There are certain facts of life we have to deal with today, even if we regret how things came to be that way.

I wont rehash how Booth Street north of Albert, going through LeBreton Flats, came to be designed and built more like a Freeway than a street. The issue now that the concrete is laid is what to do about it.

I think the Booth Street Freeway issue and its resolution will someday be seen as a major turning point in road design for Ottawa. We have shifted from begging for public transportation infrastructure that meets everyone’s needs to outrage that a new street somehow got approved without being a complete street. I think complete streets is now the expectation, the normal condition, not the exception.

Typical for highway-style road design, the planned lanes on Booth were very wide. It is well proven these induce or encourage faster vehicle speeds , but with an increase in risk to to people who are walking, people transferring buses,  and people who cycle.

To the credit of the new head of city transportation, John Manconi, he struck a task force to meet with some key public interests: Citizens for Safe Cycling, the Ottawa Eco District, and the local Dalhousie Community Association rep [me]. Most significantly, he gave the group the ability to consider options and the city staff the power to decide quickly.

The measures to fix the problem fast focused on reallocating existing pavement space.

A variety of options was considered. The chosen solution narrows down the vehicular traffic lanes enough to create a paved shoulder zone demarked with a painted line. This 1 metre space isn’t enough to be an official bike lane, but is wide enough to be a de facto bike lane. It will definitely aid some cyclists.

Personally, I would not take an 8 year old on a bike there nor a kid in a trailer. I’d head for the very wide sidewalk (being cast in concrete, borrowing width from the sidewalk to make a wider cycle lane was not a quick-fix option).

I’ll have to assess the situation when it opens next week as to whether I would cycle on the lane at rush hours, evenings, weekends … and my choice may vary day to day.

above: curbside 1 metre “bike shoulder” entering Booth north bound from Albert

above: actual floating bike lane on Booth southbound seen from Albert St

The city recognizes that people will have a variety of responses to the re-marked spaces, and expect some dissatisfaction. Once some legal issues have been dealt with, some cycling will likely be permitted on the sidewalk. It will depend on reasonable cooperation amongst users, similar to multi-user pathways (MUPs) elsewhere today.

typical city shared sidewalk signage

I fully expect some people driving on the road will behave badly, weaving and speeding and crowding crosswalks and running red lights. I fully expect some people walking will find affront at people riding bikes on the sidewalk. And some people cycling will decry the substandard “cycle lane”. Situation normal.

The current “fix” will be in place until a yet-unspecified time close to when the Pimisi Station opens in mid-2018.

above: looking back at the northbound cycling shoulder,  seen from Fleet Street intersection; yes it is narrow

above: southbound bike shoulder as seen from Wellington/SJAM

The working group will continue to meet this fall with city staff to consider how the situation will change at that time, and what can be done to improve safety for all users.

Both this quick fix and the when-the-Confederation-Line-LRT-Pimisi-Station-opens scenario are being crafted with an eye to a long term solution.

Additional funding — thank you — has been allocated from the Feds and City to install a permanent fix, to shift Booth from freeway to complete street.

The first meeting of that working group will be later this month, and yes, community reps are still on it. Very encouraging (to me) is that the Phase 2 LRT planning team is also on the group, so the city is learning from the Phase 1 mistakes.

The City installed intersection cameras at Booth/Albert and at Booth/Wellington to film how pedestrians and cyclists handle those intersections up to now. Ironically, it is dismantling those cameras today …

… and will reinstall them later, to see how peds and cyclists handle the intersections once they are used to them. There is apparently no interest in discovering unsafe behaviour and taking corrective action when the intersections actually open. I guess someone has to get killed or there be a media crisis first.

Here are penultimate drawings for Booth Street, running from the Albert intersection northwards to its intersection with Wellington out at the war museum.

The temporary (until Pimisi opens in mid-2018) bus stop arrangement is the same as at the former Preston Street extension. Transit users going to Gatineau will get off buses on Albert, and take a long walk to the temporary northbound bus stop on Booth shown below as a black shaded area.

