Reimagining Streets: Gladstone Ave

[MarkR]

"Beyond the Automobile - Imagining the future of transportation. A blog by Matt Pinder." April 14/2020

"Redesigning streets to better support safe, comfortable walking and cycling is not hard, and often the tools needed already exist at the local level. It just requires a little bit of imagination... Ottawa’s Gladstone Avenue is a street I travel often, and one of many streets that could use some reimagining, so I decided to develop an alternative design for it."

https://beyondtheautomobile.ca/2020/...gladstone-ave/

[Aylmer]

This. A thousand times this. I absolutely love how well-argued and researched this post is.
These sorts of design elements should be standard.

[Lakeofthewood]

Yes yes yes yes. I've been using Gladstone a lot with the reduced traffic and it's an absolute pleasure to bike on. It should be kept that way going forward.

Semi-related note: never understood the City's hate for mini-roundabouts. They really should be used a lot more, especially in lieu of all-way stops.

[Urbanarchit]

Originally Posted by Aylmer

This. A thousand times this. I absolutely love how well-argued and researched this post is.
These sorts of design elements should be standard.

I was excited about the bike lanes until I realized this isn't being implemented. I'd love to see a bike lane the entire length of Gladstone to Elgin. I'd be worried for pedestrians at the roundabout at Bayswater though. Bayswater and Gladstone gets a fair amount of traffic with cars going decently quickly.

[Truenorth00]

With our suburban dominated council? Not a chance. Though I absolutely love the idea and wished pedestrianization and "skinny streets" was high on the list for Ottawa.

[waterloowarrior]

Interesting idea to restrict through traffic. I bike or drive on it a lot but would usually turn off at one of those side-streets instead of taking it from end to end.

[qprcanada]

Originally Posted by Urbanarchit

II'd be worried for pedestrians at the roundabout at Bayswater though. Bayswater and Gladstone gets a fair amount of traffic with cars going decently quickly.

That's the point of roundabouts they force cars to slow down otherwise they will incur damage on the central island or apron. Additionally head on collisions with other vehicles are avoided.

I've never understood the aversion to mini roundabouts in this city either, it's much easier to roll through stop at a stop sign than to drive through a roundabout without slowing down.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by qprcanada

That's the point of roundabouts they force cars to slow down otherwise they will incur damage on the central island or apron. Additionally head on collisions with other vehicles are avoided.

I've never understood the aversion to mini roundabouts in this city either, it's much easier to roll through stop at a stop sign than to drive through a roundabout without slowing down.

At one point the Glebe Neighbourhood Cycling Plan was proposing mini-roundabouts on Percy within the Glebe to improve its function as a N-S cycling route, along with blocking both east-west and north-south motor vehicle traffic at Fifth/Percy/Craig. But someone opposed it because they thought the frequent all-way stops were better at deterring traffic... sigh.