Downtown traffic congestion increases temporarily as bike lane installation continues
The city’s bike lane crews have a message for frustrated downtown drivers: hang in there, it gets better.
“We know right now traffic is at its absolute worst,” said project manager Olga Messinis, commiserating with motorists in the 100 Avenue and 103 Street corridors.
Traffic lanes have been closed, parking spots cut, but new and upgraded signal lights are still being installed. By mid-June, those will give engineers the flexibility to extend specific green times and clear rush hour traffic better, said Messinis.
On 100 Avenue, city engineers took one lane of traffic away to accommodate a bi-directional bike lane. The street is now down to one lane in each direction with the third lane dedicated to left-turns at most intersections. Before, it had two lanes in each direction with few reserved spaces for left-turning vehicles.
103 Street was narrowed for the bike lane, but still has parking on each side. It will have a vibrant green “
bike box” at 100 Avenue, allowing bikes to cut in front of cars at a red light before turning left.
Lawyer Neil Mather has a bird’s-eye and ground level view of the 100 Avenue congestion.
From his office at the corner of 100 Avenue and 106 Street, he sees traffic backing up each afternoon from 109 to 103 streets. When he leaves for home, it can take two light cycles just to turn right from 105 Street onto 100 Avenue. “Traffic just isn’t moving.”
