Westmount Road bike lanes will be first to go as pilot project ends

The Region of Waterloo's temporary bike lane project will soon come to a close and the bike lanes on Westmount Road will be the first to go.

Beginning the week of Oct. 19, regional employees will begin removing the construction barrels that had been used to create the bike lanes.

The 30 kilometers of bike lanes were approved by regional council in Juneand were put in place to encourage active transportation while traffic volumes were down as people worked from home during the pandemic.

The Westmount Road bike lane has been one of the most contentious lanes of the pilot project, according to numbers included in a regional report.

Westmount Road 'a mistake,' says Coun. Lorentz

Since the pilot project began in July, regional staff received 110 emails about the Westmount Road lanes 99 per cent of which were opposed tothe bike lane.

The only bike lane that generated more emails was on Coronation Boulevard in Cambridge. That bike lanewound up being scrapped in mid-August.

"I'm disappointed we admitted we made a mistake on Coronation and disappointed we haven't admitted we made a mistake on Westmount Road," said Counc.Geoff Lorentz at a committee meeting Tuesday.

Lorentz said a lot of traffic that would have gone down Westmount Road is now bleeding off into nearby residential neighbourhoods. He said he receives regular emails from people who are opposed to the project.

Lorentz asked if the Westmount Road lane could be the first to be removed during tear-down of the pilot project. Regional staffer Thomas Schmidt agreed, and said the region likely would have started with that location anyway.

Counc.Tom Galloway said he thought the pilot project, including the Westmount Road lane, had been fairly successful overall.

Pilot successful, says Galloway

"Westmount actually has gone fairly well in terms of traffic and speed delays," said Galloway.

Galloway said the project also made people think and talk about active transportation in the community. Although some may not have liked all aspects of the pilot project, he noted that many people are still in favour of a bike lane plan that includes more permanent infrastructure.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic also described the project as a learning experience.

"Hopefully it's also informed some of our thinking around regional roads. While we don't want congestion, they also shouldn't become speedways," he said.

"I think we need to bring more of a people focus to our regional roads, recognizing that people are using them: pedestrians are using them, cyclists are using them, vehicles are using them, and we need to find a healthy balance for all these groups in the future as we redo this infrastructure or build new infrastructure," said Vrbanovic.

Going forward, regional staff will summarize all the data collected over the course of the project and develop recommendations around cycling facilities on regional roads. A report on the matter is expected to go before council at the end of 2020.