The long-awaited and repeatedly delayed Hollis Street bike lane will finally be painted this summer, the head of the project says. Several other cycling projects will also be ticked off the city’s to-do list, says HRM’s manager of strategic transportation planning Dave McCusker.
McCusker says he’s 100 percent sure the Hollis Street bike lane will be completed this summer, after being delayed since 2012. Hearing his words, however, Halifax Cycling Coalition co-chair Ben Wedge is cautiously optimistic. McCusker has made the same promise before, Wedge says, but the lane remains unpainted.
Approved in 2010, the bike lane was supposed to be painted in spring 2012 as part of a series of changes to downtown streets. A staffing shortage created a delay but it would be done by June 2012, McCusker said at the time. Last fall, McCusker told The Coast the bike lane had been delayed again due to construction on the Waterside Centre at Duke Street. He said the lane would be painted this spring. Now that construction has wrapped up at Duke and Hollis Streets, McCusker says the plan is to put out a tender this spring. “There’s not a whole lot to it. It’s just painting a line and adding some signs and moving some parking metres,” he says. “It’s probably a one-week or two-week project. I suspect [it will be done] in July.”
Surveying for the project is finished, he says, however, the city still needs to consult with businesses on the street to make sure the lane doesn’t interfere with parking spaces or drop-off zones. The city has pivoted back and forth between the west and east sides of the one-way street since the lane was approved, and the consultation will likely determine which side of the street the bike lane ends up on. “Based on what we’ll hear, we’ll have to adjust the designs a bit, but it’s not a complicated project,” says McCusker.
By the end of this construction season, cyclists can also expect to see new infrastructure on the peninsula and in Dartmouth, McCusker says. Cyclists will no longer have to wrestle the Alderney Landing ferry terminal’s heavy doors—or, more likely, kick the wheelchair button. Fancy new automatic sliding doors will greet cyclists heading to and from the ferry, along with more bike parking and a fix-it stand. The Dartmouth waterfront trail will also be extended to meet the ferry terminal.
The bumpy pedestrian and cyclist path connecting Vernon and Windsor Streets through the old St. Patrick’s High School will see bike-friendly upgrades this summer, and The Mount Hope Greenway and the extension of the Burnside Drive trail to the Highfield bus terminal will also be built.
Wedge, who didn’t expect much cycling infrastructure to be added to the city core this summer, was pleased to hear of the plans. “Overall, that’s really good news,” he says, but remains skeptical.
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This article appears in May 1-7, 2014.
wonder when we’ll get some dedicated bus lanes. Fast efficient public transit is the answer
True ‘dat. HRM missed the bus 15+ years ago when they widened the Bedford Highway, but fuckit, its just Mount students and Sackville trash on the 80, right? Like they count. No wonder people drive their cars around here.
I’ll only support bike lanes if they’re separated like they are in Vancouver. Otherwise they just make bikes a nuisance to real traffic. For most streets bikes should be on the sidewalk where they belong. I totally get you can’t do that on streets like Skin Garden, but the vast majority of sidewalks in this town are %95 empty most of the time.