Cycling Consultant working with city to draft new strategy

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Reid Southwick
Telegraph-Journal

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SAINT JOHN - Dean Price often car pools from his west side home to work on Rothesay Avenue, but he tries to ride his bicycle as much as he can.

Price says several legs of the journey are fraught with heavy traffic and dangerous intersections, including Simms Corner, something he says is discouraging for commuters who would prefer to leave their cars at home.

Price, a founding member of the community group Active Transportation Saint John, has been pushing for more biking lanes and alternative trail routes throughout the city for years.

Today, a private consultant is working with the city to draft a new strategy that will map out a network of trails, both current and proposed, throughout Saint John and stretching to Rothesay and Grand Bay-Westfield.

The city will use the completed strategy to plan, build and maintain its trails system.

"Any time you're talking about public projects, it's very difficult to say to common council, 'Give us $100,000 to build a bike path.' They basically roll their eyes and say, next," Price said with a laugh.

"But if you're rebuilding a street, if you're building a pipeline or you're doing some other linear project, the incremental cost to add a trail or bike lane to that project may be very minor."

Council recently approved the Terrain Group's bid to develop the new trails and bikeway strategy for about $61,600. The Saint John consulting firm is expected to meet with user groups and hold public meetings, with the work likely taking about three months.

"We're looking at neighbourhood trails, community trails and citywide trails with linkages," said Bernie Morrison, commissioner of the city's leisure services department.

"If you're going for a bike ride or a walk, you should be able to go around your neighbourhood and expand into other areas of the city."

Price said that's good news for bike riders and trail users in the city. He said there are several dangerous stretches of city roads that some riders dread, such as the Marco Polo Bridge, parts of Millidge Avenue and sections of Loch Lomond Road. And he said they could be fixed or reconfigured over time.

"If we can identify a few of these key bottlenecks and say, 'We're not going to spend $1 million on trails, but if we spend $20,000, $10,000 or even $5,000 to fix this intersection, it may improve the safety and the enjoyment for lots of trail users,' " Price said.

He said city taxpayers will see very quickly the benefits of a comprehensive trails strategy.

"Once they put together a good trail plan, people will see it's worth it," Price said. "It may cost a little bit of money but that investment hopefully will be paid back by more people wanting to live in certain neighbourhoods.

"If I could easily bike from my house to work on a safe trail that's fun, there is going to be a lot more demand for houses in that neighbourhood."

The strategy is expected to map out trails within the city but also to outlying municipalities.

Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Grace Losier said there have been many discussions in the past about potential trails that would link municipalities in Greater Saint John, but they haven't gained much traction.

"I'm thrilled the city has hired a consultant to do this work for them, so maybe we can nail some of this stuff down."