Source: Times & Transcript, June 21, 2011 (Page A1)
The City of Moncton announced plans yesterday to remove traffic lanes from busy Shediac Road and Salisbury Road this summer to accommodate new bicycle lanes.
The plans, which also include the addition of bike lanes on Vaughan Harvey Boulevard, were presented last night to city council by Rod Higgins, general manager of parks and leisure services, as part of the city's active transportation plan.
The changes will reduce Salisbury Road and Shediac Road to two lanes from four, with a common centre passing lane.
Higgins explained that axing the lanes on both roads is feasible because they don't reach the benchmark daily number of 20,000 vehicles, which would necessitate four lanes. He confirmed with Stephane Thibodeau, the city's transportation and parking co-ordinator, that the roads only get in the vicinity of 6,000 to 10,000 per day.
The city will also be putting up universal signage to indicate that motor vehicles and bicycles share the road. They are green with a white image of a bicycle. The signs are meant to ensure that cyclists and motorists look out for one another.
Higgins said the goal of implementing the lanes and the plan itself is to make Moncton more cyclist- and pedestrian-friendly.
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2 comments:
Nothing but facts here folks. I can't even make this stuff up.
Jonna Brewer's interview with Shediac road resident and Times & Transcript reporter Brian Cormier from June 24th, 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningmoncton/2011/06/battle-over-bike-lanes.html
Jonna Brewer: "When they put this plan together, they said they studied it and this is one of the areas where it made sense because of the traffic, it wasn't as congested, there wasn't as much traffic as on other thoroughfares in the city."
Brian Cormier: "Well, those are theories. I mean there are always theories." Then he goes on to explain how bad a driver he is. He doesn't know how to find the lights at Vista Drive during peak hours so that it would be easier to turn left. He explains he finds roadway signs and markers confusing.
"People who moved to the Shediac road area didn't move there to use their bikes, they moved there to use their cars. This is a family area with a lot of young families who are going back and forth to get groceries. They are driving their kid to hockey practice at the Kay Arena."
"These are people who do not own bikes, will not own bikes. They have children. They have to go back and forth to hockey practice, to shopping to driving their kids to their summer jobs. They're not going to be using bikes on Shediac road."
It's just plain pathetic. What color is the sky in Brian Cormier's little world?
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