You can find more info about the project here. Click on the link on the City's info page to view the display boards that were used at the Open House.
Our HUB committee provided the following recommendations to the City:
Rather than separating the 1% fast and fearless cyclists from the other 59-or-so% that are not quite as fast and confident, and letting the latter share a multi-use path with pedestrians with dogs and strollers, it's pedestrians and cyclists that should be separated from eachother.
HUB's solution:
Instead of MUP and 1.5 wide shoulder on north side:
- Eliminate the 1.5 meter shoulder along the roadway on the north side, while maintaining the shoulder on the south side.
- Reduce the width of the pedestrian pathway to 2 meters.
- Reduce the buffer on the north side by 0.5 meter.
- Add a bi-directional, 3 meter wide bike path, accommodating the 1% going west, as well as the 59-or-so% less confident cyclists going in both directions.
- Provide a clear separation between the pedestrian and the cycling paths (e.g. low curb, or green coloured asphalt for bike path).
- Design intersection at 216th (and 224th) in a way that the cyclist + pedestrian crossing is highly visible to turning motorists (bike crossing painted green), and provide signage to indicate bi-directional nature of the bike path.
- Provide cyclist lights, synchronized east-west with traffic lights for cars.
Rationale:
- Cyclists and cyclists mix better than cyclists and pedestrians.
- Maintaining the 1.5 meter shoulder on the south side allows fast and fearless cyclists to use that option when traveling in easterly direction, reducing the higher likelihood for these fast traveling cyclists to be hit by a turning motorist if they were to be traveling in the "wrong" direction on the north side of the road.
- The 59% of cyclists who would cycle more if conditions were more favorable, are more likely to do so if they're given a status more equitable to that of other road users - i.e. by being given their own path - and if they don't need to stop at every intersection and thus keep their momentum, just like any other wheeled road users (this is even more important for non-motorized ones!).
Other recommendations/comments:
- Driveway crossings should be painted green to discourage cars from blocking the path while waiting for a gap in traffic. Driveway crossings could also be raised through the driveway to provide further indication that cyclists have right of way.
- Care should be given to provide wide enough gaps between any bollards, with straight lines at intersections, as much as possible. One bollard at either side of each driveway, in the middle of the path, should be sufficient. If at some point in time it is determined that bollards are required on either side of the path at each driveway, these bollards should be placed on the outside of the path, not on the path (as was done on the Lougheed Highway MUP. These make the path feel much narrower).
- Shoulder on south side seems to disappear just east of Golden Ears Cheesecrafters? Needs to continue all the way to 224th.
- Users of the MUP going westbound should get a warning at the dike access point just west of Laity, that the MUP ends at 210th Street.
- Cyclist crossing on the south side at Laity should be painted green (on the design panel it looks like a pedestrian crossing, which would mean that cyclists have to dismount to cross).
- The use of concrete barriers would be good along some of the sections of the MUP where the buffer is narrow, to provide better separation from cars. No barriers should be placed close to driveways/intersections, to ensure good visibility. Any barriers should not be placed on the MUP, but beside it.
- Need a pedestrian crossing at Blackstock, with push button activated lights.
- Use tight turn radii to make cars slow down when they turn!
- Please ensure surface water drainage on the north side of 128th Ave. doesn't impact the pathways.
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