Councillor John Taylor was equally concerned with the resources that were allocated to this plan.

“This has been agonizing, the amount of time, particularly professional staff time, that has been put into this and taken away from their regular duties which was the approved capital budget,” Taylor said.

“Now I’m faced with telling my residents that three projects that were in the approved capital budget are not going to be done this year because staff resources reported on this, over, and over and over again.”

All three of the delayed projects are for resurfacing, such as a shave and pave on Parkway Drive as well as Cedar Springs Road, and intersection improvements on Walker’s Line at No. 2 Sideroad that will be carried over to next year.

Burlington will finance the pilot remarking through savings found mostly by tendering the New Street and Drury Lane street rehabilitation projects early in the season, resulting in more competitive pricing.

Based on the city’s current cycling volume data, New Street carries around 60 cyclists daily. Comparatively, upwards of 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles use the road each day.

“We need to measure the impact on the motorists,” Goldring said. “There will be delays and we need to measure this appropriately.”

A recommendation by staff on whether or not to make cycling infrastructure on New Street permanent will come before city council at the conclusion of the one-year pilot.

Councillor Paul Sharman was against the staff recommendation and said it didn’t meet “any reasonable standard of a properly informed decision.”

“The people who support safe cycle lanes are people who already ride on the road and would appreciate a dedicated space,” he said. “Lines on New Street will make few people want to cycle who aren’t cycling now.”

Sharman went on to criticize the plan as not being in line with the city’s Strategic Plan, the strategic funding model or in line with the city’s goal of increasing modal split.

“The only justification seems to be consistency with the hopelessly out-of-date 2009 Cycling Master Plan and a rush to reduce cost irrespective of whether it will actually contribute to the achievement of any of our strategic goals,” he said.

“How serious, therefore, are we about our strategic plan?”