Quote:
Originally Posted by roger1818
There is another factor. The bike lobby is significantly stronger than the transit lobby, and any new bus lane would need to come with bike lanes, further complicating the issue.
|
Downtown perhaps...but since moving to Nepean, I'd be hard pressed to identify any City of Ottawa biking infrastructure besides a bit of paint and some flex posts on the very widest empty roads (like Sherbourne). Bike infrastructure is seemingly only put where it is easy to add without reducing any traffic lanes...thus, it goes where it is probably not really needed, yet on busier corridors where it is needed, nothing at all. I think this is also why there is a patch work of bike lanes that aren't really connected in any way throughout the city. Thus, to actually use a bike to get from point A to B you end up either riding on roads like Carling or on sidewalks. I don't see any political will to change that. Heck, even on Elgin street downtown they didn't put in bike lanes after rebuilding it.
For most of Carling between Dows Lake and Lincoln, I think there is room for both a tram, 2 lanes of traffic each way and bike lanes + sidewalks. It gets a little narrower after Woodroffe, but I think it's still doable. I suspect it might be politically challenging to reduce car lanes on Carling (and likely the speed limit to 50), though as someone who drives it every day... I think it would benefit the area a lot. Developer seem to want to make Carling a place to live and do business (rather than just drive through), and I hope the city can get onboard with that at some point too.