Native political leaders are reacting to the Ontario authorities’s announcement that can require municipalities to obtain provincial approval earlier than eradicating site visitors lanes to put in new bike lanes.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sakaria made the announcement on Tuesday.
“When strategically positioned, bike lanes are a significant a part of each metropolis, providing residents a secure and a dependable option to transfer round,” Sarkaria mentioned. “What cities shouldn’t be doing, nevertheless, is taking away lanes of site visitors on our extra most congested roads.”
Critics, together with Ottawa metropolis councillor Jeff Leiper, should not satisfied site visitors congestion is the fault of motorbike lanes. Lieper says such a call would overstep the province’s authority to supervise municipal selections.
“It comes throughout as absolute pandering,” Leiper advised Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron.
“The province is nicely outdoors of its wheelhouse right here. The native transportation networks are the duty of the municipality to resolve.”
In his announcement, Sakaria singled out Ottawa, Kitchener and Toronto as examples of the place bike lanes have expanded drastically, creating uncertainty about their impacts to site visitors.
“Like for the underused bike lanes on Cedar and Joseph Streets in downtown Kitchener which are making it troublesome for emergency autos to get by means of or O’Connor road in Ottawa, the place lanes had been pointlessly taken away on a key artery making it unsafe for drivers and cyclists alike,” he mentioned.
Sarkaria questioned a few of the information used to estimate biking site visitors and the impression of motorbike lanes on congestions, saying he believes highly regarded and wet days weren’t counted.
Present bike lanes is not going to must be ripped up beneath the primary stage of latest laws, Sarkaria mentioned. Nonetheless, he mentioned that the province will even be asking municipalities for information on initiatives initiated up to now 5 years to evaluate whether or not the province agrees.
Leiper mentioned he doesn’t assist the federal government limiting town’s powers to resolve its transportation priorities. He added it stays to be seen what the laws would imply for Ottawa.
“I don’t understand how that course of goes to go,” he mentioned.
“We now have to get permission from the Minister – these are going to be political selections and I don’t understand how that impacts our skill to place biking tracks in.”
Transportation committee chair Coun. Tim Tierney says he is ready to see what the tabled laws will appear like.
“Till it truly passes inside the home, we’ll have to attend and see. However we’re already working within the background to see what the impacts might be or could be on a metropolis like Ottawa,” Tierney advised CTV’s Austin Lee.
“There’s a bit of labor to do if the province does come down and say, sure, these are the brand new insurance policies and procedures that now we have to comply with.”
For a lot of Ottawa residents, congestion is amongst one of many greatest points with town’s roadways.
“Usually, it will take me half-hour or so from Kanata to downtown. these days it is about an hour,” driver An Trinh advised Ontario Chronicle Ottawa.
“I seen that the site visitors has elevated. Particularly alongside the strains of Carling Avenue,” mentioned Clara Caceres.
A current survey from the Metropolis of Ottawa suggests biking is turning into extra prevalent locally.
From 2011 to 2022, the share of journeys accomplished on a motorcycle greater than doubled – from 1.9 per cent to three.9 per cent. In the meantime, town is within the technique of updating its Transportation Grasp Plan, which incorporates the potential of extra bike lanes.
“There could be impacts, so we simply need to know what’s in that laws and the way we are able to finest take care of that,” Tierney mentioned.
Meantime, critics like Dave Robertson, the vice-president of the advocacy group Bike Ottawa, argue the province’s plan is counter intuitive.
“It is a backwards coverage that is not going to perform what they are saying,” he mentioned.
“If we’re seeking to make issues higher for residents, to make our transportation system extra equitable, to cut back the price of dwelling for residents, to decrease the dying fee and harm fee for weak highway customers, then we have to begin giving folks good choices to get out of vehicles.”
Sarkaria mentioned the decision about whether or not or not a brand new bike lane may be put in rather than a site visitors lane in a municipality will in the end relaxation with the minister of transportation.
He mentioned the federal government can be growing a plan to permit autos to journey safely at speeds larger than 120 km/h on new highways and to freeze driver testing charges at present ranges.
With information from Newstalk 580 CFRA and CTV Toronto
