April 15, 2010 David Shelsted, Roads Engineer Transportation and Traffic Engineering Services City of Greater Sudbury 1800 Frobisher Street Sudbury, ON P3A 5P3 Dear Mr. Shelsted, Re: Regent St. Road Improvements - Bouchard St. to Caswell Drive It was nice meeting you and Rob Rocca on March 30 and to be able to discuss the upcoming Regent St. road construction between Bouchard St. and Caswell Drive. However, I was quite dismayed after learning about the specifics for the “Road Improvements” for Regent St. I put “road improvements” in quotation marks because it depends on whom you are whether it is an improvement to add a centre-turning lane on Regent St. but to make no accommodation for bike paths. If you like to race South down Regent and can’t wait 15 seconds while the odd car turns left into the Cardinal Inn driveway, then it’s great. But if you walk along Regent, you can, in future, expect speedy cars driving closer to you since the current wide sidewalk boulevard will be gone. If you bike on Regent, you still won’t have a safe designated bike path. In 2000, the province of Québec developed a network of 2702 miles of bicycle paths. Why? To draw in tourists and encourage cycling. In 2005 bicycle tourists spent $83 a day, more that other tourists’ average of $66*. We could make Sudbury a great Northern Ontario tourist destination for cyclists but it starts one road at a time. Bike paths slow traffic and in San Francisco’s Valencia Street, two-thirds of merchants surveyed four years after bike lanes were painted, said that the lanes had a positive overall impact on their business*. Traffic calming allows individuals time to see what stores exist along roads and the opportunity to stop and shop. A 2009 study of Bloor Street in Toronto showed cyclists spent more money in the area than those who drove there*. So it makes good economic sense to install bicycle facilities. And what about the Sustainable Mobility Plan? A great deal of thought and work has gone into this Plan. It is almost complete and will be presented to Council in May 2010. Regent is in it! Shouldn’t work on Regent be delayed until this Plan is
considered by Council and Staff? The addition of bike paths is most cost effective when added to an existing road construction project not after it’s finished. I realize the constraints under which roads are built. There is only so much room on which to build. But bike paths are coming to Sudbury so shouldn’t we add some to Regent? The problem seems to be this centre lane addition. Have other options been fully considered to prevent left hand turns like a raised median or a no left hand turn sign during peak hours? Surely these measures would not cost $3M and could allow bike paths? But if there is still a strong mandate to add the centre lane, can the five proposed lanes be narrowed to 3.5m to accommodate 1.2m bike paths? Also, if you take some width off the sidewalks for the bike paths, pedestrians will still feel safer with a bike path separating them from the cars on this narrower sidewalk. A complete street design has many benefits. Proposed lane widths 4.25m 3.75m
4.25m
3.75m
Reduced lane widths with dedicated bike paths 1.2m 3.50m 3.50m 3.50m 3.50m
4.25m
Total = 20.25m
3.50m 1.2m=19.90m
I hope this section of Regent St. gets some more thought since it seems that more needs to be considered before this construction starts. Sincerely,
Lilly Noble 8 Neptune Ave Sudbury, ON P3E 5Z4 globalnilly@persona.ca * The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments http://issuu.com/bikeleague/docs/economic_benefits_bicycle_infrastructure_report/1 ?mode=a_p cc Joe Cimino cc Deb McIntosh