People cycling on the sidewalk will encounter line ups of people queuing for the No 8 bus. A zig zag line or other marking on the sidewalk will mark the conflict zone. People cycling northbound in the paved shoulder, marked off by a dashed line, will be blocked by buses at the bus stop, as will motorists, same as at most bus stops around the city.

Southbound cyclists (from Hull) will be in the “floating” bike lane which is wider here than elsewhere. For cyclists continuing south, the choice is straightforward: use the floating lane, or cross with pedestrians if you are riding the sidewalk.

As for cyclists to get to the Albert Street MUPs … Sidewalk cyclists will pick up the eastbound or westbound MUP along Albert by crossing the street on the crosswalk (legally walking their bikes, of course …). I dunno what on-street cyclists will do as they approach the intersection in the floating bike lane.

I know I would merge into the right-most curb lane, probably as a gutter bunny, and then pretend to be a pedestrian at the intersection and ride across the crosswalk to pick up the eastbound MUP or turn right through the people waiting at the intersection so I could go west on the MUP.

A big part of the “what to do” quandry here is that we don’t yet have a widely recognized or consistent set of legal and de facto expectations for each party. Alertness and consideration will be essential for everyone.

Please note that for people who are walking, the sidewalks on the new Booth Street are full width to very wide width. Walking along the curb edge will be disconcerting given the speed motorists will go, but the painted shoulder will create some subjective separation. Eventually, future buildings will be built up to the edge of the sidewalk and landscaping, now dreadfully absent, will temper the harsh environment of today.

Here is the next segment of Booth, going towards Gatineau. This drawing continues from the bus stop northwards, showing the construction staging zone for the Pimisi Station, to be demarked off with flex posts. There will be construction vehicles, materials, and overhead work in this area. This construction zone will be in place until late 2017 or mid 2018, then the bus stops are scheduled to move into these “bus bays” . Of course, the bus bay space may get modified or reallocated by then depending on the longer term fixes decided for the area. Note that the bright orange areas will be the entrances to the future Pimisi Station, directly above the LRT tracks.

The straight section of road from the Station area towards Gatineau is shown below. The 1m paved shoulder zone is straightforward. Personally, I dont think there are enough bike stencils. And the simple drawing doesn’t show the reality that motorists along here will be speeding a lot. The very design of the road invites it, with wide open spaces on each side of the road and no features that visually close in the space. It will function like a freeway because … it is. Cars hitting people on bikes will be fatal for the cyclists. Vehicles jumping the curb will be fatal for pedestrians.

Further north, there is the intersection with Fleet Street then with Wellington in front of the War Museum. The right-in right-out limit on Fleet further isolates the growing residential community on the Flats. Ironically, people here live downtown but are isolated by roads designed to serve through traffic rather than streets designed to add value to adjacent lands and promote a safe and prosperous community. Mind, this just reflects the typical indecision in Ottawa as to what public rights of way are supposed to do.

The left turn lane onto the SJAM commuter expressway will likely be for buses only. I don’t think left turns were permitted from the “old” Booth Street. Until the Confederation Line opens, deadheading buses uses the parkway so a left turn function is required.

For people continuing north across the intersection, the current four lane road configuration between the War Museum and the Holocaust Memorial will remain for the next few years.

There are plans to make Booth a complete street north of the river edge MUP crossing (ie, in ZIBI land) by reallocating some vehicular space to cycle lanes. Public pressure will eventually cause the various segments of complete streets to be connected up safely.

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I think the Booth Street Freeway issue and its resolution will someday be seen as a major turning point in road design for Ottawa. We have shifted from begging for public transportation infrastructure that meets everyone’s needs to outrage that a new street somehow got approved without being a complete street. I think complete streets is now the expectation, the normal condition, not the exception.

The Ottawa public deserves huge kudos for speaking up for safer streets for everyone. Credit for channeling the public pressure for a better Booth goes to Citizens for Safe Cycling, Ottawa Centre EcoDistrict, the Dalhousie Community Assoc, and numerous other groups too many to mention. And to councillor McKenny, David Reevely at the Citizen and social media for publicizing the issue and focusing the political pressure. All this is encouraging for future.