Re: Segregated cycling lane proposed for Gladstone Ave.
I’m not persuaded it’s a good idea. There are three main reasons. I am a year-round cyclist and now use Gladstone almost daily to get to work, from O’Connor to Parkdale.
The mixed character of the street along this length makes it safer than my winter alternatives (Wellington, Catherine, Carling or the Ottawa River Parkway).
Somerset Street is good, too, for the same reasons: street parking, frequent traffic lights, lots of small trucks, the bus route, and busy businesses along the way all make it hard for motorists to speed or weave.
There is usually lots of room between the traffic lane and any parked cars for me – and those same factors mean a just-parked motorist is (almost) always careful to check before swinging the door open.
A safe street is not in a hurry, and streamlining it would add hurry.That segregated lane would be close to the curb.
In winter, that will raise the cost of street snow clearance and maintenance and you will get objections from the city's roads department.
That last metre is a bit of a problem most winters, and usually gets a long, thin glacier on it in a number of places, unless extraordinary measures are taken. Better to have cars park on it; they’ll break it down sooner.
As well, bollards or electric fences will also pose a problem for our intrepid snow clearers and their job is hard enough.
Bollards are not the kind of protection cyclists need in really high-risk areas and I’m not sure they would have helped in either of the tragic accidents mentioned in the article (March Road and Sussex Drive).
If the path can’t be completely separated from the road (thank you in most seasons, NCC) then it should be raised up along the risky lengths and share the sidewalk with a curb (and bollards or distinctive pavement markings on the other side to warn pedestrians).
I can’t think of really problem areas like that along Gladstone, although perhaps Bronson could do with an improved traffic light sequence (pedestrian advance as at Wellington/Holland?) and there is a bit of a pinch going over the O-Train canyon.
Barry Davis,
Glengarry Road