We strongly encourage all Belle Isle park users to learn more about proposed changes to make the island safer and more accessible, especially for those on foot or bikes. One option is to attend the open house on July 8th from 10am until 1pm at the Dossin Museum at Belle Isle. If you cannot attend, there is an online presentation available. You can submit comments via email, too.
Some of the proposed changes are major, including making most of the roads two-way and having a separated bike lane around the island but in a counter-clockwise direction. This took us some time to mentally digest but the justifications made sense from a bike safety and traffic calming perspective. It also includes a two-way cycletrack on the bridge that eliminated the odd lane crossover for bicyclists. Another selling point is it didn't involve any road widenings. "Go fast" cyclists and large club rides might prefer just taking a vehicle lane while riding clockwise similar to what is done today. That would remain an option. We did suggest that signs are posted to let motorists and bicyclists know that this is a legal option. We've seen much negatively about making any road changes on the island, but would guess that almost none of those individuals have seen the presentation or heard the justifications. We get it. Change is difficult. We encourage everyone to learn more about these proposed changes.
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