Mayor Cam Guthrie is looking to pause new bike lane infrastructure that takes out existing lanes of vehicle traffic or limits street parking.
Guthrie intends to bring forward a motion to council advocating for the pause after hearing “a lot of feedback” about recently installed bike lanes on Silvercreek Parkway and Scottsdale Drive.
“I’m investigating the newly created Scottsdale bike lanes to see if there is the possibility of them being removed, and re-evaluating the impacts on Silvercreek too,” he said in a social media post.
This comes not long after the Ontario government announced its intention to introduce legislation that would require municipalities to receive approval from the province before installing new bike lanes that would result in the removal of lanes for traffic. Around the same time, Premier Doug Ford said he plans to remove bike lanes from three Toronto streets to reduce traffic congestion.
But in an interview with GuelphToday, Guthrie said the biggest reason behind his motion is that the cycling master plan was completed just before he became the mayor in 2013, and is being updated in 2025.
“I think the active transportation world has really changed quite a bit in 12 years, especially around the type of infrastructure that can be implemented to support active transportation like bicycle lanes," he said.
Guthrie said it could take between 12 and 18 months for that work to be completed, and infrastructure work that impacts road lanes or street parking should be paused while the city conducts public engagement and looks at best practices.
“While the update is happening, let’s pause for a moment,” he said. “If there isn’t any that impedes on that removal of a vehicular lane and/or on-street parking, that’s fine.”
The biggest concern he’s hearing is the type of infrastructure being implemented, like those on Scottsdale and Silvercreek that include low-level bollards separating the bike lanes from vehicle traffic.
“I actually think we could do better,” he said, in regards to both the bike lane infrastructure and the operational costs.
“I’m not suggesting they have to be ripped out and turned back into lanes, but what I am saying is, if we’re going to do the infrastructure, I would much rather have better infrastructure there to support the active transportation lanes in a better way.”
He added he understands why people were questioning those projects, as they were implemented a week before snow came, and the reaction might have been different if they were installed in the spring. He believes data collection is required in the spring and summer to see how effective or ineffective these particular lanes are.
A better option for bike lanes, he thinks, would be the multi-use paths that often start completely off the word, like those on Woodlawn Road.
“Those are the best, and no one bats an eye at those things,” he said.
But older areas in the city don’t have as much room on the boulevards, or other infrastructure might be in the way, like telephone poles and utility lines.
“That is where these types of questions are warranted.
“I’m a very big active transportation fan,” he said, noting the city needs to implement more transit options, from trail networks to bike lanes.
“We have such an opportunity in front of us in 2025 to really up the ante on how we do these types of projects,” he said. “We have to do it right.”
