The public will have a say in how Victoria builds its first protected, separated bike lanes.
Victoria city staff will begin public consultation in April on plans to build a 1.3-kilometre stretch of bike lanes between Cook Street and Store Street.
The public will be asked to weigh in on two options:
• Building a two-way protected bike lane on the north side of Pandora Avenue. Staff estimate the cost of the two-way lane to be about $1.95 million. Forty-four parking spots would be removed.
• Building a pair of one-way protected bike lanes — one on Pandora and one on Johnson Street. The cost of a one-way protected lane on Pandora would be about $1.53 million and 21 parking spots would be removed.
Costs of the Johnson Street lane depend on how the work is done.
City staff say installing a protected bike lane on Johnson between Cook and Broad Streets would be about $490,000. The existing road is not wide enough for a physically separated bike lane without either removing on-street parking on the south side or widening the road.
Removing parking between Store and Broad streets would cost an additional $95,000. Widening the same section, which would allow the parking to remain, would cost an additional $1.5 million and result in narrower sidewalks.
Both options would require new traffic signals for cyclists and a signal for motorists turning right. Motorists would be prohibited from turning right across the bike lane while cyclists use it.
City staff had recommended going to the public with a third option — a one-way lane without any changes to traffic signals.
At Coun. Jeremy Loveday’s suggestion, council opted to ask for consultation on just two of the Pandora options, as well as the Johnson Street bike lane.
Loveday said he favours a two-way bike lane on Pandora.
“People are talking about riding downtown with their kids and the only way to do that is to have a safe protected bike lane with the signal changes,” Loveday said. “So I think this a great opportunity to address this.”
Coun. Pam Madoff suggested asking for public input on only the two-way option, saying that she had reservations about trying to carve out a protected bike lane on Johnson.
“For me, narrowing the sidewalks on Johnson is just not an option,” Madoff said. “The other option, of losing every parking space on the south side of Johnson, I don’t think is a way we start to get communities working together.”
At public consultations in April, city staff plan to hold an on-street open house on Pandora between Douglas and Blanshard, blocking off a portion of the street to demonstrate what a protected bike lane might look like. There will also be surveys and opportunities to comment online.
The new lane will connect to the Galloping Goose Regional Trail at Store Street.
A staff report says that a two-way separated lane is desirable, providing a higher level of comfort and safety for people riding bikes. It would require traffic signals for cyclists travelling in both directions.
Both lane options would also mean longer wait times — an additional 10 to 20 seconds — for pedestrians at intersections.
