars.
“This network was put together with an international team of experts including the former manager of cycling for the city of Copenhagen,” Helps said. “A lot of people have expressed concerns about: Are cyclists going to have head-on collisions? But the cycle track on Pandora is the same width as the Galloping Goose.”
Wallace notes there are no curbs or delineated raised surfaces on the Galloping Goose trail. “It has amazingly good escape opportunities, which this situation doesn’t have.”
The new 1.2-kilometre bike track along Pandora between Cook and Store streets will feature traffic signals just for cyclists.
“It’s done in different signal phases. So there are periods when bicyclists and pedestrians get to go and vehicles have to wait,” said Sarah Webb, city active transportation management specialist.
“Then the lights change for vehicles.”
Right-hand car turns will no longer be permitted on red lights from Pandora or onto Pandora from southbound roads — instead there will be dedicated right-turn lanes and signals for motorists.
As part of the bike-track design, there are painted green “turn boxes” that provide space at intersections for bicyclists to safely turn off Pandora and onto other streets.
The new configuration means bus stops have been relocated to medians and there are mid-block pedestrian crossings. Forty-four of 100 parking spaces have been removed for the bicycle track. The new bicycle lanes also mean a shift of on-street parking, so that cars park on the roadway between the bike lanes and moving traffic.
City teams will be out in force Monday providing information about the changes. Orientation bike rides are planned throughout May and June as well as outreach through social media, print and radio advertising.
“This is something that’s different, but it’s also something that many other cities have done,” Webb said.
While the bicycle track is officially opening, construction is not quite finished. Until permanent facilities can be completed, temporary bike-lane treatments will be in place at 1002 Pandora Ave. and 1515 Douglas St.
Final traffic signal work on Sunday will mean minor traffic disruptions can be expected between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
An official celebration to mark the opening of the new $3.4-million protected bike lanes is scheduled for May 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at City Hall.
The Pandora Avenue bike lanes are the first leg of a planned $9.075-million network of five corridors of protected bike lanes by the end of 2018.
The first phase of the city’s cycling network will see 5.4 kilometres of separated bike lanes built in the downtown core.
