Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed Province-wide Cycling Network. It is encouraging to see the province pushing forward with a cycling strategy for the entire province. In my role as Director of Engineering & Development Services for the City of Belleville, I have been excited to be part of the team that has developed a new Transportation Master Plan, which includes an Active Transportation plan for the City. Integral to the Active Transportation plan is a complete cycling network that the City has been working to implement over the past 3 years. This network incorporates many existing multi-use trails, complemented by the introduction of the City's first on-street cycling lanes. This network is beginning to take shape and over the next several years will allow for cycling throughout the City by a combination of off-road trails, on-road bike lanes, and road sharing routes.

Unfortunately, it appears our efforts will cease at the City of Belleville limits as the proposed Province-wide Cycling Network completely by-passes the City of Belleville. This is unfortunate on many levels. There is an existing trail connection from the City to the Trans-Canada trail system through the Hastings County trail system, including the Hastings Heritage Trail. This trail system can be seen on the link below: https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=44.98560592634284%7E-76.69260406506248&lvl=8&sty=r&cid=FFF40924343 813D0%21784 In addition to the Canada-wide trail network that connects the City to the north, Belleville is the main gateway to Prince Edward County to the south. Our Cycling network connects to the PEC cycling routes via the Norris Whitney Bridge/ Provincial Highway 62.

The proposed Province-wide Cycling Network is missing a significant opportunity to connect with the City of Belleville and our cycling infrastructure. The City is fortunate to have active groups promoting cycling in the City and that is evidenced by the City recently being named a 2017 Bronze award winner by Share The Road for our efforts to promote cycling.

By way of suggestions, I would say the most important change to the proposed network would be to extend it easterly from Quinte West along the north shore of the Bay of Quinte, through the City of Belleville, to Napanee, and further extend the network from Napanee to Highway 33 west of Kingston. In addition, the proposed network should provide a connection from the City of Belleville northerly to the Trans-Canada trail and southerly to connect to the proposed network crossing Prince Edward County. From an Economic Development and Tourism perspective, it is important that the proposed Province-wide Network show these connections to the City of Belleville. The City is part of The Great Waterway provincial tourism territory which includes Cycle tourism as one of its main attractions (http://thegreatwaterway.com/pt-explore/hiking-cycling/#!page_id=130656fd8f1a3e7af). Promoting this region as a Cycling destination, but not connecting to the proposed Province-wide Cycling Network would appear to be short sighted and a missed opportunity to connect a great part of Ontario to the rest of the province.

Rod Bovay

[Original Comment ID: 209380]