Quote:
Originally Posted by TransitZilla
Why are you making this (unfounded) assumption that the thing that is driving the cost here is the bike infrastructure?
The Bike Ottawa article literally shows the designed layout from 2023, in which the underpass contained 3 car lanes, and no bike lanes at all! (In fact, the Earl Grey/Didsbury intersection is shown to feature a 2-lane slip lane without even a crosswalk!)
I'm not sure whether the project is worth the cost, but at least the final design is far better for pedestrians and cyclists now compared to the 2023 version (and it makes the underpass no wider than the previous version).
I find your position on bike infrastructure to be puzzling. I don't think it's an "ideology" that roads should be designed to be safe for all users. |
IF, and I dare say that it is a pretty big IF, that was the ORIGINAL 1995 plan, then I stand corrected, and I apologize for making the incorrect interpretation.
However, do I need to point out that 2023 ≠ 1995? You will notice that in the 2023 plan there are protected bike lanes shown on Terry Fox, at the intersection of Roland Michener/Didsbury. I don’t think that these were being designed into roadways back in 1995. Thus, I suggest that this is not the original plan.
My view on bike infrastructure is easy: Put bike infrastructure where it is the safest and most useful, period.
Why does there need to be full segregated bike-tracks at BOTH Terry Fox at Roland Michener/Didsbury AND under Terry Fox? Is it simply because there is a road rebuild happening, and therefore, based on the ideology that ALL road rebuilds NEED to be built as ‘Complete Streets’, both need to have everything.
And something else that you might have missed is that one lane removed from the 2023 plan does not provide enough space for the added segregated cycle-tracks. The newest plan does have a longer span, and thus, increased cost due to the conversion to a ‘Complete Street’.
If I’m riding west through the unhospitable ‘Jumble-Mall’ that is Kanata Centrum, it is very unlikely that I will detour to take an underpass of Terry Fox just so that I can be redirected back to it. I’d already be mixing with traffic in a dangerous parking lot environment that has ZERO bike infrastructure. I would head to Herlihey to get to Campeau. There are already bike lanes there. (Yes, these could be segregated into cycle-tracks for added safety.)
And something that you seem to have missed is that I am suggesting that a MUP be included under Terry Fox, beside the LRT. I would like to see that MUP NOT END at Didsbury E, but continue behind the Dymon Storage to Didsbury W, at least. If it is studied and deemed safe and useful, I would have no problem also branching the MUP from the LRT underpass up to the Terry Fox – Didsbury intersection along (a renamed) Didsbury E (as designed in the latest plan) – since there would not be an extension of Earl Grey to cross.
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