St. John's holds off spending $125K on bike lane consultant

St. John's city council voted Monday to defer a decision on what to do with bike lanes in the city.

More than $1.5 million has been spent on the bike routes since 2007, but councillors voted Monday to hold off on spending another $125,000 on a bike lane consultant.

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Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth said the city may hire a consultant eventually, but not right now. 

"Council tonight did not vote against the consultant," he said.

"We are taking a two-step approach: one is to form the committee, get them in place, then give them the terms of reference to work under and ask them to come back to us on the consultant."

Mayor Dennis O'Keefe said deferring the decision was a big mistake and just delays the inevitable. He told council by the time a consultant looks at the bicycling plan, it's going to cost a lot more money to fix.

"I think they're bicycling down the wrong road," the mayor said.

"It would have been a wise investment for council to put the $125,000 into a consultant who could work in tandem with the committee."​