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Thank you to Councillors Sloane, Uteck, Adams and Fougere, for responding to my letter regarding transportation in HRM. Councillor Sloane is a member of sust-mar: she sent her response directly to the list. Councillor Uteck advises that a bike lane will be installed soon on Vernon St. Here is Councillor Fougere's response. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 17:30:18 -0300 From: Sheila Fougere <FOUGERs@region.halifax.ns.ca> Hi Paul: Thanks for your e-mail and all of your input on bicycle matters. Where do I collect my dandelion wine? I don't know how many other Councillors have ridden up the ramp, although I know that on different occasions both Councillor McInroy and former Councillor Kelly (now the Mayor) joined me in a bike ride from the Dartmouth end to the Halifax side of the bridge. The difficulties with the bridge bike lane access are a source of constant discussion at Bikeways Taskforce meetings. Recently, the Traffic and Transportation department at HRM spent some $$ to have a firm draw up some alternatives to the current situation. These were presented to Council in July. We won't see any improvements soon though. The suggested improvements have unfeasible price tags for the improvements they would make. There are a lot of other bicycle initiatives that could be implemented for the same cash and would be of wider benefit to HRM as a whole. One of the simplest improvements would be to allow bicycle traffic on both sides of the bridge but the current Board of the Bridge Commission is strongly opposed to this. Metro Transit has been great in investigating bicycle friendly improvements. At the request of the Bikeways Taskforce they researched bicycle racks for buses. They are not unwilling. The currently available racks do not meet URB standards and would have to be modified. Metro Transit also alternates vehicles amongst its routes, so would have to look at equipping all buses to make the service reliable. Large price tag, but until Council makes transportation a greater priority in the budget, it's not likely to happen. The bicycle lane on Brunswick street is part of a plan. It really only came into being last year because the opportunity to re-line the street occurred after some resurfacing was done. The Bikeways Taskforce has a series of potential routes identified. Hopefully this fall both a Transportation Demand Management Technician (focusing on pedestrian and cycling issues) and a Consultant (who will pull together all the various elements being worked on regarding cycling into a master plan), will be hired. I am optimistic that this will yield progress. I hope these initiatives give you some cause for optimism. We also need help pressuring the Provincial Government into looking more seriously at the issues surrounding bicycle transportation and improving Driver Education as it relates to sharing the road with cyclists. Again, thanks for your interest. Sheila Fougere Councillor, District 14 Chair, HRM Bikeways Taskforce fougers@region.halifax.ns.ca
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