Three options have been presented to City of Powell River councillors to deal with the cycling and parking conflict near Mitchell Brothers store in Cranberry.
At the Tuesday, April 16, committee of the whole meeting, city director of infrastructure Tor Birtig presented the options. He said the city had heard from members of the public and staff, and the owner of Mitchell Brothers that there are big concerns with the bike lanes installed in the area.
“Currently, we have no parking on the eastern side of the roadway, so that has brought forward a big concern for the business,” said Birtig.
The first option would be to reconfigure that area in its entirety, meaning redoing the bike lane on the store side, realigning the centre line and doing away with dedicated bike lanes on either side and going with sharrows, which are shared spaces for bikes and traffic.
“With the sharrow, it is going to be a bit of a compromise,” said Birtig. “We require 6.9 metres of space. We only have 6.2 metres. The cost to put in a sharrow that is a little narrower and the eradication of the painting lines, etc., would come out to approximately $7,000.”
The second option is to remove the northbound cycling lane altogether, ending at Gaudet Avenue and installing signage that says “bike lane ends.” Cyclists would then enter that area with caution. Estimated cost would be $2,500.
The third option is to compromise with standards and reduce the drive lanes from 3.5 metres to 3.3 metres, reduce the bike lanes from the standard of 1.5 metres to 1.3 metres, and reduce the parking lanes from 2.5 metres to 2.3 metres. Estimated cost of the work is $10,000.
A fourth option would be for the bike lane to remain as is.
Councillors were divided on what they thought was the best solution.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she liked the third option of narrowing the lanes. She said configuration would force people to slow down.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she would prefer lowering speed in any of the options and removing the bike lane on the northbound travel lane, which was the second option. She said what she is hearing from cyclists is that sharrows are more dangerous, providing cyclists a false sense of security.
Councillor George Doubt said he is in favour of bike lanes and active transportation. He said what is occurring is fitting the new concept of having bike lanes on existing roadways that have been there a long time.
“They don’t all fit,” said Doubt. “There has to be compromises somewhere. Option number two would be my choice, to simply end the bike lane at the street before we get to Mitchell Brothers on the northbound side.”
Down the road the city could look at lowering speed limits through the Cranberry area, he added.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said until recently, there were no bike lanes in the city and she doesn’t remember a whole lot of people being killed on bikes in Powell River. She said if for a short distance the bike lane ends, people will have to be more cautious and do what they always did before.
Councillor Jim Palm said the bike lanes have been good for the community and Powell River has received significant provincial funding for the various phases of bike lane construction. He said the reason why the committee was revisiting the issue was because of the concern of the merchant in the area.
Palm said he was in favour of the second option of removing the northbound lane and putting up signage to make everyone aware of the bike lane ending.
The committee decided to send the matter to city council, recommending removing the northbound cycling lane and installing “bike lane ends” signage, which was the second option.
