Animating LeBreton Flats streets

The picture above is a new condo door installed by Claridge on its ground floor condos on Lett Street (LeBreton Flats, under the yellow tower).

It is highly significant.

City and NCC plans for the development call for animated streets, full of people walking, playing, shopping ... but the first phase building as regular sliding doors on all ground floor units. You know, patio doors. No lock nor key to access them from the outside. No lobby space inside those doors, just step straight into the living room. In short, the developer paid lip service to the notion of animated streets but built the opposite.

The second phase of the first building faces Lett and Fleet Streets. The ground floor units (mostly) have hinged glass doors. With exterior handles. And locks. So someone can actually come and go at street level.

It is an improvement.

Prince of Wales maintenance

Picture taken yesterday from the bike path on the west side of the War Museum, looking upriver. A service vehicle is on the Prince of Wales bridge near the Quebec side.

Closer view, shows the vehicle has two sets of wheels, rubber ones for the road and steel wheels for driving on rails. What it is doing?

Men in cherry picker extendable arm are working on the side of the bridge.

Arm continues to extend, now right under the whole bridge, the men are beyond the far side of their vehicle. It is rather like using your left hand to scratch your right side.

Working on the underside. Double click to enlarge.

Recently while cycling past the Quebec side of the POW bridge I noticed a security guard on duty, guarding the track/bridge. Upon questioning, I found out there is a guard on duty 24/7. He prevents people from cutting across the river via the bridge (the big fences at each end having been kicked down by thwarted peds). Upon further questioning, he said he was guarding the Fibre Optic Cable (FoC -- as seen frequently painted on downtown streets, along with Bell and other cables that get marked). What is there to steal in FoC? I thought FoC was plastic tube, not copper wire.

Interprovincial transit opportunity to choose your mode

Prince of Wales rail bridge from Ottawa to Gatineau

Tuesday from 5.30 to 8.30 at City Hall (main floor) there will be a public display of the options for interprovincial transit between Ottawa and Gatineau.

Options include which mode of transit to use: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or LRT. Route options include connections via the Alexandra Bridge (or under it, in a tunnel under the river, and remember the tunnel under downtown Ottawa is already very deep down so this doesn't require a steep slope, and the Rideau station has been designed with this connection in mind); a west connection on the Prince of Wales Bridge or Chaudiere Bridge; and maybe connecting these two crossings to make a loop.

Mode: Ottawa is growing out of its BRT system and converting it to an LRT system including a downtown tunnel. Gatineau, smaller than Ottawa, is just building its Rapibus BRT which will last it 30 years until it too is converted to a LRT.

It just doesn't seem logical to me to opt for a BRT linking the two cities. The idea behind the tunnel is get the buses off the downtown streets (so the streets can be redeveloped and landscaped for pedestrians and cyclists), and this means getting the STO buses off the streets too.

And we don't want large BRT stations at LeBreton Flats or near the National Gallery to transfer passengers to the LRT. So, my choice for the mode is LRT for the loop. In Gatineau's small downtown, it is probably premature to run the LRT in a tunnel; I suggest it would be fine to run it on the surface for the next several decades where it would serve to animate the street life.

Route: in the west, either the Chaudiere crossing or the Prince of Wales Bridge will work. But since the LRT route will help intensify development, it makes the most sense to me to run it on the POW bridge so it services all of  LeBreton-Bayview redevelopment areas, and connects with the future North/South line along the O-Train corridor (which might extend right over to Gatineau on the POW). While a bit further than the Chaudiere, the POW bridge would be car-free so service would be faster. The already-planned Bayview Station has been designed to handle east-west and north-south traffic and all its transfers, permeatations and combinations.

I also don't think they would need to double track the Prince of Wales bridge at the beginning, five or seven minute scheduling should be possible even with a single track bridge. Indeed, it might be possible to initially run the whole loop only in one direction on one track, and later expand it to two ways on two tracks.

On the east side, it intrigues me that the LRT could run on the old Alexandra Bridge rather than in a tunnel under it. Of course, car traffic would be booted off, and the bridge would revert to its original rail function. It is sort of poetic justice that rail structures were converted to roads in the 50's and 60's and now they could be converted to LRT service*. And the views from the LRT would be fantastic from both bridges, which can be a great feature attracting ridership.

City hall is air conditioned, so its a great time to come down and tell the City and NCC what you want to see for the interprovincial transit connection.

If you can't get there, you can go to this web site and make your comments. If you are really lazy, you can just copy and paste the shortcut to this blog posting: www.http://interprovincial-transit-strategy.ca/

*expanding on this idea of converting rails to roads and back to rails, the parkway along the canal would be a great conversion back to surface LRT (streetcar service) which would include Lansdowne Park, the Glebe, Main Street, Ottawa South, to Billings.

