Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
There is only so long that the proponents can use the "build it and they will come" chestnut, since they have been built for some time and they haven't come, for many self-evident reasons.
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I think the thing is we're only just now getting to the point where we've truly "built it". Yes, there has been ten-ish years of "real" investment in AT, but it's only now that we're starting to see the skeleton of a connected network.
Up until now bike lanes in HRM have been like the sidewalks in Bayer's Lake - sparse and unconnected. You'll see the occasional people walk over informal trails between the few pieces of sidewalk, but by-and-large people don't walk there unless they absolutely have to because it's such an unpleasant experience. It's been the same with bikes. Yes, there are stretches of bike lanes, but to use them you have to go off-road (or rather, on-road) and so only those that have to or are really dedicated use them.
But that's changing. The big connections are being made, and now it's actually enjoyable to bike in certain areas. To use my own experience, biking from the deep North End into downtown was super uncomfortable because the Barrington Greenway just dead-ended at the sewage treatment plant and then you had to awkwardly find a way onto the road and navigate through one of the most car-focused pieces of infrastructure (the Cogswell Interchange) in the city. As soon as they started work on the Cogswell project and put in the multi-use trail connection from the sewage treatment plant to the Hollis Street bike lane, it got downright enjoyable and became my primary way to get to work.
And now those connections are starting to show up in terms of increased ridership.
I think the next couple of years are going to be a real tipping point in terms of cycling in this city (at least on the Peninsula).
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