New bike lane added in downtown Sudbury on a busy one-way street
Traffic along Larch Street is now reduced to 1 lane for traffic and a bike lane has been added
A busy one way street in downtown Sudbury has a new bike lane, and vehicular traffic is now down to one lane.
"If you were to go drive down [Larch Street] now you'll see that instead of two eastbound travel lanes there's now one eastbound travel lane, as well as a dedicated parking lane and then a bike lane adjacent to the curb," said David Knutson, from the City of Greater Sudbury.
Knutson says the city chose to add a bike lane to Larch Street as part of its active transportation plan. The street connects two busier thoroughfares: Elgin Street and Paris Street.
He added that Larch Street does not get enough traffic volume to need two lanes for vehicles.
In the winter, the bike lane will be used to store snow, and Knutson says bike lane pavement markings will be added in the spring, making it clearer for drivers that they should not park there.
"Parking in a bike lane isn't permitted," Knutson said.
"Once all the signage is in place, if parking in the bike lane still becomes a problem, then yes, we'd look to do some type of enforcement."
New fence on Brady Street
In addition to the bike lane, another new fixture in the city's downtown is a fence or iron spikes along Brady Street, running past city hall.
Although criticism on social media has referred to the fence as "hostile architecture," Knutson says it was erected to stop people from crossing the street mid-block.
There are three designated crosswalks along that stretch of road, but Knutson says a lot of people weren't using them.
"We still had a number of cases where pedestrians were still choosing to cross mid-block. And unfortunately that led to a pedestrian who was fatally injured in 2023," he said.
Knutson added that a similar fence on Elm Street, across from the city's downtown bus depot, has proven successful at directing pedestrians to crosswalks.