Ye Olde LeBreton Flats

click to enlarge

Notice Britannia Terrace (parallel to Duke street) which is now disappeared. The new Claridge condo on the Flats is right on the ACE of Terrace.

Note Queen Street is not shown as jumping over the cliff, but Maria Street (now Laurier Ave) apparently does. Suitable for Nanny Goats maybe.

Slater Street ends at Bronson (then called Concession). It was later extended just below the section of Albert that is shown on a diagonal. The extension was to permit the streetcar (Ottawa Electric Railway) to connect to Albert, which accounts for the narrow right of way on the part of Slater. The foundations of the old houses shown between Albert and Slater are still visible as depressions and hollows as you walk up Albert towards the downtown.

Note too that Empress, by the Good Companions centre, was called Nelson Street.

Bridge Street was later extended south over the aqueduct to incorporate Cortland Street, and after demolishing lots 22-27 became Booth Street. I remember when the five sided intersection was still operating at the corner of Albert-Rochester-Broad-Wellington (called Richmond Road here, when west of Broad).

Preston Street is barely visible below the parcel of land marked John Rochester (after whom the whole area was called the Village of Rochester, or Rochesterville as it is put on my original house deed as surveyed by N Sparks). The Rochester lot became a huge building, demolished c1982 (I have pictures of that somewhere) in which the transatlantic cables were woven and taken by rail and ship to Halifax and Newfoundland. It was the largest or longest building in the British Empire at one time.

Primrose Street was then called Maple, I have a "for let" sign used to rent the house I now live in, the sign refers to the address as Maple Street. Primrose used to be only the section above the cliff, it was changed to Primrose below the cliff (the only flower in the forest of street names) when the city incorporated the Experimental Farm which got to keep Maple Lane.

Notice how close Nepean Bay (the Ottawa River) is to Albert street on the far left. Huge portions of the bay were filled in in the 50's to create the land for the parkway.

Eskimo roll

The picture above is the outlet below the water pumphouse on the aqueduct that runs through LeBreton Flats. The ped bridge is at the top, the beginning of the kayaking course is at the bottom. The water course is variously known as the Tailrace, or Bronson Creek (until the last decade the creek was actually the private property of the Bronson Corporation).

There are three signs in the area. Notice one in the lower centre left of the picture above. Here's a closer up:

It says:
Combined Sewer Overflow Area
Adverse Water Quality Can Occur

I think that is bureaucratic speech (note the lack of a noun, as in who might be responsible for the overflow or adverse quality) for:
Watch Out - Big Sewer Dump Right Here!

I wonder if any of the kayakers feel like doing an Eskimo Roll now??

Navy Monument Sod Turning

2010 is the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy. This accounts for all the banners and display panels on Confederation Boulevard and down by the war memorial.

A monument is being errected to this anniversary at Richmond Landing, the original origin point of Richmond Road, at the Ottawa River below Chaudiere Falls where the Bronson Creek/Tailrace/Kayak course enters into the Ottawa River.

The banners behind the tent are some of the ones decorating Confederation Boulevard.

There was a large collection of navy-types there. I haven't seen this many navy uniforms in decades (a navy brat, I grew up down east).

As for the monument itself ... well, it hasn't been constructed yet, but they hope to have it finished in 2011, which will be less-late than the navy gets its new gear. I asked a couple of the old salt types at the ceremony what they thought of the monument [slightly curved concrete wall with gold ball stuck on the top edge]. Let's just say they missed the symbolism, meaning, representation, purpose ... and so did I. Old Salts still have a good vocabulary.

Archways

 Ashcroft is proposing a wide two or three storey arch on the north side of its convent development in Westboro. They are proposing an "arched" arch, rather than the very square ones at 200 Lett St (Claridge's project on LeBreton Flats). The photos above show their north arch. Notice that the road surface and pedestrian walking surface are undifferentiated with so much as a curb or coloured paver. At the midpoint of each Claridge arch is the entrance to the parking garage, so this passageway is sometimes busy with cars. The length of the passageway through the building seems short enough for pedestrians, with the eye attracted to the daylight at each end. It certainly does not feel like a Queensway underpass!

Courtyard in Condo

This photo looking towards the downtown from the courtyard at 200 Lett Street, the first condo on the Flats. Place de Ville is the blocky building in the background. Phase two of the condo is under construction to the right. At the very back, it is still one floor short of its full podium height. Due to the angle the building sits on the site, the second phase podium has more units than the first, and it turns to partially enclose the back of the courtyard. The second tower, to be clad in yellow brick and some of the same glass as the first, goes above the turn in the building at centre right in the picture.

