Calgary, AB,
19
December
2016
|
18:20
America/Denver

City Council votes to make cycle track network permanent

City Council voted 10-4 today to make the cycle tracks in the Centre City permanent. An amendment was made for Administration to report back on how the 12th Avenue route will operate along with the Green Line project.

“We are pleased that Council has voted to make the cycle track permanent,” said Tom Thivener, Projects Coordinator at The City of Calgary. “The presence of cycle tracks will allow us to continue to provide people with a more comfortable way to travel by bike and make it a more predictable experience for everyone traveling across the downtown and Beltline.”

Councillors Carra, Chabot, Colley-Urquhart, Farrell, Jones, Keating, Pincott, Pootmans, Woolley and Mayor Nenshi voted in favour of the recommendation to approve the pilot routes as permanent and Councillors Chu, Demong, Magliocca and Sutherland voted against. Councillor Stevenson was absent.

Council also approved Administration to use the $1.65M savings from the pilot to make improvements to the network. Some of the work that needs to take place on the cycle track network over the next couple of years includes making temporary traffic signals permanent and continuing to improve traffic operations and parking/loading access for businesses. The improvements will be paid for from existing budget and project savings.

The results of the project were presented to Council after an 18 month pilot, during which 82 performance measures were monitored and evaluated. During this time, City staff made over 100 adjustments to the cycle track routes to improve traffic, loading and parking, which they said they will continue to do.

The 6.5 km cycle track network was approved as a pilot project in April 2014. The cycle tracks were piloted on 12 Avenue S, 5 Street S.W. and 8/9 Avenue S., with a shared space along Stephen Avenue and Olympic Plaza block. The network opened on June 18, 2015 at a cost of $5.45M, $1.65M under budget.

For more information visit calgary.ca/cycletracks.

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