In this post, the focus is on the west and east ends of the segregated route along Laurier. After all, if you can’t get to the route, it won’t be used to its full potential. Continue reading Laurier segregated bike lane, part ii
Jan Gehl from Copenhagen was speaking last night to an over-flow crowd. His is the gospel of new urbanism, taming the car, focussing on pedestrians and cyclists. Here are some of his observations.
Continue reading Ideas that Gehl
After relentlessly mocking the City for its proposals to widen Bronson, and to make the sidewalks narrower, and for its myopic focus on commuter-traffic-and-damn-all-the-rest, word percolates out of City Hall today that the scheduled Bronson stakeholder meeting for the fall has been postponed to allow the engineers time to examine a road diet for Bronson. Continue reading Bronson Engineers Going on a Diet !
Occasionally the City does make the pedestrian sidewalk more pleasant for pedestrians, but this is far from common. Sometimes the city uses planters to separate speeding traffic from peds. These work really well. Continue reading Making sidewalks safer
I had thought Ottawa was perhaps unique in wanting to install fake trees on concrete foundations along Bronson rather than plant real trees with real roots. The City is reconstructing Bronson next year. In their rush to pave over every possible inch of Ottawa space for rush hour commuters to head over to the greener pastures of Pointe Gatineau or out to Greely, they discovered they had no room left over for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, residents, adjacent businesses, kids heading to school or grandma heading to the lawn bowling club. No room for bus shelters, benches, or trees … … Continue reading More on Bronson’s fake trees
I had thought Ottawa was perhaps unique in wanting to install fake trees on concrete foundations along Bronson rather than plant real trees with real roots. The City is reconstructing Bronson next year. In their rush to pave over every possible inch of Ottawa space for rush hour commuters to head over to the greener pastures of Pointe Gatineau or out to Greely, they discovered they had no room left over for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, residents, adjacent businesses, kids heading to school or grandma heading to the lawn bowling club. No room for bus shelters, benches, or trees … … Continue reading More on Bronson’s fake trees
This morning the CBC did a follow up interview on the problem with Bronson. They interviewed Dan Burden, who is a leading proponent of road diets. I have used his materials in suggesting to the city that Bronson needs to be put on a diet, and their answer, without any justification, is always … “no”. You can now listen to this interview at http://www.ericdarwin.ca/downloads/CBC_Bronson_Road_Diet.mp3 He points out that some cities are already up to their thirty-third road being put on a “diet” and dear old Ottawa won’t even consider putting one road on a diet. Sigh. Continue reading More on Bronson Road Diet
This morning the CBC did a follow up interview on the problem with Bronson. They interviewed Dan Burden, who is a leading proponent of road diets. I have used his materials in suggesting to the city that Bronson needs to be put on a diet, and their answer, without any justification, is always … “no”. You can listen to his interview here: http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/Select the story called “road diet”. He points out that some cities are already up to their thirty-third road being put on a “diet” and dear old Ottawa won’t even consider putting one road on a diet. Sigh. Continue reading More on Bronson Road Diet
Your blogger was interviewed on CBC radio this morning about the Bronson issues. He was also a news story in the local news lineup. You may be able to hear the interview by going to http://www.ericdarwin.ca/downloads/CBC_Bronson_Fake_Trees.mp3 The story must have gotten some feedback, since they followed up looking for additional people to interview in the coming days on the subject of road diets. Continue reading Bronson road diet
Your blogger was interviewed on CBC radio this morning about the Bronson issues. He was also a news story in the local news lineup. You may be able to hear the interview by going to http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/ and selecting the “fake trees” item. The story must have gotten some feedback, since they followed up looking for additional people to interview in the coming days on the subject of road diets. Continue reading Bronson road diet