I had been concerned that the new podium structure would block too much of the view and result in a claustrophobic courtyard. However, even at this early stage, the courtyard still feels generous and urbane.

The view from the same courtyard in late summer. It is an amazing vista of foreground green roof landscaping and beyond the kayak tailrace lies the Garden of the Provinces and the downtown highrises.

The exterior walls being enclosed. The podium will be the same style as the first phase podium -- yellow brick, some variation in the window pattern from floor to floor, although not as much as on the first phase.

Since these buildings started, a number of other condos in the city are proposed that also have the variable window pattern from floor to floor, eg the two condos on West Wellington at Island Park.

LeBreton Flats Condo grows

The first phase of the first building on LeBreton Flats is towards the left. It includes a six storey podium building of yellow brick with a seven storey glass tower above. The right most wall of the podium was partially unfinished, in order to attach the second phase.

The podium portion of the second phase has been poured. Six storeys high, it will be clad in yellow brick like phase one. Windows and exterior walls are being put in place. Plumbing drains have been installed on the first two floors. There will be a seven floor tower on top of this podium, to be located at the end of the building just past the crane.

Closer up, showing the new wing attached to the existing building at the small triangular ledges that were put in place for phase one.

Future of No 3 bus route

The City is busy paring back bus services. Residents in the Preston area are probably glad to get back to having the No 3 on Preston again. And in the spring, the bus stops will again have shelters, benches, and trees for shade.

Once the bus transitway is converted to LRT service (sheduled for 2017 or so) then the no 3 bus route will follow Preston to Albert to Booth Street and the LeBreton LRT station, then over to Gatineau. It will no longer go to downtown Ottawa. Riders on the north-south routes will be taken to rapid transit stations where they will transfer to the LRT vehicles for the east-west portion of the trip.

West Wellington Condo Mania

A new condo is planned for 1433 Wellington, a half block east of Island Park Drive. It is almost opposite the recent Domicile building at the corner of Picadilly. The site is currently a small strip mall. I think a new mid-rise condo is a big improvement over the strip mall and worthwhile bit of intensification.

The building will have vehicular access from the side facing the Loeb/Metro store.

The building exterior is very much in the same style as the building at 200 Lett Street at the corner of Wellington, the first condo built in the current LeBreton Flats project. While it doesn't have a glass tower on top of a podium, both are similar heights (six and seven stories), have windows that vary vertically and horizontally in size, shape, and position. Both have decorative horizontal reliefs or cut ins.

It remains to be seen if this building, already in a built-up area, will be better received than the LeBreton building.

The Claridge condo on the Flats is much larger than 1433 Wellington. However, a similar sized and designed building to the one pictured above(same architect, same builder) is planned for right next door in West Wellington (the car audio site), so from the street there will be much more building than looking at "phase 1" might suggest. The two West Wellington buildings as currently planned will be separated by the 3 storey Bella Bistro restuarant.

The two new West Wellington buildings,plus the nearby 101 Richmond Road condo now under construction on the west side of Island Park, are all of a similar architectural style that will set the tone for the neighborhood. Recall too that Ashcroft, builder of 101, now owns the convent grounds across the street and will likely be wanting to build more, similar condo buildings.

LeBreton Flats condo grows

Claridge is busy building the second tower / second half of the first building at 200 Lett Street on LeBreton Flats. Now that the garage levels are in, the swiming pool cast, and the ground floor poured, the remaining floors will pour quickly, maybe one floor per week.

The new building will be a seven storey podium of yellow brick, with a tower on the east side going to 14 floors, with an exterior of yellow brick and glass (same glass as first tower, but second tower will read as mostly brick).

The architecture or style of this building is spreading. Two new condos on West Wellington near Island Park are similar style to the LeBreton podiums.

Dalhousie Community Assoc responds ...

Wearing my other hat, and with much input from other members of the Dalhousie Community Association board, the DCA sent two letters. One to the Marie Lemay of the NCC regarding the bad idea for bringing Rapibus to Ottawa over the POW bridge; and the other is detailed comments on the current state of the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel study.

You can read both of these letters at http://www.dalhousiecommunityassociation.blogspot.com/

NCC to Quebecers: Back [on the] Bus

 

Proposed modernist Bayview LRT station is elevated and long. The proposed STO bus terminal would be off the left. Click to enlarge photo.

Planning in a Federal capital region is not just about good planning on utilitarian "planning' terms. A good chunk of it is political planning and symbolism too.

In the past,  separatist elements in Quebec made hay from the disparate images of the Quebec side of the river (low rise, lower income housing, industrial mills) and the Ottawa side of the river (shiny high rises set high on a green hill). They drew a direct line to the federal purse, discrimination, second class status, etc.

