Saskatoon to test protected bike lanes

The City of Saskatoon wants a downtown where cyclists and motorists feel comfortable and safe.

It believesmore people would cycle to work butare hesitant to share the road with vehicles.

So the city is setting up a demonstration project of protected bike lanes on 4th Avenue and 24th Street.

Alan Wallace is the city's Director of Planning and Development.

"About 60 per cent of the population who enjoy riding bikes say they feel unsafe or uncomfortable," Wallace said.

"But they would if they feel safe and comfortable doing it. So what we want to do is tap into that big 60 per cent and hopefully get them to come downtown on their bikes."

The city saidthe lanes will have a neutral impact on overall parking spaces. And there will be minor traffic delays, about 6 to 10 seconds per vehicle during peak hours.

The demonstration project will start in May 2015 and extend for a period of 18 months in order to evaluate across all seasons.

"If the cycling goes up but traffic goes way down and patronage in companies goes way down that's not a success story," Wallace said. "But if patronage is still high and traffic is still moving fairly reasonably through the downtown and we double or triple our cyclists than I think we've got a win, win, win there."

Two open house meetings were held Tuesday for business people and the general public.

A report on the demonstration project will go to council in January 2017.