Advocacy in Action! Felstead Ave Cut Through

It's not a big piece of infrastructure, but sometimes the little things make a big difference to the ease and convenience of cycling.  And that's really what keeps most of us on two wheels: it's quick and convenient. Biking really is the easiest way to get around our Ward, its faster, no waiting for transit, and parking is dead easy.  Make it even easier for local residents and you encourage more people to do the same.

In late 2013 a few of our members identified a local cycling route just off of the Greenwood bike lanes that needed a few fixes to improve the convenience of this route.  One on Felstead was a traffic calming island that was doing a great job of preventing speedy motorist cut throughs, but was unfortunately very awkward for cyclists.  

Ward 30 Bikes' Problems/Opportunities Map | http://ward30bikes.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html

The small gaps on the sides (probably helpful for drainage) could fit a bike, but with parking bumped up against it, not easily.  And a trailer for families on bikes?  nope, wheels get wedged tight.  A cut through right down the middle would be the perfect fix.

I wish we could say this was a quick process.  But alas, as is the case with things in the city it's not always as fast as you'd like it to be.

Back on a cold day in February 2014, Ward30bikes members Michael and Paul meet with our councilor Paula Fletcher and city staff to assess and make measurements.  Everything was a go, and our project was added to the list of projects for city staff.  And then we waited.

Eventually in spring this year we heard back from our councillor's office that our project had finally come up on the list and was ready to go.  We did a final measurement check with a bike trailer to confirm the plans that were drafted, and in May construction finally happened.

Felstead Ave is now home to cyclist friendly traffic calming!