City goes back to the drawing board on bike lanes

Once the temporary bike lanes on Fourth Avenue are removed next month, city staff will get to work on revamping the cycling network in Saskatoon’s downtown core.

The Fourth Avenue bike lanes met its demise during Monday’s council meeting.

The same set of councillors also approved establishing 23rd Street, 19th Street and Third Avenue as the future routes for a permanent downtown bike lane network.

Saskatoon’s Director of Transportation Jay Magus said they’ll do public consultation before installing any new lanes.

That phase is expected to happen next year before the issue re-appears before city council in 2021.

He said they will look at what has worked other cities, and what hasn’t.

“Saskatoon is not unique in terms of their relationship so far with bike lanes. Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, they’ve all put some in. They’ve all pulled some out,” Magus said.

Saskatoon Cycles co-chair Cathy Watts told 650 CKOM this week that the new incarnation of bike lanes needs to make riders feel safer, noting other cities have installed separate traffic lights for bikes.

Magus said it’s one of many possibilities to be examined.

“In addition to the large set of lights for vehicles, there would be a smaller set of lights for cyclist. And there are a number of standards out there that we would adopt and follow,” Magus said.

“The issue is, if you are in the bike lane, heading east on 19th street and you want to turn left, you have to cross traffic,” Magus said.

-With files from Brent Bosker