Is biking to the LRT a good idea?

Since winter has come early this year, I was forced to substitute my bike commute for transit. Last year, I went to work using a fat tire e-bike. However, riding on the groomed Ski Heritage East trail was not ideal and was more effort than I had expected. When my bike was destroyed by a driver who decided to cut me off on Beechwood in April, I opted for a more conventional e-bike so riding on the trail was not an option. So I reluctantly became a transit rider (I am still advocating for a winter bike route).

I live along the route of the 237. Unfortunately, the route only runs 4 times a day and the times do not line up with my parental obligations. I wish the bus that stops at a bus stop visible from my window was an option but unfortunately, it is not. I am a bit pessimistic about the state of local bus services once the LRT is online so I don’t think the situation will improve. My walk to and from Jeanne D’Arc Station is about 22 minutes according to Google but I am a fast walker and could do it in 15 minutes. Since I still use my bike to get around Orléans, I tried riding to the station. The ride takes me about 4 minutes. Biking to the station has been working great for me. My bike ride is about 1.6km riding along Voyageurs, riding on Chablis, cutting through the park to Vineyards and then riding from the roundabout to the bus station.

Biking to the station works well for me, so I want to see if it is something that could work well for other transit users in our community. I enjoy using scenarios to evaluate these types of things so I decided to pick a few locations that I see as being the worst case to see if it is something that could be done by others. My locations are Fairwinds Crescent, Radisson Way, Bilberry and Chantenay, and Terranova Drive. I did not look at the area south of the 174 since it is pretty close to the stations. Here is a summary of the routes that I would take:

At first glance, the distances are pretty reasonable. It seems like my experience could be replicated. Fairwinds Crescent is a similar route to mine. The new multi-use pathway along Jeanne D’Arc makes the route fairly comfortable. The pathway is currently not plowed but, hopefully, it will be when the LRT launches. However, the other routes have some spots where I believe riding would be uncomfortable for a lot of people, especially in winter. For people on Radisson or at Bilberry and Chantenay, riding on Orléans Boulevard and Jeanne D’Arc could be a major deterrent. For those on Terranova Drive, riding on Champlain could also be a negative experience.

The stage 2 east extension of the LRT was initially supposed to be launched in early 2021. The LRT stations at Jeanne D’Arc and Convent Glen do not have good drop off spots for those able to get a ride to the stations. OC Transpo never had a plan to get frequent service to the LRT stations because it would be too expensive to run. The decision to have the stations in the 174 median has made it too far to walk for a lot of people. Cycling to the stations was always a reasonable option, but the city has done very little to ensure that the stations were connected to our neighbourhoods.

I hope that some of you will do like me and ride to the station even when it involves pogies and studded winter tires. I also hope that the city will look at quickly building the routes on the Transportation Master Plan that will help people ride to the station (notably Orléans Boulevard), and add more routes such as Champlain to that plan. It would also help if our premier did not interfere with local planning processes with ridiculous blanket rules written for a cynical manufactured culture war and not a good transportation system in mind. We spent billions of dollars on our LRT station. It would be great if we could build the cheap infrastructure that could make it actually useful.