Sharing the road: cycling strategies

NRU
Feb. 24, 2016
By Leah Wong

Faced with growing demand for safe routes for cyclists, municipalities of all sizes across the province are working to adapt existing roadways to accommodate a greater range of users.

According to a 2014 poll conducted by Share the Road, 67 per cent of Ontario residents say they would be more likely to bike if the community they live in had better cycling infrastructure. Municipalities that have made strides to improve safety for cyclists contribute to the 600,000 cyclists on the road across Ontario each day.

In the City of Waterloo redesigning arterial roads has made streets friendlier for a range of users. Waterloo councillor Diane Freeman told participants of the Ontario Good Roads Association and Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference that making roads more cyclist friendly has the added benefit of improving accessibility for a broader mix of users.

Davenport Road, the city’s first complete street, was transformed from a four-lane thoroughfare into a two-lane road with centre medians, on-road bike lanes and dedicated pedestrian crossings. While the program has been successful and increased the number of cyclists on the road, it initially was met with pushback from the community.

“People thought they were losing something. They thought they were losing two lanes of traffic and couldn’t possibly see what they were gaining,” said Freeman.

“It’s not a war on cars, it’s about sharing the road with all users.”

The design helped show drivers how to share the road with cyclists and has helped act as a tangible example to guide future discussions on changes to the road infrastructure.

While Waterloo has navigated integrating active transportation into its urban roads, the Town of Blue Mountains has focused more on encouraging rural road sharing.

Community services director Shawn Everitt told conference participants the town had to play catch-up as the roads were already being used by cyclists.

As the local roads are primarily two lanes, Everitt said the town has focused on educating its various road users— including cyclists, motorists and farmers - how to safely share the road. Its awareness program included installing road signs, creating brochures about road safety and working with the Ontario Provincial Police to encourage good road sharing behaviour and identify unsafe practices.

The town has worked with the OPP to create an educational video on safe road sharing practices that can be used as a useful tool by other municipalities. Its approach is to focus on best practices for all users as cyclists and large farm equipment operators alike are not accustomed to sharing the road.

While the town’s focus was initially on safety, Everitt said its eff orts have resulted in spin-off economic benefits to the town and surrounding communities.

“It really turned into an economic driver for the town, as well as Grey County and Simcoe County,” said Everitt. Among the economic spinoff of cycling events, Blue Mountain has had more visitors as cyclists stay in the town for extended periods of time ahead of events.