The City of New Westminster is considering ways to mitigate impacts associated with the new bike lanes on Sixth Street.
On Nov. 28, the owner of Beach House Tanning told council that the bike lanes are killing her business and appealed to council to take action to mitigate impacts of the bike lanes. Council directed staff to reach out to businesses along the corridor to see if they've been impacted by the bike lanes and to report back at the next meeting.
On Dec. 12, staff reported back to council about the input it had received from local businesses. Council then directed staff to consider potential measures to mitigate business and public concerns about the bike lanes and to report back with recommendations for its consideration.
Mike Anderson, the city’s manager of transportation, said two members of the project team, engaged with 24 business representatives along Sixth Street, received one email from a business owner who was out of town and received correspondence from the Uptown Business Association. He said businesses identified “a number of issues” with the project, which is still a construction site and isn’t quite complete.
“Business representatives identified some mitigating measures that they suggested,” he told council. “With this report, we are suggesting council direct staff to take those away and subsequently report back to council with recommended mitigation.”
A staff report outlined some of the issues and impacts that businesses have reported about the new bike lanes, including: challenges with winter installation (can’t see the markings or barriers, no one uses the bike lane in the snow, lack of maintenance increases slips and falls on ice); new features (such as curb barriers, distances for parking, narrow streets and poor sight lines) were not designed with the elderly in mind; and challenges turning onto Sixth Street from Hamilton Street because of the lane widths and poor sight lines. Businesses also reported concerns about: a lack of access for emergency vehicles; the loss of clients due to the lack of immediate, convenient parking; increased congestion from cars turning onto Eighth Avenue; and a variety of challenges related to parking in the stalls behind businesses.
Businesses also provided the city with some ideas about measures that could be taken to help mitigate the bike lanes’ impacts. These include: providing signage that directs motorists to off-street parking; modifying the management/allocation of off-street (private) parking lots; adding parking elsewhere; reducing parking rates; and improving accessibility for seniors (ramps, improved sidewalks, accessible parking).
Coun. Daniel Fontaine asked if staff have an estimate on what the mitigation measures may cost.
“We haven't determined what the mitigation would be yet,” Anderson said. “So with the report back, we would have an estimate for them.”
Fontaine questioned if the City of New Westminster would be looking to see what mitigation strategies have been used in other cities that have built bike lanes.
“We're always looking at what other municipalities are doing,” Anderson said. “We have a network of people in the industry that we can touch base with.”
Fontaine said there has been some confusion about whether the city intended the bike lanes to be temporary or permanent, with many businesses thinking they were temporary and could be removed, and some council members saying they’re permanent. Given the amount of concrete that’s been poured to complete the bike lanes, he said they appear to be permanent.
“We were directed to implement an interim bike lane,” Anderson said. “As we were designing it, one of the challenges with interim or temporary bike lanes is bus stops, and, so, that's where much of the investment has gone. We have the 106 bus route on Sixth Street, which is the busiest bus route in New Westminster. The two bus stops at Eighth Avenue are very highly used. And so we wanted to design them in such a way that they remain accessible, and that they have capacity to accommodate the volume of passengers getting on and off the bus safely.”
Anderson said the project team determined that it was best to invest a fair amount of money in maintaining accessible bus stops at those locations, and that's where much of the investment has gone.
“The other concrete that is on the street is poured on top of the existing asphalt or on top of the road, and so it's quite easily removed, if the decision is made to remove them. It's not a significant cost,” he told council. “But the cost to replace the bus stops would be more significant. I don't have the costs on hand of what it would be to remove the physical measures that are on the street at this point.”
Construction of the NWSS Cycling Connector began in August. While construction is nearing completion, final pavement markings won’t be completed until the spring when conditions are suitable for doing that work.
“Uncomfortable” conversations coming
Coun. Tasha Henderson said there’s been extensive engagement about this project over the past two years, with many people providing input and many models being presented for consideration. She noted it’s common for people to participate in an engagement process when a project is complete and they can see its impacts.
“For our engagement department, I'd like us to always be thinking how we can increase our touchpoints earlier on,” she said. “And I think that this is an opportunity for us to continue working collaboratively through our economic development department and with the Uptown BIA to really figure out how we can best support businesses through this transition.”
Henderson said engagement will be important as the city continues to implement infrastructure associated with its Seven Bold Steps for Climate Action.
“There are surely going to be actions around reclaiming road space that are going to be uncomfortable and require uncomfortable conversations,” she said. “And so, I think for me, this comes back to engagement, and the way that we are engaging with each other and continuing to support each other, so that we're not pitting people against each other, as one of the delegates have aptly pointed out. I do think it's important to remember that these bike lanes are not completed yet.”
At the Dec. 12 meeting, three residents spoke about bike lanes – two encouraging the city to continue building safe and much-needed cycling infrastructure and one saying few students cycle to NWSS and businesses and customers have been negatively impacted by the bike lanes.
Coun. Ruby Campbell told council said her daughter, who attends New Westminster Secondary School, told her that she and her friends are excited about being able to use the bike lanes to get to NWSS.
“I've been hearing anecdotally that there are a lot of kids waiting to ride their bike up there because it will be safer; they don't have to find alternate routes and worry about car doors opening,” she said. “I just wanted to share that because they're not here today, and I think it's an important voice.”
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said the issue of safe routes to school is something the city has been supporting for years through its active transportation planning. He said it’s something that’s been requested by the school district and community members.
“This is not a willy-nilly decision to build a bike lane,” he said. “This one was driven by city policy and it was driven by people coming to this council chamber, and coming to our youth advisory committee, to our active transportation committee; youth coming from the high school and asking us to provide this safe cycling infrastructure.”
Johnstone added that the bike lane is not just about providing a safe route to NWSS, but about creating a vital cycling link for the rest of the community. He’s looking forward to seeing what mitigation measures staff recommend to council.
“When you look at the research of what has happened around North America for active transportation, whether you go to Bloor Street in Toronto or Sainte-Catherine’s in Montreal, or you go up Hornby Street in Vancouver, you find that actually it does not in the long term cause downturns to local businesses — it actually provides upturns to local businesses.”
Council unanimously supported the motion directing staff to consider potential mitigation measures.
Fontaine said he would reluctantly support the motion.
“And the reason I'm supporting it is because really we're so far down this road now that this is effectively now a permanent bike lane,” he said. “I think we have to be clear and be open and honest with our citizens, that we're at the stage now where we're looking at mitigation. … I certainly hope and I know our staff are very creative and they'll come back with hopefully some great ideas and some learnings from other cities in terms of how they've been able to help small businesses who have been impacted with this type of infrastructure project.”
