Residents will now be able to contribute to the city’s segregated bike lane pilot project after Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes put the brakes on plans to present draft proposals for the project that would create a segregated bike lane across Centretown, from Preston to Elgin streets.

She says she stepped in so that residents and other interested parties can participate in the project rather than leave the planning exclusively to city staff.

“I was concerned that there was no public input into the staff discussion. There’s been no process for public consultation. It was all happening at the staff level, very unlike the way we usually do transportation planning matters,” says Holmes.

She says she’s also concerned that the city didn’t budget any money to facilitate a consultation process.

Holmes says she wants to establish an advisory committee made up of local merchants, homeowners, residents and other interested parties.

Some of the issues she says the advisory committee needs to look at are parking, street direction changes and lane widths.

Holmes says she will be asking council on April 7 to support a motion that would ask staff to determine the best street choice, and to create a public consultation process.

While Holmes’ actions will delay the project, she says that without public consultation the city’s plan would have failed.

“If this project fails its going to set us back another ten years, it may take longer with the public consultation but it will succeed,” she says.

Holmes adds that the project needs be successful so that Ottawa can catch up to other Canadian cities in terms of cycling infrastructure.

Centretown Citizens Community Association president Shawn Menard was getting ready for Ottawa’s Transportation Planner Joel Mulligan to make a public presentation to Centretown residents on last week when he found out that afternoon that the presentation was cancelled.

He says this was a direct result of Holmes intervention in the project. Menard says he agrees that public input is necessary.

“Given the nature of the project and how large it would be, it might be a good to hear more from the community,” says Menard.

City staff has reacted to Holmes’ intervention with secrecy. They say they will not give interviews regarding the pilot project and will come forward in the coming months with more information.

Gabriel Durocher, of Cycling Vision Ottawa, says he was impressed by the city’s presentation to the roads and cycling advisory committee on March 15.

“Considering the presentation was just a draft proposal it seems like the city is moving ahead really quickly.”

He says that the city needs a segregated bike route to run through the city’s core.

“Right now, we have a lack of integrated networks, the paths we have are beautiful but the run around the city like a doughnut, the downtown is really a black hole.”

He says that the segregated lanes will encourage more cycling and will be a draw for local downtown businesses.

“Cyclists spend more on local goods because they’re not spending that money on gas, and they’ll spend that money along the local route,” says Durocher.

There is no timetable set for the project and any construction could be more than a year away.

The city’s proposal was supposed to go before council sometime this summer, but with increased public participation it may take even longer.