A Saskatoon safety group is calling on the city to reconsider the design of downtown bike lanes.
The Saskatoon and District Safety Council says the bike lanes on Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street are a barrier for people with mobility issues to access the sidewalk.
“Those who use wheelchairs and walkers find that they are far from the sidewalk after parking beside the bicycle lanes,” Brian Fehr, president of the Saskatoon and District Safety Council, wrote in a letter to the mayor.
“It is not easy to cross the bicycle lane and then access the sidewalk as the conveyance has to be raised anywhere from 12 to 20 centimeters.”
The letter, which also asks the city to release its published design standards for the bike lane designs, is set to be discussed in a Saskatoon Accessibility Advisory Committee on Friday afternoon.
The dedicated bike lanes on Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street are part of a pilot project, which began May 2016.
City council will decide the future of the lanes before the end of the year.
