Halifax Active Transportation

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Jstaleness

With some of the modern designs and work we see from our very own Cherubini Metal works company, I would say that we could have a very attractive crossing in that location. Jokes aside, throw a big glowing Scotiabank Crossing Sign on it, and BAM!

Cherubini built some attractive waterfront bridges for Toronto: https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/rog...-in-toronto-on-time-and-on-budget-523353

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

The main objection I've always heard to a Northwest Arm road bridge is that it would make the quiet wealthy areas on the Halifax side into a traffic corridors with all the noise, pollution, spillover congestion that would entail. And given the political influence of the wealthy, no one has wanted to take on that fight. But a crossing that didn't involve motor vehicles would be a very different proposition.

I doubt that the wealthy south end elite would welcome those pesky kids and their velocipedes careening though their bucolic neighborhoods.

[Dmajackson]

DUTCH VILLAGE ROAD



BRUNSWICK STREET



I do hope we get some big improvements like this in 2026.

Both photos by me. See my signature for a link to my site.

[Keith P.]

HRM’s war on motorists continues unabated. On-street parking in commercial areas seems a hapless victim. And they seem to think nobody drives anything bigger than a Smart car.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

HRM’s war on motorists continues unabated. On-street parking in commercial areas seems a hapless victim. And they seem to think nobody drives anything bigger than a Smart car.

The war on motorists that involves eliminating no road capacity for automobiles.

[mleblanc]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

HRM’s war on motorists continues unabated. On-street parking in commercial areas seems a hapless victim. And they seem to think nobody drives anything bigger than a Smart car.

Dutch Village Rd. has never had on street parking? And we're literally looking at a massive surface parking lot in front of Shoppers in this picture?

Upgrades look great. It's amazing how that stretch didn't have a sidewalk for so long.

[LikesBikes]

These are amazing upgrades. The Dutch Village Road one is so necessary for making it a 'place' as opposed to somewhere just to drive through.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by mleblanc

Dutch Village Rd. has never had on street parking? And we're literally looking at a massive surface parking lot in front of Shoppers in this picture?

Upgrades look great. It's amazing how that stretch didn't have a sidewalk for so long.

My comments were regarding the Brunswick St picture. I have no quibble with the DVR project except for how long it took HRM to do something with the old 1950s version of that sorry street that it inherited after amalgamation.

[Dmajackson]

BRUNSWICK STREET

AT GOTTINGEN STREET



AT SPRING GARDEN ROAD



Both photos by David Jackson. See my signature for a link to my site.

[someone123]

Can't speak to how well this infrastructure works or how it looks in person, but it's nice that Halifax seems to be moving away from 70's-era pseudo highway infrastructure around what was the periphery of downtown back then.

It would be a nice upgrade to bury the power poles around the Citadel and Commons.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by someone123

Can't speak to how well this infrastructure works or how it looks in person, but it's nice that Halifax seems to be moving away from 70's-era pseudo highway infrastructure around what was the periphery of downtown back then.

It would be a nice upgrade to bury the power poles around the Citadel and Commons.

Yet unfortunately it jams up traffic on Brunswick if anyone wants to turn Left to downtown or Right at the corner in Daves picture. Folks are NOT attending weekend events in Halifax due to the traffic chaos. Hmm bike people are happy and the economy slightly melts.

I attended a grandaughters swim meet at Centennial yesterday and had to backtrack to eventually take Gottingen as Cogswell street was completely jammed with folks caught in the Gottingen/Cogswell intersection between lights. The rain did not make it feel very safe. No bikes at all.

[mleblanc]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

Yet unfortunately it jams up traffic on Brunswick if anyone wants to turn Left to downtown or Right at the corner in Daves picture. Folks are NOT attending weekend events in Halifax due to the traffic chaos. Hmm bike people are happy and the economy slightly melts.

I attended a grandaughters swim meet at Centennial yesterday and had to backtrack to eventually take Gottingen as Cogswell street was completely jammed with folks caught in the Gottingen/Cogswell intersection between lights. The rain did not make it feel very safe. No bikes at all.

That's a bit of a stretch. I look out my window and see this intersection, there's consistently cyclists going through and the data shows more people choosing to cycle each year - I wouldn't pick the rainy day we had yesterday as an example of it. Gottingen St. was under construction and backed up all weekend regardless, and events at the Scotiabank Centre are packed still.

[Keith P.]

So much wasted street space in a city with desperately undersized streets already.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

Yet unfortunately it jams up traffic on Brunswick if anyone wants to turn Left to downtown or Right at the corner in Daves picture. Folks are NOT attending weekend events in Halifax due to the traffic chaos. Hmm bike people are happy and the economy slightly melts.

