THUNDER BAY -- City council is considering a safer alternative for cyclists on Memorial Avenue.
Council unanimously called for administration to look into building the Memorial Link, a proposed five-kilometre protected bike lane that would run between Miles Street and John Street, giving cyclists a safe North-South corridor to travel the city.
Dean Stamler, who's heading up the campaign with more than 1,000 signatures from people across Thunder Bay, told council Monday night that the idea would be safer for everyone, not just cyclists. For too long the city has been planned around cars, the worst example being Memorial Avenue, where there is no safe way for bikes to travel right now.
"Memorial is now terrible for anything but cars," Stamler said.
"If we continue down this path it's only going to get worse."
Stamler said that cyclists either ride illegally on sidewalks or dangerously, for both cyclists and drivers, on the road on Memorial and May Street. The link would turn the street's boulevard into a bike path, separated from the road with a buffer. He showed countless examples from all over the world with concrete tree-lined boulevards separating the traffic.
While some might see the proposed $2-5 million price tag as a roadblock, Stamler said a lot of that money would be needed to relocate utilities, traffic lights and other things that would already be spent when the city did roadwork.
"The money is going to get spent anyway," Stamler said.
It's why the group proposes that the link could be built gradually when other work is being done.
Coun. Iain Angus asked if staging the project might lead to a road to nowhere, leaving parts of it unfinished.
"A road to nowhere is better than no road at all," Stamler said.
“The people who ride it now just want something and want it to start.”
Coun. Aldo Ruberto said he knows some people might be concerned about the price tag. Safety and quality of life will eventually win out though like it did after council spent $1 million on the waterfront skatepark.
"People thought we were crazy and it turned out to be one of the best investments we’ve ever made in our youth," Ruberto said.
