Duane Hicks
Town council has referred local resident Wayne Lundstrom’s concerns about people riding bicycles on sidewalks to the local Police Services Board because it is the OPP that is authorized to stop cyclists.
However, the town will not revisit its traffic control bylaw provisions surrounding cyclists, nor install signage within the downtown core to tell them to get off the sidewalk.
In a report to council, Operations and Facilities manager Travis Rob said he spoke with members of the bylaw enforcement department about the traffic control bylaw and cyclists on sidewalks.
He noted Section 5.3 (Driving on Sidewalks, Curb or Boulevard) states, in part, that “no person shall drive a bicycle within any sidewalk area or on a curb.”
“However, the real guidelines for cyclists comes under the Highway Traffic Act,” Rob added.
“This act outlines the ‘rules of the road’ for all vehicles, including cyclists,” he said. “This act is enforced by the [OPP].
“The municipal bylaw enforcement officers are not permitted to stop vehicles; therefore, stronger wording in the traffic control bylaw will not make a change to the ability of the municipality to enforce what is currently in place,” Rob explained.
Under the current OPP service agreement, the traffic control bylaw currently is enforced by the OPP, as is the Highway Traffic Act.
“Furthermore, the OPP have periodic ‘bicycle rodeo’ events where they educate youth on the rules surrounding the safe operation of bicycles, which could be a tool to alleviate this issue,” noted Rob.
Since only the OPP have the ability to stop a cyclists, and since the OPP holds frequent public engagement and information sessions on bike safety, the Operations and Facilities executive committee recommended Lundstrom’s request be sent to the Police Services Board for further consideration, to which council agreed.
Meanwhile, signage stating “No Bicycles on Sidewalk” could be purchased for the downtown core and placed on the street lighting poles, but this will be problematic, noted Rob.
“The issue with taking this approach in the downtown core is that we do not have a bicycle path to direct cyclists to,” he said.
“This would increase the interaction of cyclists and vehicular traffic, coupled with the fact that Scott Street is a truck route.”
Rob recalled the Town of Fort Frances, in partnership with the Northwestern Health Unit, underwent a study and subsequent plan looking at an active transportation network back in 2011.
The recommendations were widely varying from new sidewalks and off-road bike paths to on-road bike lanes.
“The major stumbling block that impacted the installation of on-road bike lanes was the reality that, under the Highway Traffic Act, one lane would have to be constructed in each direction,” said Rob.
“This, coupled with the width of our existing roadways, meant that one of the parking lanes would have to be abandoned to shift the traffic to accommodate the two bike lanes,” he explained.
“Given the parking issues in the downtown core currently, the ability to construct a bike path in this area is not realistic.”
The majority of council agreed to referring the matter to the Police Services Board, with the exception of Coun. Ken Perry.
“I find it strange we would entertain this at Operations and Facilities and refer it to the Police Services Board, or any other board for that matter, and hog tie them by saying they can’t revisit the traffic control bylaw and they can’t control the idea of putting in signage,” he remarked.
“What if that’s their only two recommendations? Why would you say you can’t do that?
“Let the Police Services Board make that recommendation back to us,” said Coun. Perry.
“What’s the sense in sending it to another board and saying, ‘You can’t do this and you can’t do that?’”
