By Olivia Timm
PETERBOROUGH-Peterborough council voted in favour of bicycle lanes on Charlotte St. at Monday’s meeting.
Mike HubickI, coordinator of the Public Realm, gave a presentation on what is referred to as the “Charlotte Street Project.”
Working with AECOM software, Hubicki has created a streetscape design that shows how the potential cycling lanes would look.
One of the safest options, according the Hubicki, is to have protective bicycle lanes.
Protective lanes are elevated, kept separate from the traffic, and also separate from the sidewalks.
with AECOM software, Hubicki has created a streetscape design that shows how the potential cycling lanes would look.
One of the safest options, according the Hubicki, is to have protective bicycle lanes.
Protective lanes are elevated, kept separate from the traffic, and also separate from the sidewalks.
However, this also means that something will have to be taken out to compensate, Hubicki said.
“Down the road, we’re looking at a reduction of on-street parking of about 155 spaces. This is a very important consideration that we wanted to think about in the context of how we were going to redefine Charlotte Street between Park and Alymer streets,” Hubicki said.
The conclusion from this design was that, “according to best practices for cycling in Canada, the only way that we could integrate cycling onto Charlotte Street [based on its high traffic volume] was by using protective lanes.”
When the cycling lanes are executed, there are several measures that are going to be put in place to ensure Charlotte Street does not lose out because of them.
Hubicki says they will have to consider the following:
1.The reconstruction of sidewalks to accommodate additional landscaping
2.Maintain the two vehicular lanes – one in each direction
3.Maintain majority of the parking spaces [since we’re losing 155 spaces potentially]
4.Maximize accessible parking wherever possible
5.Elevate intersection platforms
6.Bring the curb our further to reduce time for cyclists to cross one side of Charlotte to the other
In a survey done online, Hubicki claimed that almost all of the survey’s participants voted in favour of bike lanes.
“There is very significant support for bike lanes on Charlotte Street with 180 responses to the survey. Between 80-90% of those who responded were in favour of bike lanes,” he said.
Coun. Therrien gave her two cents by saying that as an avid cyclist, she thinks that by not implementing proper bike lanes, it would be, “lacking vision, and is not moving our city forward with the times.”
 photo credit: City Clock Magazine Cyclists in Copenhagen (City Clock) via photopin (license)