The response from the Feds was politically / symbolically motivated. The Portage Bridge appeared, the Ottawa River Parkway was rerouted so that Wellington appeared to go directly to Hull while Ontario users had to "turn" to continue in Ontario. High rise cubicle farms sprouted on the Quebec side. Museums and prestige buildings materialized. Confederation Boulevard.

The major planning decisions for roads, transit, and buildings, in the Ottawa-Gatineau area have traditionally had a strong Federal political element.

Today, I fear the Feds are about to step in la merde in a rather big way.

Ottawa planned and built its transitway (bus rapid transit, or BRT) a few decades ago. It was a reasonable decision for the size of the city as it was then. It was always designed to be convertible to LRT, which is where we are heading now. On the Quebec side, the City is now planning and constructing its own BRT system called Rapibus. I presume that Gatineau is making a rational decision given its population density, geographic area, costs, etc.

The problem comes in the downtown area where the two systems -- LRT and BRT -- will meet.

There is currently a front-running proposal in the NCC-chaired interprovincial transit study to bring the Rapibus system over to a terminal in Ottawa. If the Prince of Wales railway bridge is rebuilt as a two-lane BRT for STO buses (a repeat of the Alexandra Bridge solution adopted almost half a century ago) the national unity optics are terrible: English commuters ride sleek and shiny LRTs to the downtown, French commuters ride old-technology diesel buses to the periphery where they are then permitted to transfer to the LRT.

Election 2020: If I were the PQ, I'd be snapping pictures of the two modes from an aerial point over the Ottawa River looking south, ie the view from Quebec. It would show the Federally-funded bright red trains entering the modern very long elevated glass and steel Bayview Station, and Quebecers shuffling past bus shelters on their traipse through wind-whipped snow to get to first class transit.

Of course, the national unity side could score with a slightly different system: build the LRT line over the POW bridge to stop at Terrace de la Chaud and then run along the surface of Rue Principale to Place du Portage. Then the picture shows Federal money delivering the smart-growth green technology of the future to the voters of Quebec. I'd even paint the LRT vehicles on the first part of this great circle loop in STO colours, regardless of who operated them.

Which picture will the NCC be setting up?

DOTT plans affect west side residents (i): Preston St

The city will hold an open house on Monday afternoon for the "final" recommended plan for the downtown Ottawa transit tunnel and LRT line from Tunney's to Blair. It has a number of modifications and changes from previous editions of the plan.

As somewhat expected but never expressed in previous versions of the plan, it has proven too difficult to keep the Booth/transitway intersection open during the construction period. Recall that the new station will be directly under Booth Street. The new Booth  will be elevated onto an overpass that crosses the LRT line and the aquaduct. It is simply not possible to build the station and the overpass at the same spot at the same time and keep the road open to traffic.

Therefore the plan now recommends that the Preston Extension be constructed first. This would have to be constructed in the very first year of the LRT project, similtaneous with the starting of the tunnel construction.

Preston Street currently ends at Albert, with some old pavement (closed to cars, open to cyclists and pedestrians) extending north to the transitway where there is a legal crosswalk to the bike path and riverfront parklands to the north. About a hundred meters further north and slightly east is the intersection of Vimy Drive (main vehicle access to the War Museum) and Wellington / Ottawa River Commuter Expressway. It was in the long-term build out plans (2030) for LeBreton Flats to build the Preston extension, but now this link will be accelerated to the early phases of the LRT project.

There is good news and bad news for local residents and cyclists. The good news is that the link will be made permanent, soon, giving residents and cyclists continued and permanent access to the Flats and riverfront paths and parkland. It will give improved access to Bluesfest and allow attendees easy access to the businesses along Preston Street and Chinatown.

The bad news is all the single occupancy car traffic that will hit the Albert / Preston intersection. Will the intersection need to be widened? It is likely, given the current and proposed width of the Albert / Booth intersection. Widenings are likely to include a left turn lane -- or two -- from Albert eastbound onto the Preston extension, and a right turn lane --or two -- from Albert westbound onto Preston extension. Will these widenings become permanent? I hope not. We cater to cars too much already.

The Preston extension itself as shown in the LeBreton plans was to be two lanes of traffic plus two parking lanes (which could, of course, be converted into traffic lanes in the future). If it is to replace Booth for the three years it takes to build the new Booth overpass, I can guarantee the Preston Extension will be four lanes plus lengthy turning lanes from day one. Will we ever be able to undo that damage?

Lansdowne Live

Some misc observations on Lansdowne Live, and in particular the meeting last night at arena Tom Brown arena.

1. Opponents are well organized, sporting custom printed apparel and carry bags (made of recycled hemp, I hope) and handing out reams of photocopied green paper that may have required the souls of every tree in the Glebe. Of course, the Glebe trees are still there (at least along Ralph and Percy when I walked up those streets yesterday) so trees from some other place were sacrificed. Sacrificing somewhere else seems a common theme.

