Mayor Ernie Bourassa says he knows the city can't please everyone with the changes to Fourth Avenue.

However, he says work will be done over the summer on providing bike lanes on the section from Second Avenue to Ogilvie Street where Fourth Avenue will return to four lanes.

The mayor's comment today came after a morning meeting he had with city engineers where they looked at what he thought would be a good compromise for drivers and cyclists who use the street. The proposal won't work though, he was told.

'It's unfortunate,' Bourassa said.

The initiative would have seen the centre turning lane developed into a northbound lane with one southbound lane on the street section where council voted Monday evening to return it to four lanes. That would have permitted the bike lanes on either side to remain, Bourassa explained in an interview.

City engineers, however, pointed to the traffic heading south which could back up if that initiative was done.

'Basically, the bikes and the vehicles will have to share the road again,' Rob Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, said this morning of Fourth Avenue from Baxter Street to Ogilvie Street.

Last month, the road was changed from four directional lanes to two directional and a centre turning lane for drivers, with bike lanes on either side. The scheme was part of the city's Transportation Showcase Review program.

Under the Transport Canada project, the city receives up to $700,000 for initiatives which help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to use non-vehicle transportation such as cycling or shared forms of transportation like transit.

After the changes to Fourth Avenue were made, many motorists complained about the extensive traffic congestion on the street. There were some suggestions the new lanes do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases as drivers take longer alternative routes or are forced to sit in traffic on long stretches of Fourth for longer periods.

The situation saw council call Monday's special meeting and vote to repaint the four lanes on Fourth Avenue between Ogilvie Street and Second Avenue.

Since then, city staff have been working on how the street lines will be repainted.

Fendrick said there will be a bike path from Two Mile Hill to Baxter Street, with drivers and cyclists sharing Fourth Avenue from there to the Qwanlin Mall area at Ogilvie Street, where the bike lanes and new lanes will remain.

Bourassa noted there's been some misinformation about council's decision to go back to four lanes on the section of Fourth Avenue. Many people seem to think the city is changing the entire proposal for the road rather than just a section of it.

He said over the summer, work will likely be done to widen the northbound side of the road section by moving the curb back to allow for a bike lane.

'We're going to have to expand the showcase,' Bourassa said.

He noted cyclists can also turn up Baxter Street and onto Sixth Avenue to avoid the traffic on Fourth Avenue.

The costs of the changes are still unknown, Bourassa said.