A busy one-way street in downtown Sudbury has a new bike lane, and car traffic is now reduced to one lane.

“If you were to go down (Larch Street) now, you will see that instead of two lanes of eastbound traffic, there is now one lane of eastbound traffic, as well as a dedicated parking lane, and then a track bike path adjacent to the sidewalk,” said David Knutson, City of Greater Sudbury.

Knutson says the city chose to add a bike path to Larch Street as part of its active transportation plan. The street connects two busier arteries: Elgin Street and Paris Street.

He added that Larch Street does not have enough traffic to need two lanes for vehicles.

In the winter, the bike lane will be used to store snow, and Knutson says pavement markings for the bike lanes will be added in the spring, making it clearer to drivers that they should not park there.

“Parking in a bike lane is not allowed,” Knutson said.

“Once all the signage is in place, if parking on the cycle path still becomes an issue, then yes, we will look to put some form of control in place.”

New fence on Brady Street

In addition to the bike path, another new feature of the downtown area is a fence or iron spikes along Brady Street, running past City Hall.

Although critics on social media called the fence “hostile architecture,” Knutson says it was erected to prevent people from crossing the street in the middle of a block.

There are three designated crosswalks along this stretch of road, but Knutson says many people weren’t using them.

“We still had a number of cases where pedestrians were still choosing to cross in the middle of a block. And unfortunately, that led to a pedestrian who was fatally injured in 2023,” he said .

Knutson added that a similar fence on Elm Street, across from the downtown bus depot, has proven effective in directing pedestrians into crosswalks.