Fredericton city staff revive years-old plan to install bike lanes downtown

The wheels are turning once again on a now six-year-old plan to install bike lanes on a handful of streets in downtown Fredericton.

City staff this weekpresented a slightly updated plan to narrow streets and rearrange parking spaces in order to put segregated bike lanes along portions of Brunswick, Queen and Carleton streets.

"Right now we have kind of the last mile problem in the downtown where we have great trails coming into the downtownbut the downtown itself isn't really well connected and for most users, it doesn't feel like a comfortable place to bike," said city traffic engineer Tyson Aubie, speaking after his presentation to councillors on the mobility committee.

"So this is trying to solve that issue."

The city has dubbed the project the "downtown cycle track," as it would involve creating a counter-clockwise loop of adjoining bike lanes that go east along Brunswick Street, from Smythe Street to the Waterloo Row underpass, and then west along Queen Street between Regent and Smythe streets.

Part of the loop would incorporate the existing multi-use trail between the southern approach of the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge and the lighthouse on Point Sainte-Anne Boulevard.

The plan also involves installing a south-bound bike lane on Northumberland Street, from Queen to Brunswick streets, as well as a bidirectional bike lane on Carleton Street, between Queen and Brunswick.

The plan involves an initial phase of installing street markersthat delineate the bike paths, followed by a second phase that would "harden" that infrastructure by putting up barriersand potentially raising the bike lane above street level, said Andrew Northmore, a consultant who helped the city with the plan.

No lost parking spots

The plan involves removing vehicle traffic lanes on Queen and Carleton streets, Aubie said.

That would result in Brunswick Street being entirely reduced to two lanes, Queen Street being reduced to one lane between Regent and York streets, and Carleton being reduced to one lane between Queen and Brunswick streets.

Some on-street parking spaces will also be removed from certain streets, however morenew spots wouldbe added onother streets, Aubie said.

For example, he said all the parking would be removed on one side of Carleton Street, while new spaces would be created on Westmorland Street.

Other projects took precedent in past, councillor says

The plan presented Thursday largely mirrors the one city staff presented to councillors in 2017, with hopes of having the infrastructure in place by as early as the following year.

It sat on the back burner for six years because the city had other projects it was busy with, said Coun. Bruce Grandy, chair of the mobility committee.

"And it's not that this wasn't a priority, but you know, we had Officer's Square, which is a major priority The performing arts centre, another major priority," Grandy said.

He said the plan back then didn't have a lot of detail around it, unlike the one most recently presented.

The city will now gather feedback from the public, and another presentation will be brought forward to councillorsby December.

However, he said it's too early to say whether work on it would actually get started next year.

"We're going into budget [deliberations]. Council will decide, you know, what's strategic and what isn't at this particular point in time, and what major projects should be undertaken next year," Grandy said.

Another obstacle that the plan initially faced was pushback from the downtown business communityover fears that a reduction in on-street parking spaces could hurt their revenue.

CBC News asked Downtown Fredericton Inc. for an interview about how its members feel about the city's latest plan, but office manager Vicki Stickles, in an email, said executive director Adam Peabody was away on vacation.

Plan a good step forward, says advocate

While it's taking a long time for progress on downtown bike lanes, the latest update was reassuring, said Graham McAteer, vice president of the Fredericton Active Transportation Coalition.

He said where the earlier plan envisioned painted-on bike lanes, the latest plan would involve the use of bollards, as well as potentially elevating the bike lane to offer added protection from vehicle traffic.

"It looks quite good to me," McAteer said.

"There might be one or two things that maybe we'll talk to them about and see if we can changebut, broadly, I think we're headed in the right direction and it's nice to see Fredericton is moving ahead."