Last night was the second PAC (Public Advisory Committee) meeting on Bronson. After the hard time the city planners and consultants got at the first meeting in April, the May meeting disappeared in favour of a mid-June date. The city and consultants got ideas from the public (me: the Bronson 2 lane plus two way left turn lane model) and the community associations (2 lanes plus turn lanes at intersections, a livable streets model that has worked so well for fixing roads with similar volumes in Toronto) and a lot of pressure from the Councillor to do better. So they came out … Continue reading Bronson deja vu all over again
Last night was the second PAC (Public Advisory Committee) meeting on Bronson. After the hard time the city planners and consultants got at the first meeting in April, the May meeting disappeared in favour of a mid-June date. The city and consultants got ideas from the public (me: the Bronson 2 lane plus two way left turn lane model) and the community associations (2 lanes plus turn lanes at intersections, a livable streets model that has worked so well for fixing roads with similar volumes in Toronto) and a lot of pressure from the Councillor to do better. So they came out … Continue reading Bronson deja vu all over again
Members of the Dalhousie and Centretown community associations met to create a suggested Bronson layout that would be a first step to creating a more liveable street. Here are my notes on the proposal for a new Bronson between Albert and Gladstone: Drawing up a plan by ourselves has certain disadvantages — we cannot estimate turn lane lengths, for example. But we are suggesting these things to the planning group in an effort to get started on a plan that might, with tweaking, be acceptable to the neighborhood and many stakeholders. First, let’s differentiate this plan from the one recently … Continue reading Another Bronson Plan
Members of the Dalhousie and Centretown community associations met to create a suggested Bronson layout that would be a first step to creating a more liveable street. Here are my notes on the proposal for a new Bronson between Albert and Gladstone: Drawing up a plan by ourselves has certain disadvantages — we cannot estimate turn lane lengths, for example. But we are suggesting these things to the planning group in an effort to get started on a plan that might, with tweaking, be acceptable to the neighborhood and many stakeholders. First, let’s differentiate this plan from the one recently … Continue reading Another Bronson Plan
Bronson today Example of an after diet road: two through lanes, centre turn lane, bike lanes, usable sidewalks. Could be improved by adding trees to the boulevard. If you are keen on reading more on putting “four lane” roads onto a two lane diet, start reading here: (note that some references take you to same key documents, but there are references to new sources at each of these) http://www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/content/reading/road-diets-3/ http://www.congestion.kytc.ky.gov/roaddiets.html http://www.walkable.org/assets/downloads/4%20Lane%20Conversion.pdf http://www.walkablestreets.com/diet.htm http://publications.iowa.gov/2888/ http://www.mnltap.umn.edu/Publications/Exchange/2008-3/ResearchAnalyzes.html http://www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%202/Knapp.pdf http://www.iowadot.gov/crashanalysis/pdfs/ite_draft_4to3laneconversion_papersubmission_2005.pdf There is lots more literature out there. Google “the conversion of four lanes”, or “road diets” to get started, and follow the links and … Continue reading The Bronson diet literature
Bronson today Example of an after diet road: two through lanes, centre turn lane, bike lanes, usable sidewalks. Could be improved by adding trees to the boulevard. If you are keen on reading more on putting “four lane” roads onto a two lane diet, start reading here: (note that some references take you to same key documents, but there are references to new sources at each of these) http://www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/content/reading/road-diets-3/ http://www.congestion.kytc.ky.gov/roaddiets.html http://www.walkable.org/assets/downloads/4%20Lane%20Conversion.pdf http://www.walkablestreets.com/diet.htm http://publications.iowa.gov/2888/ http://www.mnltap.umn.edu/Publications/Exchange/2008-3/ResearchAnalyzes.html http://www.urbanstreet.info/2nd_sym_proceedings/Volume%202/Knapp.pdf http://www.iowadot.gov/crashanalysis/pdfs/ite_draft_4to3laneconversion_papersubmission_2005.pdf There is lots more literature out there. Google “the conversion of four lanes”, or “road diets” to get started, and follow the links and … Continue reading The Bronson diet literature
