East Gwillimbury council adds bike lanes to Woodspring Avenue


Yorkregion.com
March 12, 2015
By Simon Martin

East Gwillimbury council will finally implement changes to Woodspring Avenue nearly two years after area residents stressed concerns about safety and speeding.

Council approved bike lanes on the road from the Newmarket section all the way up to Green Lane. The change will also reduce the number of lanes from four to two with a turning lane in the middle.

Newmarket had reduced much of Woodspring to two lanes with a turning lane and bike lanes but East Gwillimbury didn’t originally follow its neighbour’s lead. The road, which crosses municipal boundaries, transitioned to four lanes in East Gwillimbury.

When Phoebe Gilman Public School opened in 2013, many parents raised concerns about their children crossing a four-lane road to get to school.

Town staff had recommended council follow the Newmarket initiative last spring but council at the time was not convinced and commissioned a $7,900 traffic study that echoed staff recommendations.

Additionally, the traffic study recommended the town implement a crossing guard and school crossing on Harvest Hills Boulevard and Thatcher Crescent. Council implemented that change along with a “no stopping zone” on the north side of Harvest Hills to the west limit of Phoebe Gilman as parents were frequently backing up traffic by letting their kids off on that side of the road.

The same “no stopping zone” was not implemented on the south side of the road.

The MMM Group, which carried out the traffic study, suggested changes to Woodspring would reduce overall speed and improve safety for motorists.

The developers of the Harvest Hills subdivision will complete the bike lane line painting.

The cost of an additional crossing guard for the town will be $12,000.