Nothing has changed for drivers here except that a slip lane was removed, so now it’s just a normal intersection, like almost every other one in the area. Besides the slip lane removal, not a foot of road capacity for cars was eliminated. If there’s traffic chaos it’s because too many people are travelling downtown by car (the least space-efficient means of moving people that exists) and too few are travelling by literally any other means. The more infrastructure we can provide so people have safe and convenient options, car and non-car, the better.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Nothing has changed for drivers here except that a slip lane was removed, so now it’s just a normal intersection, like almost every other one in the area. Besides the slip lane removal, not a foot of road capacity for cars was eliminated. If there’s traffic chaos it’s because too many people are travelling downtown by car (the least space-efficient means of moving people that exists) and too few are travelling by literally any other means. The more infrastructure we can provide so people have safe and convenient options, car and non-car, the better.

The slip lane gone has reduced what was a two lane road down to one.
Should anyone decide to turn left downtown every other car behind has to wait instead of taking the former second lane. POOF instant Wolfville. With no bikes.
Downtown is where the cars SHOULD be. There is lots to do and business to conduct but the true 1% will rule. Downtowns have been known to just dry up and melt away. Anyway the winds will blow the opposite way in time especially as the bike crowd has been challenged by the Premier after the Ambulances were suggested to also use a bike. Let's see the battle between the enviro's and the Bike bunch when the Tree's on Morris meet their doom. For no bikes.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Those lanes look nicely done.

The lanes on Brunswick at Spring Garden have just taken away street parking, it appears. There are lots of parkades around, though.

Brunswick and Gottingen (Rainnie?)... does anybody drive there anymore?

I've been staying downtown this week to take in the Olympic Curling Trials. Have to say that the traffic jams, even on Saturday, were something I don't recall ever being that bad, but this is from looking at them from the dry pedways, thankfully I wasn't caught in them. I was thinking, as I was trudging through the just-above-freezing rain on Saturday night, that I would still rather be sitting in one of the cars not moving on Sackville Street than riding a bike.

Just random thoughts from a temporary downtown resident...

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

The slip lane gone has reduced what was a two lane road down to one.
Should anyone decide to turn left downtown every other car behind has to wait instead of taking the former second lane. POOF instant Wolfville. With no bikes.

A lane to go straight and a turning left is a pretty normal configuration. The new setup will likely mean slightly longer waits during heavy traffic periods. The city's modelling has suggested that, though it's also suggested the new design will probably improve northbound traffic times slightly. We'll see. That's too bad, but it's an acceptable tradeoff in order to:

A: Significantly improve the convenience and safety for cyclists/scooters/all small mobility devices.

and

B: Remove the slip lane. Slip lanes are known to be dangerous to pedestrians, allowing vehicles to cruise through without slowing or stopping (which is what they're designed for). I'm pretty that if you were to conduct a survey of this intersection, you'd find pedestrians outnumber vehicles. Of course their convenience and safety should be prioritized. If some drivers have to wait 30 more seconds for the light to change, that's probably worth it. Add cyclists and the case only gets stronger.

I'm not some anti-car zealot who wants to ban cars doiwntown. But in an area like this, dense with all kinds of road users, cars should be made to proceed slowly and cautiously. There certainly shouldn't be infrastructure specifically designed to let them zoom around pedestrian-congested corners without stopping.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

B: Remove the slip lane. Slip lanes are known to be dangerous to pedestrians, allowing vehicles to cruise through without slowing or stopping (which is what they're designed for).

Please show us the numbers proving that slip lanes cause such carnage for pedestrians. That statement is thrown out by the cycling lobby/anti-car bunch frequently but I do not recall hearing about such incidents on a regular basis. One can only speculate that this is another increment by the Vision Zero bunch within the HRM administration to making DT even more vehicle-unfriendly.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

... the Ambulances were suggested to also use a bike...

Can you point me to where you saw/read this?

I feel like it's a misunderstanding. My recollection is that it was pointed out that ambulances can use bike lanes to get around traffic if the bike lanes are designed to accommodate this (and they should be), which is a good way to build capacity to short-cut around bumper-to-bumper cars. Perhaps I'm remembering something different than you... suggesting ambulances BE bicycles is something that I'd be shocked even a biking "zealot" would suggest.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by eastcoastal

Can you point me to where you saw/read this?

I feel like it's a misunderstanding. My recollection is that it was pointed out that ambulances can use bike lanes to get around traffic if the bike lanes are designed to accommodate this (and they should be), which is a good way to build capacity to short-cut around bumper-to-bumper cars. Perhaps I'm remembering something different than you... suggesting ambulances BE bicycles is something that I'd be shocked even a biking "zealot" would suggest.

Yes, this is exactly what it was. Nobody said the ambulances have to be pushed over to bike lanes. The idea was that bike lanes can actually be used by emergency vehicles to bypass congestion, when necessary. After all, cyclists can hop off and pull their bikes off to the side. Drivers can't do that.

Here's an example in Toronto. I think in this case it was just an opportunistic use of the lane by the ambulance driver, but in some parts of the world bike lanes are specifically designed for this.