Sliddel is a little street that connects the new trafic roundabout at Bayview-Burnside to the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway. As shown, it has sidewalk stubs that sort of die as they approach the NCC lands.
The City and NCC had no apparent problems with deciding where to put cars, curbs, traffic signals, and sod. They have lots more problems with pedestrians and cyclists.
Why dont the sidewalks go right out the traffic lights where people cross? According to city staff:
At the time of our project design, they indicated to us that they would not support a pedestrian crossing across the Ottawa River Parkway at Slidell Street.
That being said, we have just worked out some details with the NCC to improve the accessibility at this intersection, in advance of the completion of their overall plans for the area in conjunction with future developments. Painted cross-walks, pedestrian push buttons and depressed curbs should be installed at the intersection within the next few weeks.
Things are not quite so optimistic for cyclists. The roundabout lacks cycling guidelines, preferably instructing cyclists to take the centre of the lane. The City is consulting with the traffic and cycling dept to see if anything is warranted.
There IS already a button for pedestrians to use to cross the parkway there. and it works and everything, there just might not be any markings on the road
That response from the city is ridiculous! As Sylvia says, the button and pedestrian signals are there and fully operational, but are utterly inacessible to anyone who might have trouble crossing the high curb and very uneven loose gravel surface that seperates the road and the crosswalk button. As for cyclists, should they abandon their bikes to press the button? wait forever for a car (likely turning illegally onto the ORP) to activate the signal? or wait for a gap in the 80km/h traffic on the ORP to cross dangerously against the lights? (like I do, but don't recommend). Anyway, thanks for this Eric!Cheers,
Rode past today and a construction crew was hard at work tearing up the brand new curbs (and some landscaping) at the four corners of Slidell, River St and the ORP/Commuter Expwy. I asked if they were cutting access to the crosswalk buttons, they said yes, then they laughed and agreed when I suggested that "everything has to be done in stages, eh?"
I watched them this morning too. But note that peds will still have to get off the sidewalk and walk along the road or use a worn-in-the-grass goatpath since the sidewalks will NOT be extended to the corner. I somehow suspect that directing peds onto the road just as one approaches the intersection is not the most safe course.
maybe completing the sidewalk connection will be phase 3 of this project?