Kitchener council endorses bike lanes on Union Street
New lanes part of a wider effort to plot 100 km of bike lanes through Kitchener
Kitchener councillors voted Monday in favour of installing bike lanes on both sides of Union Street.
The lanes will run from Breithaupt Park to Lancaster Street, and sharrows will be installed on both sides of the street from Margaret Avenue to Breithaupt Park.
The city says it will keep on-street parking on one side of the street, and will consult with residents to determine the preferred side.
The lanes fit into the city's cycling master plan, which sets out guidelines to put in 100 kilometres of bikeways, which can include bike lanes, sharrows, bike paths and bike priority streets, throughout the city.
What's a 'sharrow'?
A sharrow is a striped marking on the pavement, telling drivers and cyclists that a bicycle is entitled to use the full lane on that particular street. Often it's an image of a bicycle and two chevrons pointing in the direction of traffic.
The word is a combination of "share" and "arrow."
Sharrows are used mostly in North America, where many cities that have been long dominated by the automobile as the primary means of transporation are looking to establish cycling as a viable alternative to commuting by car.
The markings are also meant to help ease congestion on city sidewalks by encouraging cyclists to ride on the road to alleviate potential conflicts or collisions in areas with heavy foot traffic.
Officials in Kitchener began deploying sharrows a number of years ago in an effort to encourage more people to take their bikes to work and to encourage more drivers to share the road.