Street parking along Shelbourne Street between Hillside Avenue and Haultain Street could soon be eliminated as the City of Victoria introduces cycling lanes on that stretch to connect with bike lanes in the works in neighbouring Saanich.
Victoria council voted unanimously Thursday to direct staff to look into establishing the new bike lanes, which would connect to existing bike lanes that run between Hillside Avenue and North Dairy Road.
Those, in turn, would connect to new protected bike lanes being established by Saanich in its extensive restructuring of Shelbourne Street.
Coun. Dave Thompson brought forward the motion, noting Saanich is building its all-ages-and-abilities bike network from PKOLS Mount Douglas down Shelbourne all the way to the Victoria border at North Dairy.
“There will be a gap at that point and it’ll be on us, not on Saanich,” he said. “When Saanich is done, we want to be ready to connect.”
Saanich hopes to have the $23-million second phase of its Shelbourne Street upgrade project completed this fall.
The project includes north and southbound protected bike lanes on Shelbourne from North Dairy Road to Pear Street, along with traffic-signal upgrades, road repaving, sidewalk widening, new crossings and underground infrastructure upgrades.
The first phase of the project included protected bike lanes on Shelbourne between McKenzie Avenue and Torquay Drive, upgraded underground utility infrastructure, traffic-signal upgrades, repaving and sidewalk repairs.
Thompson said plans for protected bike lanes and underground-infrastructure upgrades along Shelbourne Street in Victoria are already part of the official community plan, and the motion just provides an interim solution until those plans are ready to be put into action.
Thursday’s motion proposes public consultation on the project, and including the Shelbourne-Begbie corridor in the all-ages-and-abilities bicycle network.
The city’s head of transportation, Ross Kenny, suggested the work could fit into the city’s schedule this year.
Kenny noted there are more than 100 London plane trees that were planted along the Victoria portion of Shelbourne 100 years ago, and in order to accommodate the cycling lanes on either side of the street without disturbing the trees, the city would have to remove vehicle parking along the corridor.
Kenny said it could be a buffered painted bike lane at first that would eventually be upgraded to protected bike lanes when that stretch of Shelbourne gets its underground utility upgrades and repaving in four to eight years.
Kenny stressed that installing the interim bikes lanes would have no effect on the London plane trees, and that it’s unlikely the longer-term upgrades would affect them either.
The London plane trees were planted in 1921 as a memorial to soldiers who did not return from the First World War.
At that time, 600 London plane trees were planted from PKOLS Mount Douglas in Saanich to Bay Street in Victoria in honour of the 600 British Columbia soldiers killed in the Boer War and First World War.
About 200 of the trees — 100 each in Saanich and Victoria — remain after development and road building over the years, though some were planted later than 1921.
The memorial has been expanded over the years to represent soldiers from all of Canada’s conflicts.
“Rather than waiting four to eight years, I do think it makes sense to bump this one up the list of priorities,” said Coun. Jeremy Caradonna.
“Having a really safe and effective north-south cycling facility on Shelbourne will save an enormous amount of time for those who need to move north-south. I think this is really an essential bit of business that we need to do to complete our OCP-endorsed cycling facilities.”
Mayor Marianne Alto added that it makes sense to align Victoria’s work on Shelbourne with the work in Saanich. “This is an opportunity that shouldn’t be overlooked.”
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