What can be done south of Somerset? So in this post, the Somerset to Gladstone stretch. South of Somerset the traffic count goes up. Recall that the Laurier to Somerset section had 16-20,000 AADT (annual average daily traffic) with under 4% trucks. South of Somerset, it increases to 21-26,000 AADT with almost 5% being trucks (2003 and 2008 traffic counts). This is still within the “normal” band of volume suitable for converting a four lane road into a three lane road. But it is at the upper limit. I predict Ottawa engineers would be very unhappy trying these volumes (some road diets have worked … Continue reading Bronson south of Somerset
What can be done south of Somerset? So in this post, the Somerset to Gladstone stretch. South of Somerset the traffic count goes up. Recall that the Laurier to Somerset section had 16-20,000 AADT (annual average daily traffic) with under 4% trucks. South of Somerset, it increases to 21-26,000 AADT with almost 5% being trucks (2003 and 2008 traffic counts). This is still within the “normal” band of volume suitable for converting a four lane road into a three lane road. But it is at the upper limit. I predict Ottawa engineers would be very unhappy trying these volumes (some road diets have worked … Continue reading Bronson south of Somerset
Over at the Spacing Ottawa blog, Evan Thorton has some interesting views on the effect of the difficult-to-cross Bronson. His site even has a movie of Bronson!! go to http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/06/04/city-plans-to-widen-centretowns-great-divide/ Continue reading Bronson: the great divide
Over at the Spacing Ottawa blog, Evan Thorton has some interesting views on the effect of the difficult-to-cross Bronson. His site even has a movie of Bronson!! go to http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/06/04/city-plans-to-widen-centretowns-great-divide/ Continue reading Bronson: the great divide
Wonderful Bronson today. In the first post of this series, I tried to show that Bronson only looks to have two through lanes in each direction, but functions as two turn lanes with lane-swerving through traffic, the speed of which is set by the fastest driver. The engineering literature abounds with case studies and policy recommendations on what to do with this type of bad road condition: narrow it to three lanes. The most likely approach that the literature recommends for the section from Laurier to Somerset (given the traffic volumes, number of side streets, driveways etc) is to narrow it … Continue reading Bronson: getting the diet started
Wonderful Bronson today. In the first post of this series, I tried to show that Bronson only looks to have two through lanes in each direction, but functions as two turn lanes with lane-swerving through traffic, the speed of which is set by the fastest driver. The engineering literature abounds with case studies and policy recommendations on what to do with this type of bad road condition: narrow it to three lanes. The most likely approach that the literature recommends for the section from Laurier to Somerset (given the traffic volumes, number of side streets, driveways etc) is to narrow it … Continue reading Bronson: getting the diet started
Bronson north of Somerset is busy — at rush hours. Outside the peak commuter hours, the street is not all that busy. But the wide street with four lanes makes pedestrian crossing unsafe. Landscaping is minimal. The housing and apartments suffer from high tennant turnover because of noise and dust. A classic case of urban street in decline. Thus far the city’s idea for this street is to widen it. Looking at the section from Laurier (top of the hill) to Somerset, the traffic volumes are 16-20,000 vehicles per day (the AADT or Average Annual Daily Traffic count). Volumes have … Continue reading Bronson: the choices are stark
Bronson north of Somerset is busy — at rush hours. Outside the peak commuter hours, the street is not all that busy. But the wide street with four lanes makes pedestrian crossing unsafe. Landscaping is minimal. The housing and apartments suffer from high tennant turnover because of noise and dust. A classic case of urban street in decline. Thus far the city’s idea for this street is to widen it. Looking at the section from Laurier (top of the hill) to Somerset, the traffic volumes are 16-20,000 vehicles per day (the AADT or Average Annual Daily Traffic count). Volumes have … Continue reading Bronson: the choices are stark
Bronson from Queen Street to Somerset Street is up for reconstruction in 2011 and in the following years the stretch from Somerset to the Queensway. The April proposal from the City consultants was to widen the street and narrow the sidewalks. This was to make the lane sizes match the city’s standard lane widths. The problem with the City’s current approach is that it assumes Bronson is a four lane street. And that it is congested. And therefore, the solution is to widen it. I don’t think Bronson IS a four lane street, and there is a whole pile of traffic engineering … Continue reading Bronson: the clogged artery
