Official Plan sets up barriers to cycling

For immediate release: Wednesday, May 21, 1997

The draft RMOC Official Plan says that it's a cycling, walking, and transit-first plan. But it's also setting up barriers to those people who want to use those modes, according to Citizens for Safe Cycling (CfSC).

"The plan has many good policies promoting cycling and walking in new and current development," said CfSC President Brett Delmage. "But these are undercut by the road projects also included, that will widen many roads used by cyclists to six lanes, as well as making intersections even more intimidating than they are now."

Delmage will be making a presentation to the RMOC Planning and Environment Committee on the plan this morning (May 21).

He pointed out that the Official Plan and its subsidiary Transportation Master Plan call for widening Hunt Club, Innes, March Road, Scott Street, Baseline, Woodroffe, and Bronson Avenue to six lanes. Each of these roads is a cycling route. The plan also calls for a grade-separated link between Bronson Avenue and the Portage Bridge, which Delmage worried would become like Montreal's Decarie "Ditch". Two extra ramps will be added to the Airport Parkway (an important cycling route from the south), creating conflicts between entering vehicles and cyclists on the road shoulder. A Queensway ramp will be added at Castlefrank Road in Kanata, making that cycling route much less usable by children and other cyclists who used it as an alternative to the heavy traffic on Eagleson and Terry Fox.

Experienced adult commuter cyclists can handle six-lane roads, Delmage said. However, residents being encouraged to cycle are seriously intimidated by them, and need extra skills to handle problems like crossing multiple lanes of high-speed traffic to get to a double left-turn lane. The multitude of lanes at intersections can confuse both cyclists and motorists, leading to a greater likelihood of accidents. Off-peak, the wide roads will encourage speeding and reckless driving.

"And can you imagine letting your child ride on or cross those roads?" he asked. "Are we setting up barriers so that our children will never be able to ride to school as we did? With school buses being reduced, children need safe routes to walk or cycle to school."

CfSC also challenges the modal share (growth) targets for cycling. The Master Plan says that cycling will form 3% of afternoon peak hour trips by 2021. CfSC points out that this figure is based on the 1995 Origin-Destination Survey, which was conducted in winter conditions in November-December, 1995 (the "coldest and snowiest beginning to winter on record" according to the 1997 Canadian Global Almanac). The 1992 RMOC Cyclist Profile Survey showed that 10% of commuting trips in the cycling season were by bicycle; CfSC proposes that figure be seasonally-adjusted to 5% for a current modal share, and that the 2021 target by 8%.

- 30 -

For more information: Brett Delmage or Alayne McGregor 722-4454

< Prev		Next >