May 2012 is poised to be the busiest month for the Laurier Ave. segregated bike lanes since they were constructed last summer. According to the online counter, we’re closing in on 50,000 rides for the month.

You might have read that a group called the Bay Bronson Residents Action Group for Fair Access to the Road — more easily remembered by its acronym, BBRAGFAR — wants changes to the bike lanes.

A friend of mine pointed out a cheeky bike lane supporter managed to snag bbragfar.ca to proclaim, “Everyday thousands of cyclists use the Laurier Bike Lane…”

Churchill Ave. will be torn up this year to renew the underground infrastructure and receive a facelift on the surface.

You’ll notice the city is installing a raised cycling lane between the sidewalk and the road. It’s not quite a segregated bike lane like the one on Laurier Ave., but it removes cyclists from traffic and Churchill Ave. is a busy, narrow street.

“Everything we do, I’m pushing for cycling,” Kitchissippi Coun. Katherine Hobbs said.

As roads are torn up under the city’s massive reconstruction program, we could see more of this kind of cycling infrastructure.

Avid cyclists will be able to point out other areas that have a similar raised lane in Ottawa, but the street that immediately came to mind for me was this small stretch of Percy St. between Centretown and the Glebe.

If you have been around City Hall lately you have noticed the crazy amount of construction on and around the property.

Some work is being done on the heritage wing and we have the Rink of Dreams being dug out on the front lawn. Across City Hall on Lisgar St., there’s a new condo high rise going up.

Then we have a bike shelter project near the Lisgar St. entrance at City Hall.

A sign tells us it’s a stimulus project and while I don’t know the exact cost of the project, this report tells me there is $500,000 in all bike shelter work in the city’s stimulus project budget.

I can only assume the work will be complete by the Oct. 31 deadline.

Just wondering, does anyone know how this bike shelter is going to function?

There looks to be a gate being constructed where the bike racks were, and when I first saw that a bike shelter was being constructed, I thought it was odd it would be built under an existing shelter.

I talked about it with some observers at City Hall earlier, but no one really knows how this shelter will operate.

Little help?

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Follow City Hall reporter Jon Willing on Twitter at @JonathanWilling.