Spring Garden Streetscape
Well, HRM's planners have gone off the rails again. Take a look at what they propose for SGR:
The chaises are where I lost it. But there is just so much more. Is it a street, or a park? EDIT: For reasons I cannot decipher, the embedded link fails. But if you paste it into your browser it works fine, go figure. https://youtu.be/SbquokBUYLY |
The video link is broken. Is it this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbquokBUYLY
The chaises look a bit odd to me in that they will be very close to the street and there will still be loud diesel buses and trucks close by. Maybe they should have added a representative audio track of diesel engines and panhandlers. :) I think the idea of giving more space over to pedestrians is a perfectly reasonable trade-off. This street gets a lot of pedestrian traffic and can't carry much car traffic. In particular there is not enough space for people to walk by when there are a lot of people waiting for the buses, or at least this is how it used to be. Streamlining the roadway down to a lane in each direction means cars can still get through but you eliminate a lot of the weaving and drop off stuff that slows traffic down. Cars can still go down Spring Garden Road and turn off a side street or come up from a side street. |
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I think giving more space for pedestrians is perfectly reasonable. It is many of the other things that are very questionable. Aside from the chaises, the tables and chairs are silly, the pergolas useless, and every time a bus stops or a cab drops off/picks up a fare, traffic grinds to a halt. And forget about deliveries or service vehicles. Choking all of the side street access points down to one lane seems a bit absurd as well. And where will the precious cyclists ride? You cannot give them 3 meters clearance in this configuration. Perhaps they go on the sidewalk? It all seems very half-baked, which is what I suspect the designers were when they came up with this. |
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I like the increased space for pedestrians, but had the same questions: - Bus stops will slow down traffic as there is no longer a viable way to pass them. - Deliveries? Sounds like a mess. - Cyclists? No provisions unless they plan to make adjacent streets cycle-priority (or whatever they call it). There are bike racks so of course they are expecting cyclists. - Pergola bus stops are great in sunny weather, but what about the other 300 days a year when there is some form of precipitation falling? Shouldn't they be sheltered? - The walk-through section of the video reminded me of a cyclists view as they are weaving around unsuspecting pedestrians on the sidewalk - maybe that is their plan for bicycles? Overall I actually like the idea, but either somebody hasn't thought through the details, or they just don't care what happens on the street as long as it looks nice. |
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The bus pergolas make no sense, but maybe they are trying to show a design that incorporates both a transparent roof and a solar screen, which is a useful combination.
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No change rooms so I will have to wear my Speedo under my clothes when I head out to sun bath on the chaises
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:haha: |
Hasn't the "stoplet" that has been there for over a year already made it so traffic behind buses stops when the buses do?
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Morris is going to be the cycling priority street that connects Lower Water, Hollis, and South Park. I think the decision was made early in the SGR process that, given the limited amount of space, pedestrians and buses were going to come first.
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I don't think that you can blame the traffic issues on Spring Garden Road to the stoplet which I am indifferent about.
There is huge issue with parked cars on the northern side of Spring Garden road. Ultimately, Spring Garden is really a walking street which makes sense for the new re-do. Stores along the street have generally done really well from foot traffic and the going rent for ground floor commercial space is an indicator. I recall hearing that it is near the most expensive in the city, maybe the province. Park Lane is the exception. They tried to take advantage of the location on Spring Garden road, but soon learned that most people tended to window shop on their walk downtown. Then buy later. Or just having a store on the street is good marketing in the long run. And that circles back to traffic. Do you really think that you can get this same business activity from cars stuck in traffic? Most shoppers arriving by car, stay clear of SPR and park on the side streets or in underground parking, which will become more plentiful as new development occurs in the area. |
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From the 'Shape Your City' site, a little context on the areas of SGR - in particular what to expect from the side streets. Looks like lots of room for loading in this and any parking being relegated to underground.
https://i.imgur.com/yGmMgh1.png Full doc https://www.shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/...ocuments/14662 As for cycling, Morris/University is slated to be the the main East-West corridor. Traffic on SGR right now is slow enough between buses, cars, and crosswalks that I generally feel safe in mixed traffic. |
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