The Edmonton Bike Coalition is holding a family-friendly celebration & bike protest on Saturday, June 18, at noon at 101 Ave & 75 St. If you’re interested in this project, attend to meet and work together with community members!
The current state of 101 Ave
Concept plans for the 101 Avenue Streetscape project were released in March 2022.
Overall, the plans are a significant improvement over the existing state of 101 Ave. But two significant gaps remain:
Between 80-84 St, the bike lane is only a painted lane on the road. We know that paint does not encourage people to bike, and excludes many, including women and children (the City even has a GBA+ policy).
The City of Edmonton does not maintain painted bike lanes in the winter, leaving an intentional missing link between the all-ages and abilities, all-season facilities to the east (the new 101 Ave protected bike lanes) and west (shared pathways into Forest Heights and Cloverdale, Downtown, and Mill Creek).
This section is currently identified as an “existing substandard district connector route” in the City’s Bike Plan Implementation Guide, and will continue to be substandard.
Based on its average traffic volume, the City’s own Complete Streets design standards call for buffered or protected bike lanes.
The protected bike lanes also vanish between 74 St to 76 St.
The Problem with 75 Street
Proposed painted bike lanes on 101 Ave.
Terminating the protected bike lanes at 76 St and 74 St is not safe.
Painting bike lanes between traffic flowing in all directions is not safe.
Here is what a similar bike lane in Waterloo looks like:
In contrast, 132 Avenue, which sees comparable traffic volumes, uses a much safer intersection design.
97 St is a major 7-lane arterial
75 St is a major 7-lane arterial
132 Ave has 4 lanes of traffic at the intersection
101 Ave has 4 lanes of traffic at the intersection
Concept plan for the intersection of 97 St and 132 Ave, a comparably busy street with the exact same number of traffic and turning lanes as 75 St and 101 Ave. The separated bike path is maintained in this design.
Edmonton’s Complete Streets Design Standards also state:
Painted bike lanes are generally suitable only on lower speed and lower motor vehicle volume streets... Larger or more complex intersections typically coincide with protected bike lanes or shared-use paths due to the motor vehicle traffic volumes and speeds. These locations require a greater degree of physical protection for people cycling and can include separate signal phasing of multimodal movements, two-stage turn queue boxes, and protected intersections.
If the intersection context (e.g., available space, traffic volumes, traffic speeds) does not make it possible to provide an intersection bike lane design that is suitable for the Design User group (i.e., motor vehicle speeds over 50 km/h or volumes over 4,000 veh/day), an alternative may be to terminate the painted bike lane prior to the intersection and transition via a bike ramp to an off-street bike path or protected bike lane.
On paper, Edmonton’s own design standards, which 101 Ave doesn’t appear to follow, echo best practices from other jurisdictions. NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials) has an entire guide called Don't Give Up at the Intersection. The City of Ottawa recently published their Protected Intersection Design Guide, which includes protected intersections for large, multi-lane roads.
Next steps
Funding for detailed design and construction of 101 Ave hasn’t been approved yet: that will need to come forward in Council’s 2023-2026 Capital Budget discussions. We want to see improvements to this neglected but important part of Edmonton. But we want to ensure that this investment creates actual improvements, and that the money spent on this project reflects Edmonton’s values and desires for a safe, equitable city.
Join the Edmonton Bike Coalition to help advocate for a better 101 Ave. You can join their mailing list, as well as join them in person on Saturday, June 18 at noon for a celebration and protest to build connections and community, and imagine better solutions.
Appendix
Guidelines for selecting facility types based on traffic volumes and speeds (Netherlands & Edmonton)
Dutch cycle facilities selection plan from the CROW Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic