Canada Drive Active Transportation and Safety Improvements Update

City staff are bringing a recommendation for the design of Canada Drive to the Committee of the Whole (COTW) meeting this Wednesday, November 16, 2022.

Previously, the City shared two concepts to improve active transportation and road safety on Canada Drive and collected feedback for the following options.

• Option One – Adding a bidirectional bike path on one side of the street, sidewalks on both sides of the street and allowing parking on one side only.
• Option Two – Adding a shared-use path (SUP) on one side of the street, sidewalk on the other side of the street with parking allowed on both sides.

Public engagement on the two options took place between April 26 and May 31, 2022. Read the complete WWH document at engagestjohns.ca.

City Staff evaluated the two facility types using input gathered from public and stakeholder engagement, sightlines along the corridor as well as winter maintenance for the facility. City staff are recommending at the COTW meeting to design a shared-use path on the south side of Canada Drive. Meetings are broadcast live on the City’s website.

The design of active transportation improvements is for Canada Drive, from Columbus Drive to Team Gushue Highway (civic address of 243 Canada Drive). It also includes a shared-use path extension along Columbus Drive from Captain Whelan Drive to Canada Drive. This route will eventually connect via the existing shared-use path along Columbus Drive to Kelly’s Brook Shared-Use-Path creating an east to west bike network.

The City of St. John’s is committed to building a balanced transportation network to get people and goods where they want to go safely. This project is identified in the City’s Strategic Plan under the goal to expand and maintain a safe and accessible active transportation network.