Richmond, Adelaide bike lanes get green light

WATCH: (May 14, 2014) The city’s public works committee has approved a bike lane pilot project on Richmond and Adelaide streets. Jackson Proskow reports.

TORONTO – The city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee approved a pilot project proposal today to add bike lanes on several busy downtown Toronto streets.

The recommendation includes installing a westbound bicycle track on the north side of Richmond Street West from York Street to Bathurst and an eastbound corridor on the south side of Adelaide Street West from Bathurst to Simcoe.

“What we’d be doing is proposing taking out the curb lane and leaving three travel lanes for peak periods and off-peak, we would permit parking,” said ‎General Manager of Transportation Services Steve Buckley.

City officials say the loss of one lane won’t significantly affect the flow of traffic even though the project “will require the re-allocation of road space, which will result in some traffic capacity reductions along these corridors.”

“For the most part, you see pretty much the right and left lane are taken up by stopped vehicles,” said Buckley. “So during these hours, it often functions with just two lanes anyways.”

WATCH: What the proposed bike lanes could mean for traffic congestion in Toronto

Additionally, the plan also calls for bike paths on the following routes:

• Simcoe Street from Front Street West to Queen Street West
• Both sides of Peter Street from King Street West to Queen Street West

Buckley said the construction on the Gardiner this summer won’t add to the traffic congestion because the streets are “not necessarily relief valves” for the highway.

The pilot project will be in operation until a final Environment Assessment report is presented to council in 2015.

Work to install the new tracks will begin this summer at an estimated price tag of $390,000.