EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on Nov. 3, 2023.
Burlington residents have a new, safe way to ride their bikes on Plains Road between Waterdown Road and Royal Botanical Gardens.
On Friday morning, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, MP Karina Gould, and several city councillors cut the ribbon on the city's first protected bike lane, which runs approximately 2.5 km along that stretch of the busy roadway.
“This was a full road replacement, the road was full of cracks and patches,” Ward 1 councillor Kelvin Galbraith said. “It needed to be done. The addition to this roadwork is the bike lanes. On the south side, the bike lanes are still on the road but separated with green plastic bollards, while on the north side it’s off the road and beside the sidewalk.”
The two-year construction project was completed about one month ago, and reception to the new road and safe bike lane has been overwhelmingly positive, Galbraith added. In total, the road replacement cost approximately $6 million, and the bike lanes cost an additional $3.1 million.
The federal government provided $3 million from the Canada Building Communities Fund towards the project.
“This is part of the City of Burlington’s vision for the community to continue to make this a lovely place to live,” Gould said. “We have a lot of cyclists here who are excited about this.”
Having the lanes on both sides of the road separate from the main road gives people added confidence to ride their bike, and to use a bike as a method of transportation, Gould added.
In the future, it is expected that many road renovation projects will incorporate some form of safety aspect for users who are not in cars.
“This is the new way of designing streets to make sure they are safe for all users,” Meed Ward said. “The includes pedestrians, transit riders and, of course, cyclists. This is an old highway, which isn’t the safest place to cycle or walk across four lanes of traffic. But we’ve made it a safer street and we’ve made it available for people who want to cycle with their families.”
A patch of the new bike lane on the south side includes a small garden, designed to aid with drainage for both the road and sidewalk.
“It’s called a rain garden,” Galbraith said. “The water can seep down and goes directly into the storm sewer. We were also able to plant 18 trees. It’s a low maintenance, nice addition to the project.”
Bike safety advocacy group Safe Streets Halton shared a statement following the ribbon cutting.
“With the Plains Road improvements, Burlington has taken the first step towards being a leader in safe transportation infrastructure in the 905,” Safe Streets Halton president Nick Morrison said in an email. “These changes make it safe for people of all ages to walk, ride, and drive along Plains Road and we can't wait to see this continued along the entire corridor onto Fairview. We thank Burlington staff, council, and the federal government for bringing this to life.
"We call on the other Halton municipalities to follow Burlington's example.”