2. The green shirters took off their shirts to sit among the audience or ask questions at the mike, at last night's Live meeting, thus appearing as 'unaffiliated' citizens when they hissed and boo'd answers and people they didn't like. As the meeting ended, the team uniforms were pulled on again. We require lobbyists to register so we know who is meeting whom, it might be nice if citizen lobbyists for one particular cause did the same by keeping their shirts on. (I wore a sweater and jacket throughout the meeting, the air conditioning worked well and continuously despite the crowded room).

3. Cullen, running for mayor, repeatedly referred to Bayview as the best site. He did not mention any alternative sites, certainly none in the Glebe or Ottawa South. He did not mention whether the local residents should have any voice in the matter. He gave every impression his mind was completely made up.

4. I am amazed at the ability of residents and politicians  to call for consultative planning but conveniently ignore the fact that the Bayview site already has a plan for 1600 medium density housing units and a 300,000 sq ft civic building (envisioned in the 2004 study final to be the library, which is now going elsewhere). But no where was a 25,000 seat stadium mentioned. I reviewed this with city planning staff and other community groups, and they confirm a stadium was not on the books. I also reread the Bayview report. Nary a stadium in sight, despite Martin claiming that residents have been consulted.

5. Getting into the Live meeting at Tom Brown was like running a gauntlet of time share salespeople in Mexico, with hyper-ventilating sales people pushing the merits of their real estate dreams. The alternatives to Lansdowne only look attractive because they are not fleshed out, they are conceptual ideas only, being compared to a detailed Lansdowne plan. Of course it is easy to pick at the detailed plan and fantasize about the vague one. Sell the sizzle.

6. I am constantly amazed at the people - politicians, architects, professors - who use one set of words to tell us why Lansdowne is Bad Plan (parking horrors! ugly stadium! sensitive neighborhood!) but then switch vocabulary when suggesting alternatives such as Bayview (civic structure! pedestrian paradise! transit nirvana!).  Residents of the Bayview area may be lower income than the Lansdowne area but we are not stupid.

 7. I am surprised how many people latch onto flimsy straws that support their views without thinking it through. Parking around Lansdowne - now and in the future - will be a problem. So will transit access. So people jump to the Bayview site as solving all this because its on one or more LRT lines (so would the Carleton site, but hey, that's too close to ... ). Well, Bluesfest is located just a few hundred meters east of Bayview, equally right on the transit line, and the neighborhood was plagued with parking problems as thousands of attendees drove to the event and tried to park on lawns, bouelevards, and park space when they couldn't find free on-street parking in the first block off the site. What will make all these people suddenly decide to take transit to the stadium?

8. People at the meeting derrided the park and ride schemes proposed in the Lansdowne Live plan, saying no one would park at Carleton U ($$) or Billings Bridge (because the mall is open 7 days a week and most evenings). But then, how would transit work for Bayview if people aren't expected to park at Lincoln fields, College Square, St Laurent and other shopping centres to take the LRT? Is the City expected to provide new larger park and ride lots for 24,000 cars? If so, shouldn't we consider where and at what cost?

9. Martin proposes a Bayview stadium that is sunk into the ground to partially hide it. As a resident of the Bayview area, and a walker, I can certainly attest to what planners know but seldom boast about: Bayview and LeBreton are low lying areas subject to cold winds from the west and north. They are, in short, thermal sinks. This might be a contributing reason they have always been low income areas. A sunken sadium would be even lower. Can Mick Jagger say "Brr"; Can Kiss-y cats fluff their fur? Surely outdoor concerts would be more comfortable at Lansdowne.

10. And just where does the Bayview parking structure go? Under the sunken stadium, five stories below the River level? And all those people leaving Bayview in their cars ... are they using the Ottawa River Commuter Expressways, even though using the Driveways is disparaged for Lansdowne? Which is it: NCC roads are usable, or not?

11. When the City first faced two competing stadium bids, I was surprised at how quickly centretown residents ruled out Kanata. Much of this is a knee jerk reaction, an antipathy to suburban development which must be derrided as dormitory land and forbidden to diversify. To my mind, the Scotiabank site was pretty attractive: it's far away from me, residents who move in will know they are getting the open air concerts forbidden to the sensitive ears of downtown residents, and it might be enough incentive to extend the LRT to Kanata sooner than later, so we can get rid of BRT in favour of LRT. And it has plenty of parking already.

12. Will the Green Shirt fiscal-hawks be around when alternative stadium sites are being planned for? Or are they really just opponents of a stadium at Lansdowne disguising their opposition in the guise of fiscal and procedural rectitude?

