Douro and Wellington public consultation

Tonight was the public consultation meeting about proposed bike lanes along Douro and Wellington, between King St W and Niagara.

The bike lanes would improve safety for cyclists along this short stretch, and the importance of this connection in the bike network would grow with the recent installation of the bridge to Fort York, as well as the pedestrian and bike bridge to Liberty Village that is currently under construction.

I got there a little late, so there were more city staff there than visitors. If you want to see the information panels, they are posted here.

I was told that there wasn’t much concern expressed about the removal of parking along this stretch, which was good news. Basically there were two options on the table in terms of the configuration of the bike lanes. Option 1 was using parked cars as buffers with the bike lanes curbside, and option 2 was with cars parked by the curb and the bike lanes by the traffic lane.

I expressed my strong support for option 1. I was also told that bollards will be installed in the 0.5 m wide buffer zone between the parked cars and the bike lane, similar to how Harbord St. is between Queen’s Park and St. George.

I also asked if it was possible to put green paint with the sharrows across major intersections, similar to the Dundas/Annette intersection.

I was told that they would put patches of green paint between the sharrows, similar to what was recently done at Bloor and Bathurst (see below).

The city is still accepting input online until December 31. Feedback would be particularly valuable from Ward 10 cyclists.