Port Moody council will determine on Tuesday whether to spend up to $24,000 from the city’s master transportation reserve fund to develop a concept plan and implementation strategy for a new separated bike lane along Guildford Way, from Ioco Road to the Coquitlam border.
As well, council could also direct staff to begin developing concept plans for new protected bike lanes on Heritage Mountain Boulevard and the southern side of Murray Street.
The three routes are among several identified for high-priority consideration of upgrades in a review of Port Moody’s bike routes by civil engineering consultants R.F. Binnie & Associates Ltd.
In a report, transportation engineer Geoffrey Keyworth said some of the routes, like Ioco Road and Spring Street, are already part of other studies that include accommodation for cycling.
But the painted lanes currently running along both sides of Guildford Way will fall way short of the safety and comfort standard set once Coquitlam has completed construction of protected lanes in its Guildford Greenway project that will run from the Port Moody border to Pinetree Way.
That project recently received $500,000 from the provincial government.
Guildford Way has also been identified as a route in need of upgrades by HUB Cycling.
“This corridor is one of our most preferred routes in the Tri-Cities area to improve because it connects all three municipalities within the Tri-Cities,” said the advocacy group’s local representatives Andrew Hartline and Colin Fowler in a letter, adding the route also connects several popular civic amenties.
However, Keyworth cautioned, Port Moody’s portion of Guildford currently isn’t wide enough to accommodate separated bike lanes, so further planning is needed to determine how best to integrate with the new lanes being built in Coquitlam.
As for Murray Street, Keyworth said the new multi-use path running along its north side has become “one of the city’s most comfortable cycling routes,” but the southern side is woefully inadequate with nothing from Rocky Point Park to Electronic Avenue and just a painted lane from Electronic Avenue to Ioco Road.
A new protected bike lane on Heritage Mountain Boulevard would also be a natural connection to the existing multi-use path that runs along David Avenue, Keyworth said.
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