13. If a stadium is bad for established neighborhoods, such as the Glebe/Ottawa South, why is good for other residential areas? Wouldn't honesty require Lansdowne location opponents to oppose stadiums in other residential or urban areas and favour industrial locations? Alas, no such subtle thinking was apparent last night.

14. Questioners focussed on the long term viability of Lansdowne Live: what will become of the stadium in 30 or 60 or 100 years? The obvious answer is that sole city ownership has proven itself a failure as the stadium is crumbling around itself; the Live plan delivers a cash stream to keep the stadium maintained. Would that people were so concerned with the long-term consequences of all city decisions and expenditures.

15. Three politicans were present last night. Cullen took every opportunity to promote himself and Bayview, although Bayview is far from his ward (maybe that's why...). Kitchissippi ward councillor Leadman was there. She represents Bayview area, but said nary a word pro or con Bayview or even that maybe, just maybe, the surrounding community should be consulted and impacts on the area considered. Such admirable restraint! Wilkinson was there too, and did not embarass herself. Holmes was not there to put in a word for her ward which abuts the Bayview site.

16. The city manger Kent Kirpatrick handled hostile questions with grace and skill and in-depth knowledge. It was in marked contrast to the three politicans present. Kirpatrick for mayor !


Finally, a note on my own personal view: I do not think stadiums are easily integratable into urban areas, anywhere. I think stadiums are a component of a vital urban area that offers diverse entertainments and environments, even though I cannot recall ever attending a Lansdowne stadium event.  I am not adverse to looking at Bayview as a stadium site. I am adverse to being stuck with a stadium because an affluent bureaucracy-savy neighorhood gets a below-mediocre council to suddenly jump off a hot stove onto the nearest, ill-thought-out alternative. If Lansdowne Live is killed, what is the alternative?

Twilight on the Aquaduct and the ... come out to play

A number of earlier posts show damage caused to large trees in the LeBreton Flats area. The Dalhousie neighborhood hosts a surprising number of animals and birds.

These two twilights shots show the local vampires, err, beaver out to prey on unsuspecting urbanites. In the photo with a fine stone-arch bridge in the background, the beaver can be jut seen in the right foreground. Click picture to enlarge. The second picture shows him up close ... he was about 20 feet away from me and curious about the flash on my camera. After several shots, he dove leaving only a trail of bubbles.

More on Bike West - part vii

The story of BikeWest began at the point where the transitway meets Albert-Slater where they split in front of the Good Companions centre just west of Bronson. It began there because the block between the split and Bronson used converted bus lanes which won't be required once the downtown LRT is built and BRT is suspended. For all points west of the Albert-Slater split, BikeWest does not use any street lanes but is a separate route all the way west to Dominion Avenue using the City-owned right of way on the north side of Albert and Scott Streets.

Alternative Route through LeBreton Flats

The Albert-Booth intersection will be a major traffic intersection in the future. It must allow for a number of complex and busy turning motions. It is subject to gridlock. Can BikeWest avoid this intersection?

If the BikeWest route detoured slightly north where the current transitway alignment is, it could pick up the new LRT right of way accross the Flats. The new LRT  LeBreton Station will be approximately at the same location as the bus transitway station, but one storey down from Booth Street. The LRT will pass under Booth with a grade separation. As it goes west accross the Flats, the new LRT route will drift south for a straighter approach to Bayview than the transitway now takes.

Alternative grade-separted route for BikeWest closely aligned with the new LRT route accross LeBreton Flats. Click to enlarge to see in more detail.

If BikeWest was built along the side of the LRT, it could also pass under Booth Street, and the eventual Preston extension too. This route would be only a few meters longer than the original alignment along the north curbside of Albert, but would be faster and safer as it would be grade separated. At some point west of Preston it would resume its alginment along Albert and then Scott. It does not matter for now which side of the LRT alignment BikeWest is on, there are attractive elements to either choice.

One side or two side?

The BikeWest project outlined over the previous few days envisions a two-way bike route on the north side of Albert and Scott. Some people may prefer the idea of a wider bike lane - separated physcially from traffic or not - on each side of the street, going with the car traffic. The reason to avoid this approach is apparent from a glimpse at a city map: the north side has fewer intersections (about 12 on the north side)  than the south side (about 36 intersections), plus the south side has numerous driveways and commercial entrances, some of which, like Holland Cross Beer Store and Trailhead, are very busy.  The north side has no driveways or commercial entrances, and is not likely to ever have driveways, since the buildings proposed along Albert will have their driveways from a new road to be built north of Albert, and of course along Scott the north edge of BikeWest would be the depressed transitway right of way.

Costly structures?

