Ont. bike lane bill not worrying Windsor infrastructure head

Ontario’s proposed legislation to require provincial approval for bike lane projects that takeover a lane of car traffic doesn’t have the alarm bells ringing at Windsor City Hall.

In an interview with CTV News, David Simpson, the city’s Commissioner of Infrastructure, said the city has strong justification for its projects he believes will stand up to the scrutiny of the eventual legislation passed by the Ford government.

“From the city's perspective, we've really only had a handful of historical projects that we've either completed or a few projects that are currently in progress that this legislation might contemplate being applied to,” said Simpson.

The city has 50 kilometres of dedicated bike lanes — in many instances painted lanes alongside vehicle traffic. Simpson estimates a fraction, likely less than 15 kilometres, would be considered protected cycling infrastructure.

Despite the additional layer of provincial regulation, Simpson stressed the city will continue to pursue projects that improve safety for all road users.

“It’s a necessary part of any city fabric,” said Simpson. “It’s definitely part of the city’s due diligence to do its best in furthering its [Active Transportation] infrastructure.”

David Simpson, commissioner of infrastructure services for the City of Windsor. (Source: City of Windsor)

According to the province, Bill 212 aims to bring in a framework to enable provincial approval for new bike lanes and existing ones where a traffic lane would be or has been removed. It has also identified three major bike lane routes on main thoroughfares in Toronto for removal to turn those back over to car traffic.

“Our belief on this is that the focus is seemingly going to be concentrated on major arterial road corridors and networks where there's relatively high traffic volumes and much less so in any projects where you're putting in active transportation systems within collector roads or local streets where the traffic volumes are significantly less,” said Simpson.

Windsor’s Active Transportation Master Plan, finalized in May 2019, sets out “high priority” bike lane routes on major arterial roads in the city including along Huron Church Road and Cabana Road.

But Simpson maintains those plans were done at a “high conceptual level” and more detailed work is still needed to determine exact routes before any construction or road adjustments take place.

“That’s the starting point, assessing what is or is not feasible when it comes to active transportation,” said Simpson. “We really do need to treat each part of our road network in a very unique way.”

Victoria Ave. bike lane

One such project in Windsor that swaps a car lane for a bike lane has now opened on Victoria Avenue south of Wyandotte Street West connecting Erie Street.

It’s a project part of a broader, multi-phased plan to build out the north-south cycling route connected to the downtown.

“In that particular project, in that example, it's actually going to be aiding safety for all road user types,” said Simpson.

While the province may have moved quickly to target the Toronto bike lanes, Simpson doesn’t have any indication Victoria Ave. may be next.

“There’s, I guess, many different ways you can interpret the province’s framework when they're trying to assess a negative impact to traffic flow,” said Simpson.

Bill 212 is open for public comment until November 20.