The draft concept plan for 106 St (from 61 Ave to Sask Dr), and 76 Ave (104 St to Sask Dr) will be presented at an Open House on Thursday. The draft includes protected bike lanes for most of the length of the roadways, as well as numerous improvements to the pedestrian realm, including correcting missing sidewalks and designs to discourage speeding.

However, the City needs to hear widespread support of this plan to move forward. We need you to attend the open house on Thursday to support the plan and give your feedback to help improve it. Anyone can also sign up to contribute through online surveys and other events.

A few points worth considering for Thursday:

• Rolled curbs between the separated bike lane and the boulevard would be much preferable to standard vertical curbs. Rolled curbs allow cyclists to pass (e.g. a child trailer) or exit onto the boulevard if needed, which also encourages faster cyclists to use the separated bike lane (as opposed to the road).
• Intersections must be carefully designed to minimize or eliminate conflicts in the "mixing zone": the area where bike lanes merge and share space with right-turning cars. Designs like curb extensions, and raising the pedestrian crosswalk to highlight the intersection and force cars to take turns slowly can make these intersections much safer
• Balanced signal timing with shorter light cycles improves the pedestrian experience, especially in winter, discourages speeding, and encourages compliance. All traffic lights should include pedestrian phase without requiring a "beg button" to be pushed.
• Rather than a full traffic light control at 106 St and Whyte Ave, flashing crossing-lights (such as currently exist) prioritize pedestrians. Addition of pedestrian and cyclist activation controls on both west and east sides of 106 St would add functionality. Currently, a northbound cyclist would have to cross to the west side of the street and mount the sidewalk to activate the lights.
• A cafe, health centre, seniors housing, and church all exist on the 108 St block on 76 Ave. A raised intersection at 108 St will make this area safer and easier for pedestrians to cross while also improving the environment for cycling.

This will be the last engagement session in the Concept Planning stage. After this, the City Project Design Team begin preliminary/detailed design towards the final concept plan.