The relative scarcity of intersections is one of things that makes BikeWest affordable and usable and safer than on-road lanes. With the perception of increased safety, cycling becomes a more viable attractive option for getting around. Throughout its length, BikeWest requires only one expensive bit of physical structure: at Bayview. Albert Street already uses up all the available bridge over the OTrain tracks. The transitway bridge will be converted to LRT use. However, the LRT planners have identified that it may be necessary to widen the transitway bridge to improve alignment to the proposed Bayview Station hub. With all the contracting to build the north-south and east-west stations, allowing for interchanging passengers and trains, etc it would be a marginal additional cost to either widen the Albert street overpass or to construct a separate overpass for cyclists that would safely take cyclists past this busy interchange and permit cyclists to access transit and the river parkways.

At this point, it is assumed that BikeWest would be closely parallel to Albert Street. If however, the alternative alignment suggested above it taken through the Flats, the bike route might well be on the north side of the LRT station and could cross over the North-South train tracks to arrive in the middle of the proposed urban development on the former Bayview Yards and then pass under the LRT to regain the Scott Street right of way.

That's it. No other structures are required between Bronson and Dominion. If the bike route is extended beyond Dominion, along the LRT if it runs through the Ottawa River parkway/oldCPR alignment, then some underpasses would be required where the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway and the new LRT swing south at Lincoln Fields. Underpasses like the ones at Carleton and NewOrchard Avenues are simple and relatively cheap, or even cheaper if they are simple square box underpasses like the one where the river side bike path goes under the Champlain Bridge at Island Park.

BikeWest - part iii - from Booth to Bayview

Above: looking west from Preston, approaches to the Bayview Station area

From Booth, the BikeWest bike road would continue as a two-way road separated from the car traffic by a curb and possibly a boulevard, and coloured pavement, with a raised sidewalk to the side of the bike road, all the way west to Bayview Station. Note that the City already owns the right of way along the side of Albert to Bayview, it is where they buried a high-pressure water pipe and where a vague multipurpose paved path was installed two years ago. The path will pass between the existing Dalhousie neighborhood (which includes the first 600 houses built in the 1980's as LeBreton Flats phase 1) and the new proposed higher density mixed-use Flats project currently underway (slowly).

The bicycle road would be adjacent the (north) side vehicle lane of Albert to facilitate snow plowing, but the sidewalk, already raised slightly higher than the new bike road, would be separated from the roads by a boulevard of trees and grass.

Above: the current ill-designed multi-purpose path would be replaced with bi-directional BikeWest lanes along Albert with a new pedestrian sidewalk set back behind a landscaped buffer of trees and grass. Not quite the Champs Elysees, but that’s the inspiration…

At Bayview, Albert crosses the OTrain tracks and joins Scott. The intersection with Bayview Ave is unlikely to change from an at-grade signalized intersection, which would be treated the same way as other signalized intersections as described previously, to provide safe intersections for cyclists without frustrating delays.

The connection at Bayview of the north-south transit line with the east-west LRT line is not finalized. It will most likely involve a station just east (towards the downtown) of the current Bayview transitway station, and will be a major transfer point from the east-west service to north-south service, including service to Gatineau on the existing-but-unused Prince of Wales railway Bridge. As part of this transit interchange, the City may have to widen the Scott Street road bridge or the transitway bridge over the OTrain, in order to improve alignments and handle the number of lanes/tracks required. It would therefore be economical to widen either structure at the same time to accommodate a two-way BikeWest project. Suitable side access to the Bayview station and other routes (such as the NCC Ottawa River bike paths, and the southwest path along the OTrain right of way) should be incorporated into the Bayview area design.

Click to enlarge: BikeWest route on north side of Albert

After leaving the Bayview Station area and crossing Bayswater Road at grade, BikeWest would continue west using the greenspace along the north side of Scott Street, where an existing multipurpose path would be rebuilt as separate landscaped BikeWest and pedestrian paths. Whether the path is located adjacent the north road curb or set back in greenspace is subject to discussion and refinement, but either can work with the BikeWest concept.

Note that a key to the success of the BikeWest concept is that commuter cyclists have direct dedicated path westward. This will remove many of them from the meandering NCC riverside paths, thus obviating the demand to build separate pedestrian and cycling paths along the waterfront.

At every major intersection, BikeWest users would have the same length of green lights as would car traffic, ie not be second class to car commuters. The bike road will not be successful if users are frustrated by car-priority signaling at intersections or unpredictable, potentially fatal cross-traffic. Thus the emphasis that BikeWest users have the same green lights for through traffic as cars do. (Recall that traffic turning across the BikeWest route does so only on right turn/left turn arrows, from separate stacking lanes (most of which are already there) so car traffic does not cross the bike route when cyclists are proceeding through the intersections. Like all signalized intersections, obeying the signals promotes everyone’s safety.

