The Riverview Park Community Association wrote to the city in support of bike lanes along St. Patrick.
Here is the letter:
The Riverview Park Community Association (RPCA) would like to add its voice to others around Ottawa who believe it is important to include building bike lanes along the full length of St. Patrick Street as part of that road’s repaving project this summer. The City of Ottawa has proposed protected bike lanes on St. Patrick from the Vanier Parkway to Coburg. It has proposed sharrows (shared-lane markings painted on the road) from Coburg to King Edward.
St. Patrick is an important link for people who travel by bike from Vanier to the ByWard Market or cross the Alexandria Bridge to Hull. Moreover, residents of other neighbourhoods east of the Rideau River (e.g. Alta Vista, Eastway Gardens, Overbrook, Riverview Park) already have safe and scenic pathway access from their neighbourhoods to St. Patrick Street, but cycling from there to the Market area along St. Patrick is very dangerous.
The St. Patrick repaving project provides the opportunity to create bike lanes for safe cycling along this main link to downtown. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to build a better road, for cars and for bikes. Let’s build a Complete Street.
We would urge the City to adopt the practice of considering the possibility of adding bike lanes part of any repaving process for major routes such as St. Patrick Street or Industrial Avenue as we feel this would be a synergistic opportunity that will save costs and lives in the long-run.
Thank you for considering our input.
Sincerely
Kris Nanda
Chair, RPCA Planning and Development Committee