Councillors Jeff Leiper, Catherine McKenney and Shawn Menard have some good news: Carling Avenue will soon have seasonal bicycle lanes extending from Sherwood Avenue to Cambridge Street South. Traffic cones will be set up along this stretch to separate bicyclists from cars, trucks and buses. These lanes will also provide an extra buffer for pedestrians, who will no longer be forced to walk right beside speeding traffic.
Temporary Bicycle Lanes Coming to Carling Avenue
This will create new opportunities for active transportation in our community. Carling Avenue is a high-traffic corridor and an important east-west link in our bicycling network. Residents in Kitchissippi, Somerset and Capital Wards—and from all across the city—rely on Carling Avenue for their daily commutes, whether by car, transit, walking or rolling.
This route connects the Glebe and downtown to several neighbourhoods, including Little Italy, Dow’s Lake, the Glebe Annex and the Civic Hospital, and to other destinations further west.
Proper bicycling facilities along this stretch of Carling have been a longstanding need for the city, and our offices have been working with staff for years to implement a bicycle lane on Carling.
This year, we’ll finally see it happen.
Our only regret is that the city did not have funding to do this directly and the resources had to come out of our Ward Temporary Traffic Calming budgets. That's unfortunate, because critical infrastructure for active transportation should be a priority in a city that declared a climate change emergency, and one where bicycling safety is supposed to be part of every road design.
We expect the lanes will be implemented in the coming weeks.
Councillor Jeff Leiper, Kitchissippi Ward
Councillor Catherine McKenney, Somerset Ward
Councillor Shawn Menard, Capital Ward
