Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark
Is this adding capacity, though? It's connecting to the bridge, which has a fixed capacity, and unless there are backups of tens of cyclists waiting at the exit to the bridge due to the bottleneck created by... I'm not sure... car traffic I suppose, it is not adding capacity.
As the poster who likes bikes attests, this is about improving safety of cyclists (the most important thing), and also providing a break from the slope, apparently, for those going up to Gottingen (a nice thing, but doesn't improve capacity, unless it unlocks thousands of cyclists who decide to start commuting by bicycle because of this).
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It depends on how you define capacity but regardless, building this piece of infrastructure will increase the number of people who bike here as it would make getting between Halifax and Dartmouth safer and easier to do. In its current state, it is not safe nor easy to do.
Further, while the bridge has a fixed capacity for cyclists, I don’t think it is anywhere near filling that capacity due to the lack of AT infrastructure on the peninsula making it difficult and unsafe to get to the bridge in the first place. As more infrastructure is built, more people will choose to bike and eventually capacity will be more of an issue.
Following the fly over, hopefully the next step would be to build a protected bike lane on Gottingen and/or North Street so that the bridge, and Dartmouth (via Wyse Street) would be fully connected to Halifax’s bike network, making it much easier to live without a car, lowering traffic levels, and decreasing noise and gas pollution.
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