With access across all of the major east/west roads in the Daniel McIntyre ward, and over the CPR Yards, Arlington has considerable potential to become an important north/south bicycle connection.
The current configuration of Arlington street with its overly wide travel lanes often leads to situations where drivers mistakenly interpret Arlington as having four travel lanes instead of the two that are striped. When encountering cyclists, this misinterpretation of Arlington as a four lane roadway often leads motorists to pass cyclists with a dangerously narrow passing distance.
The installation of protected bike lanes on Arlington would remove this dangerously ambiguous road configuration while providing cyclists with a high quality north/south connection through an area of the city where population density and roadway connectivity provide significant potential to encourage more trips by bicycle.
While the addition of protected bicycle lanes on this stretch of Arlington would require the removal of parking, there are opportunities to limit the loss of parking by installing parking bays where gaps exist between boulevard trees.
In these locations, the acquisition of a narrow 1m easement along the street would allow for the bike lanes and sidewalk to be bent behind parking and then back onto the existing right of way before reaching the next tree.
Using parking bays in this manner could lead to the retention of up to 60 parking stalls along Arlington, which would not be prone to peak hour restrictions.
Between Notre Dame and Logan, the removal of parking from one side of Arlington would allow for the installation of protected bike lanes to encourage greater levels of cycling.
This configuration could be continued north towards Logan. From there, the cycling treatment applied to Arlington would be dependent on the outcome of the CPR Yards Functional Crossing Study, which will determine the fate of the Arlington Bridge.
Possible outcomes of that study include re designating the Arlington Bridge as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, rebuilding the bridge (which would allow for the continuation of the protected bike lanes, or a complete decommissioning of the bridge.
Arlington Protected Bike Lanes Project (in green)