Council approved a recommendation to place five new dedicated bike lanes on streets across the city.
A majority of council voted in favour of the new bike lanes being implemented as part of the city’s active transportation routes. The streets included Arundel Avenue, Hudson Avenue, Huron Avenue, Shuniah Street and Vickers Street.
At Large Coun. Larry Hebert voted against the recommendation.
He said he wasn’t against active transportation noting he was an avid bicyclist and walker himself but he wasn’t in favour of bike lanes.
“I have seen motorized wheelchairs going down the bike lanes,” Hebert said. “Not sure what we can do about that but they are using them, I said they would and you folks said they wouldn’t. It’s smooth and that’s one reason why I think we should be paving the sidewalks. I have also seen three ladies walking their baby carriages in bike lanes. That really concerns me.”
Before council took place, around 25 bicyclists rallied outside city hall in support of more bike lanes.
David George Noonan decided to organize the rally after some councillors made comments saying they wanted to remove the bike lanes from city streets.
He said there’s enough support in Thunder Bay to keep the bike lanes on the roads for public use.
“With the removal of the bike lanes, we’d be going backwards in time and we’re looking at moving forward,” Noonan said. “It would look bad on Thunder Bay if we removed the bike lanes. I think safety would go down. There’s enough evidence that show with the bike lanes in place there are less accidents out there that involve cyclists and motorists.”
The Ontario Highway Traffic Act allows bicyclists to share the road with vehicles even if council decided to remove the bike lane.
Noonan said even though cyclists are legally allowed on the road the main reason to have the bike lanes was for safety of everyone on the streets.
“When you look at Victoria Avenue and John Street alone the number of accidents have gone down significantly,” he said. “It’s a vocal minority in Thunder Bay on who is opposed to the bike lanes that are already in place right now. Possible it is because of parking issues or something to that affect. Sometimes change is hard. Once people are more educated about bike lanes than I think they will understand their purpose.”
Noonan was also one of the three people who gave a deputation at council. Of the three who presented only one was against having bike lanes.
Andy Wolff presented a case to council that argued the roads were safer without bike lanes. Some of the disadvantages of having bike lanes he mentioned included limited room for larger vehicles, limiting parking on the street and consistent maintenance, which he said wasn’t consistent to begin with.
