June 14, 2010 Honourable Mayor Rodriquez and Councillors City of Greater Sudbury P.O. Box 5000, Station ‘A’ 200 Brady Street Sudbury, Ontario P3A 5P3 Dear Mayor Rodriguez and Councillors, Most Sudburians would agree that cycling in Greater Sudbury is challenging. There are so few designated bike lanes; cyclists must navigate their way in lanes designed for motorized vehicles, a dangerous prospect. Curb lanes are generally narrow and many motorists feel that cyclists should not be on the road blocking their way. Often times motorists must brake and wait for an opportunity to go around cyclists, generally slowing the flow of traffic and heightening frustrations. Pedestrians, especially the elderly, feel intimidated by cyclists who seek out the safety of sidewalks. Many people have complained there are not enough parking spots along Paris for the new Sudbury Regional Hospital, the Sudbury & District Health Unit and Bell Park. But there is a solution to all these problems and more: Designated bike lanes. In March 2010, I accidently came across a public notice for input into the close to $5M reconstruction of Regent St. between Caswell and Bouchard. Since then, there has been much debate over what form Regent Street should take while trying to include a centre turning lane for motorist safety and whether bike lanes should be added for cyclist safety. The Sustainable Mobility Plan (SMP) will be presented to Council June 16th so it is timely to be discussing how roads should be built in Greater Sudbury and how bike lanes could be included. The Roads Department engineer, David Shelsted and I have been exchanging letters to that effect. Here is his reply to my first letter, followed by my current reply to him. David Shelsted wrote: There is an unsafe condition on Regent Street between Caswell Drive and Bouchard Street with rear end vehicle collisions due to left turning vehicles occupying a through lane.
Lilly Noble wrote: Many people would agree with you that there is an unsafe condition on Regent Street and indeed, many streets; however, the addition of a centre turning lane will not completely correct this unsafe condition on Regent. Cyclists will still be in danger since they will not have a designated bike lane. Many cyclists will still ride on the sidewalk and potentially collide with pedestrians. Motorists will tend to drive faster on the new, smooth, wider curb lane making this stretch of road potentially even more dangerous. David Shelsted wrote: In the latest draft of the Sustainability Mobility Plan (SMP), Regent Street is identified for a physically separated Class 1 bicycle path. Based on this recommendation the wide curb lanes (Class 3) or bicycle lanes (Class 2) would not be considered. Lilly Noble wrote: Yes, according to SMP maps, the recommendation for Regent is to have a Class 1 bike lane, where physical barriers separate cyclists from motorists. However, the SMP is a document that identifies best-‐case scenarios. In the meantime, cyclists should not have to suffer while the SMP and its maps are debated. Creative solutions are needed now to provide safe biking infrastructure using existing features of Sudbury roads. People are either being injured (each year, there are about 320 hospital visits) or being scared off their bikes. Last year, there was a fatality in Greater Sudbury. David Shelsted wrote: In widening Regent Street, the City has also included additional width (0.5 m) in the curb lane. This additional width assists bicycles and vehicles sharing the lane. This is referred to as a Shared Roadway. Lilly Noble wrote: The added width to the curb lane is a good start; however, a cyclist will still experience dangerous conditions if drivers think the wider lane is just for them. This danger can be reduced if there is adequate signage telling motorists they are on a Shared Roadway. Signs posted along the road as well as painted on the road, as illustrated below, should be a minimum requirement.
Class 3 bike lane These would be valuable educational tools to remind both motorists and cyclists to share the road. This city needs to have bike lanes that are connected on major roads. Lanes should not just end. It will take an integrated approach to achieve this when street lines are repainted or when there is major roadwork. For instance, when Barry Downe Rd., the Kingsway and Regent St. (north of Bouchard) are resurfaced or the lines repainted, the Roads Department should narrow the width of their centre lanes, which are currently 4.5m. Falconbridge Rd. (a primary arterial road) currently has a centre turning lane, which is 3.2m wide, so surely, roads like Barry Downe and Regent can have a lane less than 4.5m. The extra width can be better used to create a Shared Roadway with a wider curb lane. Again, proper street signage and painted images on the road should be a minimum requirement for these Shared Roadways. Walford Rd. should have bike lanes painted on it, as it had in the past, to reconnect Regent to Paris. This route could serve students from the four schools in the area and further on to Laurentian University. Finally, it is essential that Paris St. becomes part of the solution to connecting bike lanes in Greater Sudbury. These simple lane-‐painting recommendation are a cost effective way to begin to make cycling and cycling safety a priority in Greater Sudbury until the SMP is adopted and class 1 and 2 lanes can be designed and built. David Shelsted wrote: Bicycling and walking are important modes of transportation in our community. The City considers all forms of travel when designing improvements to the transportation network.
In future, it would be helpful if the City and the Roads Department consulted cyclists groups (such as the Bicycle Advisory Panel and the Sudbury Cyclists Union) and other citizens concerned about biking and walking infrastructure, in a timely fashion, prior to roadwork to gain public input on the future of Sudbury roads. Hundreds of Sudburians have told us they cannot understand why cycling and cycling safety is such a low priority to the City when clearly there are so many benefits to getting people to travel by bike. Where Shared Roadways are possible they should be created and connected during day-‐to-‐day roadwork to help get more people cycling in Greater Sudbury. Furthermore, increasing the number of cyclists is in line with EarthCare, the Public Health Unit, the Healthy Community Cabinet, Sudbury Climate Change Consortium and the City’s goals set for reducing greenhouse gases and/or improving the health of Sudburians. I urge you to direct the Roads Department to follow these simple steps toward making Greater Sudbury a safer and healthier place for the people of Sudbury and look forward to you adopting the Sustainable Mobility Plan. Thank-‐you for your consideration in this matter, Lilly Noble Co-‐Chair, Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury Cc: David Shelsted Robert Falcioni Greg Clausen Bill Lautenbach Paul Baskcomb Art Potvin Bob Skelly Penny Sutcliffe Cindi Briscoe Stephen Monet Bob Rogers Kevin Shaw