BikeWest is not just for commuter cyclists though, which is why connections to other City bike routes and the NCC recreational paths are necessary to help construct a web of safe cycling routes in the city.

Next: segment 3, from Bayview to Dominion.

BikeWest - part ii - from Bronson to the transitway

The current transitway carries buses across LeBreton Flats and links them onto Albert Street (westbound) and Slater Street (eastbound) where Albert-Slater split, in front of the Good Companions Centre, located half way between Bronson and Booth Street.

Above: The Albert-Slater split, where the transitway begins/ends, by the Good Companions Centre. Slater, on the right, was originally built expressly for streetcar traffic to access the downtown.

Both Albert and Slater have dedicated bus-only lanes from the split right into the downtown core. These lanes will not be required for buses once the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel (DOTT) is constructed and the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) service replaces the current bus rapid transit that uses street surfaces.

There are many contending uses for the bus lane space in the downtown core (east of Bronson over to the canal). But for the lanes west of Bronson, both Albert and Slater traverse vacant lands. The City, in its prior southwest LRT project planning, identified the Slater Street lane between the Good Companions and Bronson as unnecessary for traffic, and proposed converting it into a pedestrian sidewalk (currently missing either side of Slater) and additional greenspace merging into the wooded slope up towards St Vincent Hospital. As for Albert west of Bronson, currently four lanes (including the one counterflow lane that eases traffic onto Bronson), the City proposed reducing this road to three lanes once the buses were replaced by the LRT service.

Click to enlarge map. Dotted line shows the new bike route on the right side of each of the streets.

The BikeWest proposal is for a dedicated 3m-wide bike lane to replace the surplus bus-only lanes on these portions of Albert and Slater. There should be a concrete curb separating the car road from the bike road. The bike road could be about eight inches higher than the car road surface, to clearly identify it as separate from the vehicle road. Or it could be separated from the car traffic by a two foot wide curb/boulevard. Then beyond the bike path, there would be another curb and the concrete pedestrian sidewalk eight inches higher than the bike surface. These differing surface elevations and coloured asphalt paving will self-enforce a separation of traffic types.

Above: Slater Street bus lane would become a dedicated, physically-separated eastbound bike road made of coloured asphalt and there would be a separate concrete sidewalk for pedestrians.

This proposed tripartite vehicle road/bike road/pedestrian sidewalk would blend very easily into the existing wooded slope on the side of Slater. It would also coexist wonderfully well with the recently-constructed separate raised pathway that runs along the north side of Albert between Bronson and the transitway.

Above: west bound bus lane on Albert – shown on the far left - would become separated westbound bike route; boulevard and sidewalk would remain on both sides. Click to enlarge photo, and the new raised sidewalk on the far side of the photo (north side of Albert) will be apparent.

Only for the segment of BikeWest that runs from the downtown to the split would there be separated east-bound and west-bound bike lanes; for the rest of BikeWest project from the split to the west end, both directions would be on one paved surface on the north side of Albert. Cyclists would transition from the one way pair to the two-way portion at a signalized crossing where Albert-Slater split.

Here is a satellite photo of the route from Bronson west to the split at the Good Companions where the transitway is shown curving in from the lower left.

From the Albert-Slater split west towards Booth and then other points west, both direction lanes of the BikeWest road would be on the north (LeBreton Flats) side of Albert. This surface would not be reclaimed from the car road surface, but would be entirely new separated-by-curbs route, paved with coloured asphalt, created on the city-owned space along the north side of Albert, roughly where the current multi-purpose path is now. The pedestrian path/sidewalk would be located immediately north of the new BikeWest surface. This right of way is City owned for parts of the route, and might require some space from the NCC as part of the LeBreton Flats development in a few other spaces.

Above: the current ill-designed cyclist-ped path would relocate a few metres to the right as a new pedestrian-only sidewalk, leaving lots of room for a bi-directional BikeWest surface between it and Albert Street.

The first major intersection the BikeWest road faces is when it reaches Booth. This intersection is already a horror. It is scheduled to get worse. In order to be successful, the BikeWest users must have a fairly generous opportunity to safely cross Booth without excessive wait times.

I suggest this could be done by permitting right or left turns off the Albert Street stack lanes onto Booth only when there is a right turn/left turn green arrow. When there is a green light for through traffic on Albert, the bike road would also have a green light. There would be no turning traffic to cross the bike route during the regular green. Thus cyclists would have exactly the same amount of time to proceed through the intersection as would through-traffic motorists, and there would be no turning vehicles crossing WestBike when cyclists have a green light.

This procedure would be employed at all the subsequent major signalized intersections along BikeWest (eg Bayview, Parkdale, Holland, Island Park, Lanark).

Tomorrow: the Booth to Bayview segment