The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A pr il 28 ,2 02 2 | 14 The Town of Oakville says it will re- place dozens of protected bike lane divid- ers, which either went missing or were damaged during the winter. The flexible delineators were used to create protected bike lanes along Speers Road between Third Line and Fourth Line in September 2021. A cursory examination of this section of road in late March revealed that dozens of these plastic markers are now missing. In some cases, the installed curbs, which held these markers, are all that remains while in other cases a single marker will be left on a curb which normally features two. The town has placed orange pylons at the locations where the markers are missing. When reached for comment the Town's Director of Transportation and Engineer- ing, Jill Stephen, confirmed "several" of the original installed flexible delineators went missing or were damaged over the winter. When asked if the markers had been damaged by snowplow activity town staff said they had not received any reports in- dicating this. "They may have been damaged by the buildup of snow or accidentally damaged by other vehicles," said Stephen. There were reportedly 168 flexible de- lineators installed as part of these protect- ed bike lanes and it is unclear at this time how many are missing or damaged. It is al- so unclear how much it will cost to repair or replace the delineators.Town staff said they are looking into ways to prevent this damage from happening again. "The town is currently reviewing modi- fications to both the design (locations of curbs and delineators) as well as the style of curb that holds the delineators (heavi- er/taller)," said Stephen. The bike lane markers are expected to be back in place later this spring. Dozens of safety placards along the separated bike lanes along Speers Road between Third and Fourth Line have been damaged/removed and replaced by safety pylons. Graham Paine/Metroland WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE PROTECTED BIKE LANE MARKERS? DAVID LEA dlea@metroland.com NEWS