City of Greater Sudbury to hear ideas on designing future bikeway

The City of Greater Sudbury is holding a public consultation session tonight to get input on how to design the Paris Street-Notre Dame Avenue Bikeway.

The Bikeway was recommended in the city's transportation master plan as a way to introduce safe cycling infrastructure on Paris and Notre Dame.

There are currently sidewalks on both sides and multiple vehicle lanes but no safe space for cyclists.

Marisa Talarico, the Active Transportation Coordinator with the City of Greater Sudbury, says eventually the bikeway will be the full length of Paris & Notre Dame from Regent in the Four Corners to roughly Lasalle Blvd in the north end. That's a total distance of more than eight kilometres.

"We want to make sure that we're designing a safe, comfortable facility that residents really will choose to use for cycling and we want to make cycling a more attractive transportation option in Greater Sudbury," says Talarico.

There are four goals for the project: that the bike traffic be separated from vehicle traffic, that it be continuous on both sides of the street, that it's welldesigned at intersections, and that it's comfortable to use.

Cyclists can already use 1.5 km. of the bikeway built from York St. to WalfordRd.

"We've heard loud and clear that cyclists and people who bike do not feel comfortable sharing space directly on the road with fast-moving vehicles," says Talarico.

The public consultation session takes place tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at Science North.

Residents may also go online to comment.