Can We Make Bank Street a Safer Place for People?

Across the city, there’s a lot of good things happening along Bank Street right now. In the Glebe section of Bank the City is running a study to add bike lanes and/or bus lanes, and the Bank Street Canal Bridge was recently rebuilt with raised cycle tracks. In Old Ottawa South, weekday bus lanes have been added to speed up transit, and separated bike lanes will soon be added over Billings Bridge. 

Continuing further south, the City is undertaking a multi-year project to reconstruct Bank Street as a “Complete Street” all the way from Riverside to Kitchener Avenue. The Bank Street Rail Bridge, just north of Greenboro Station, is also being studied right now for separated cycling lanes and staff have told us that public consultation should occur in Spring 2025.

Finally, south of South Keys, down in Findlay Creek, Bank Street is being widened – also as a Complete Street – forming a new main street for that community. 

With all this progress happening across the city, we’re left with the question: “what about our piece of Bank Street?”. Between Hunt Club and Johnston, Bank Street basically hasn’t been touched since it was first built decades ago. The South Keys Secondary Plan imagines Bank Street as a Complete Street with raised bicycle paths and more pedestrian crossings, but with no funding and no timeline. Instead, we’re left with a Bank Street where speeding is commonplace, sidewalks are too close to the road, and even crossing the street at a traffic light can feel very dangerous.

Two recent incidents made that more apparent than ever: on November 2, a crash occurred at Bank and Johnston that sent a police vehicle careening through the north-east pedestrian island (thankfully no one was standing there at the time); and less than a week later on November 8, a driver struck a cyclist on the Bank Street Rail Bridge, leaving them seriously injured.

We need a Bank Street that works for all road users – and right now it’s not even safe for drivers. With this in mind, Better South Keys Centre wrote a letter to Councillor Jessica Bradley in November 2024 calling on the City to:

• Immediately prioritize the Bank/Johnston for the installation of a dedicated left turn signal, addressing the most pressing safety issue at this intersection,
• Conduct a full and transparent road safety review of the Bank/Johnston intersection, with regards to the safety of all modes, and
• Reduce the posted speed limit on Bank Street to 50 km/h between Hunt Club and Kitchener, with associated design measures to reinforce lower speeds.

Councillor Bradley has listened to our concerns and is advocating to the City for improvements. On December 10, BSKC met on-site with Councillor Bradley and staff from the City’s road safety, traffic signals, and transportation planning groups to discuss solutions. 

• The City recently retimed some of the traffic signals on Bank Street to reduce their “cycle length”, which has made the lights change quicker when pedestrians push the button to cross.
• At Councillor Bradley’s request, the City conducted a speed survey on Bank Street south of Johnston and found that, out of 22,833 vehicles counted, the average speed was 54 km/h and the 85th-percentile speed was 64 km/h. 
• The City is studying a “no-right-on-red” restriction for the right turn from Bank onto Johnston to improve pedestrian safety. 
• Proposed designs for improvements to add cycling lanes to the Bank Street Rail Bridge should be presented to the public this Spring.
• Bank from Albion to Kitchener is also scheduled for road resurfacing in the next couple years and the City is exploring opportunities to make further safety improvements through this work.

We are grateful for the Councillor’s interest and support on this item; with O-Train Lines 2 and 4 now operational, South Keys Centre’s evolution into a people-centric hub is continuing; now we just need a Bank Street that works for everyone.

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