Bank Street Canal Bridge Improvements

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by vtecyo

Almost all the provincially owned highway bridges over the 417 in the city seem to be built exactly like that - with the exception of Kanata Avenue - which has a gloriously wide sidewalk on it's west side. I'd guess it's the minimum legal width allowed.

Eagleson Road has entered the chat.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by vtecyo

Yeah - but I think they could have easily placed the barriers slightly closer to the sidewalks - at the edge of what is now the existing bike lanes, and still had room for 3 driving lanes.

Barriers between the bike and vehicle lanes come with their own challenges:

1. They make snow removal much more difficult in the winter
2. They block drainage (you can leave drainage channels, but these can get clogged with ice in the winter)
3. They cause drivers and cyclists to shy-away from the barriers, which means you may need wider lanes than you otherwise would

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Blair has... nothing. Just a stone siding. I see people cross with their motility scooters in the car lanes often enough.

[silvergate]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Barriers between the bike and vehicle lanes come with their own challenges:

1. They make snow removal much more difficult in the winter
2. They block drainage (you can leave drainage channels, but these can get clogged with ice in the winter)
3. They cause drivers and cyclists to shy-away from the barriers, which means you may need wider lanes than you otherwise would

At least for your last point, barriers are ideal for actually slowing down car traffic. Especially useful on a bridge like the one at Bank with drivers having an obstructed view by the hill.

[Richard Eade]

I think that you will find that the ‘sidewalks’ on most of the MTO’s overpasses of Highway 417 are NOT actually sidewalks. They are simply curbs with raised shoulders for snow storage. The areas do not meet the minimum requirements for use as sidewalks. In fact, since the City can’t plow most of them (since they are too narrow for the sidewalk plows), the City has been known to simply put up “NO PEDESTRIAN” signs to try to prevent people from using those bridges to cross the 417. For example, in 2015, right after the MTO reconditioned the structure, if you wanted to walk over the Eagleson Bridge to get to OC Transpo’s Eagleson P&R, during the winter, you would be met with such signs.


(From Ottawa Citizen article)

When the bridges were first designed/built, they were provided to get vehicles over the 417. They matched the road layout at the existing railway crossings that they replaced. The times were such that pedestrian used the road side to cross the tracks. Since there were no sidewalks beside the roadways, it was deemed that sidewalks were not required on the bridges. Pedestrian crossing of the overpasses was considered exceptional and not really planned for. Recall that, back then, most roads outside of the city core were built without proper sidewalks. Children were taught, in school, the safest way to walk on roads (by Elmer the Safety Elephant). And how to cross railroad tracks (Stop, Look, and Listen).

But those were the days when people were expected to take some personal responsibility for their actions. It was dangerous times; where (older, more responsible) children were even given the (unpaid, except for maybe a movie at the end of the year) task of getting young children safely across busy streets. (Was anyone else a ‘School Patrol’?)

Of course, now it is unacceptable to have such ‘dangerous streets’. The City is continually trying to make the city safe by making ALL streets 'Complete'. Gradually, as the 417 overpass structures are replaced, if the City pony’s up the extra cost, the MTO will install wider structures which include active transport facilities. Note though, that if the City doesn’t pay the additional cost, the MTO is not responsible for anything more than a functional replacement for the (narrow) structures - just as it only replaced what existed when the bridges were first built.

[DarthVader_1961]

Road deck has been resurfaced and lines painted

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by DarthVader_1961

Road deck has been resurfaced and lines painted

And striped with a double yellow line down the middle. I nearly had a head-on collision when someone heading south came over the hill at me in the middle lane a couple months back, I can't imagine I was the only one to have this happen. Really, the biggest shortcoming of this design.