95th Avenue bike lanes may detour onto service roads

City councillors will examine if there's enough room for vehicles to share the road with cyclists on 95th Avenue between 156th and 163rd streets.

Some councillors want bicycles shunted to the service road over the seven-block stretch, returning a segment of the busy west-end corridor to four lanes of traffic.

However in a report to be considered at the city transportation meeting next Wednesday, traffic planners say relocating the bike lanes would cost $1.1 million and do little to improve traffic flow or safety for motorists or cyclists.

The 95th Avenue bike route between 142 Street and 189 Street was built in October 2013, an eight-kilometre stretch linking west Edmonton, through MacKinnon Ravine into downtown.

The report says while 11,000 vehicles use 95th Avenue each day, only 50 cyclists use the bike lanes, an increase from the 20 per day prior to 2014.