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Originally Posted by MonctonRad
They're doing some of this stuff on the peninsula in Halifax too, which is leading to some, uh, "interesting" discussions in the Halifax active transportation thread.
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With all due respect there are some, uh, interesting characters on the Halifax subforum. I wouldn't put too much weight into their opinions, frankly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
This is fine as long as there is room to accomplish this. Using Mountain Road as an example (again), it is a relatively narrow four lane stroad with no on street parking. There is really no potential for widening this road, so any move to add bike lanes would only result in reducing the number of traffic lanes on the road.
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You shouldn't be looking at this as an exercise in potentially widening roads. Find me a city that's widening roads in the 2020s and i'll show you a city that's merely exacerbating their traffic and gridlock issues. If Mountain Road is ever to be more than a substandard drivethrough it will need a road diet at some point, and that's likely to come in the way of creating more options for transport so that it can support more community-aimed businesses and residents. That means moving away from 60kph drivethrough motorists to more bus users, bike users, and pedestrians. Otherwise Mountain Road will simply remain a poorly activated suburban drivethrough for people who live elsewhere.
It is not sustainable to line Mountain Road with hundred-unit apartment buildings, each with two hundred parking spots, and expecting traffic on the throughfare to simply not exist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
I know your response to this would be "good!!!", but Mountain Road is congested as it is during rush hours and any reduction in travel lanes would only result in increasing congestion and unhappy voters. It is a non starter.
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If there's too much traffic then it means there's room for active and alternative modes of transport to take shape. You can only squeeze so many cars into Downtown Moncton and, spoiler alert, as the downtown grows this will only become more difficult as parking spots are reduced.
Instead of simply looking at the situation through a lens of 'there's too much traffic as is!', look into reasons why there's traffic. Where are people living? Where are they going? Are these trips necessary? People will change their plans if things like traffic or roads are changed or reduced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
Again, your response would be "well, if there is increasing congestion, then this would only provide impetus to getting people to use public transit." Again, this would be fine except public transit in Moncton is pretty lousy, and would be very expensive to fix. I see no easy solutions to improving the situation in the short term.
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Very small-town thinking. Investing funding into city transit is the easiest and most cost effective way at not only dealing with traffic but with encouraging economic activity within your city. Transit in Moncton is lousy because there's no desire for it on council from, frankly, people like you and other motorists, and hence ridership is lousy because the service is lousy. Kingston has done wonders at improving their city transit by way of simplifying routes and increasing frequencies. Give people a service they can actually rely upon and they'll use it. 'Too expensive' is not a valid excuse when it's a public service that allows people to get to work, to medical appointments, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
In the long term, downtown density will improve, and there should be fewer commuters, but this will take considerable time.
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How does a downtown grow whilst simulatenously seeing fewer commuters?
How do you think people will be commuting into the downtown in the future? On eight lane Vaughan Harveys and Mountain Roads? Where will all of these people park?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
I am not against active transportation. I just want to find practical solutions which are not overly disruptive.
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You just don't want bikes on the road because it
might disrupt your grocery run in your car. I get it.
Part of any city growing and becoming larger is dealing with the fact that your commute by car will become slower and more congested. It's absolutely not reasonable to expect your commutes to be the same if the number of people around you increases. There are other people using roads around you in many different ways, and speaking down to them as if they're below you isn't going to do you any favours now or into the future of an ever-diversifying city.
Is Moncton a city for all people or is it only a city for people with cars?