Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
I think this is more nuanced about bikeways on urban streets. When there are only 4 available lanes, you can't have everything.
We want wider sidewalks, cycle tracks, bus lanes and some room for traffic. This is not possible in a 4 lane scenario.
At some point, we have to prioritize. In some cases, we have been placing transit at the bottom of the heap. This is not a good thing. I have argued that when there is a grid street pattern and only 4 lanes available, cycle tracks should be one block over.
When your urban street includes retail and is also an arterial, your priorities need to be pedestrians, transit and general traffic. When there is not enough space, cycling should be nearby. On-street parking is the lowest priority, by far.
Almost all of Ottawa's urban arterials in centretown and other urban neighbourhoods are only 4 lanes wide and this creates a major challenge to satisfy everybody.
Montreal Road in Vanier has been one of the biggest challenges. Urban, retail, arterial, only 4 lanes available and the lack of a grid street layout.
Old Ottawa has greatly outgrown its available infrastructure. But we also want much more intensification too. I am not sure how this is sustainable in the long term without going underground.
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I agree that on Montreal Road, we should have given priority to transit over bikes. Ultimately, I would have wanted transit underground on Montreal Road, giving space to bikes. The City chose bikes, transit be damned.
Albert-Slater were a very important part of the bike network, connecting bike lanes from Richmond/Scott/Albert to the University of Ottawa, but that can't happen now until Doug's law is removed. The O'Connor bike lanes end at Laurier, but we're now unable to complete the small section up to Wellington. Lyon, Kent and Metcalfe are ridiculously wide; I've only ever seen moderate traffic on Kent between Laurier and Wellington, they could stand losing one or two lanes but again, adding bike lanes is no longer possible.
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