Boston cycle path

The following pictures were taken on the cycling path along Vassar Ave in Cambridge (Boston) MA. Vassar goes through the MIT campus, and recent streetscaping had been done to narrow the road, add boulevard trees, and a bike path which was heavily used when I viewed it on several occasions. In the picture below, it transitions from on-road to being at the same grade as the sidewalk, set back from the street by a row of trees.

Despite being in front of the most prestigous engineering school in the world, there is a puddle in the path.

The path was blue asphalt where cars and cyclists shared pavement. Here is a car crossing of the path. Note the car has to rise up a slope about six inches which helps convey the message to the driver that they have left the car realm:

Note also the paving change where the sidewalk is crossed by the driveway.

The photo below shows another example. The path is set back from the travelled portion of the road about 16' -- the width of the parking space plus the boulevard with trees. The example below allowed vehicles to access a small parking and loading zone. Other crossings were at building entrances (drop off and pick up zones) and into very large parking garages which would have a similar traffic volume to many residential streets.

Here is a closeup of the sign that advises motorists to watch for cyclists and yield to them:

Here the path passes by the parked cars in the distance, the path is blue where it crosses a driveway, and has rougher textured pavers and then ped pavers where it crosses a major pedestrian path at an intersection (foreground):

BikeWest - Bayview Station

BikeWest at Bayview Station


The largest single impediment to a continuous cycling route from the downtown to Westboro (and eventually beyond) is the Bayview Station area.

The OTrain comes through the area from the south; expansion of OTrain or LRT service to Gatineau over the Prince of Wales Bridge must be allowed for. So the cycling route must get across the north-south rail axis.

There are currently two overpasses over the OTrain route. One is Albert Street itself, a four lane road facility with sidewalks on each side. For pedestrians the environment is pretty hostile. On-road cyclists must endure uphill grades and vehicles that speed up because of the “open” environment that encourages faster movement. For cyclists on the Scott Street multipurpose path, it just abandons riders at Bayview intersection. On the east side of Bayview Station, the path on the north side of Albert Street (that should link to the Scott path) just morphs into an asphalt sidewalk then a concrete sidewalk between the bridge and City Centre Avenue, abandoning those who have cycled there from Bronson, enjoying an off-road path.

The other overpass at Bayview is the two-lane transitway facility parallel to Albert Street overpass.

Approaching Bayview from the west while road construction was in process. The transitway is on the raised roadbed to the left. The existing Scott multipurpose path ends abruptly at Bayview Road. In the distance, both the transitway and Albert rise to cross over the Otrain track.

 For a cycling route to be attractive to riders and win modal share from the auto, it should be continuous, without major disruptions

Major construction works are envisioned in the Bayview area as part of the LRT construction. How can BikeWest get cyclists across this important transit junction?

In December 2009, Transit Committee instructed staff to “evaluate options for including a bike route overpass over the OTrain cut at Bayview as part of the Bayview Station planning...”

One possibility is to add a 16’-wide addition to the north side of the Albert Street overpass. This would connect the Scott Street portion of the path from the Bayview at-grade intersection over the OTrain corridor to a route continuing along the north side of Albert. Such an addition would also include improved pedestrian sidewalk facilities to handle the much larger walk-in traffic expected at the LRT Bayview Station.

However, there may be a cheaper option. The current transit planning concept for Bayview LRT Station envisions a totally new overpass for the LRT built a few meters north of the current transitway overpass. After the LRT service opens, the existing transitway overpass would be demolished. Rather than spend money destroying bridge infrastructure, it makes sense to carefully examine re-using the facility for BikeWest, as shown in the photoshopped picture below.

The heavy blue line shows the approx. new LRT alignment and bridge and station proposed by DOTT. The suggested BikeWest route uses the surplus transitway bridge, rather than having it demolished. The path rejoins the Scott right of way (to the far left) either by descending to cross Bayview at grade (route option A), or if the Bayview overpass will also be surplus, reusing it to cross over Bayview (route option B). Click photoshop picture to enlarge.

The Scott Street right of way and the Albert Street right of way are thus connected, in a direct line, by the adaptive reuse of an old bridge, continuing to reinforce the adage that cycling is the cheapest way to move people.

The exact location of the new LRT bridge is not yet known, nor is connection point with the existing transitway alignment on the west. Therefore the cycling route is shown in two conceptual variations, A and B, depending on whether the route can also hop over Bayview Road using the existing transitway overpass. Obviously it would make a better cycling route to avoid an intersection with Bayview Road.

Yet another option for crossing the OTrain corridor would involve relocating the existing transitway bridge. The LRT consultants indicated that the existing structure theoretically* could be moved a short distance onto new piers for about half the cost of building a totally new structure. While the cost of a widened Albert bridge or relocated transitway bridge would be significant, it is the single largest expenditure that would be required to make BikeWest a continuous route from the downtown to Westboro. This might take 1 to 6% of the cycling budget over ten years to fund. Of course, reusing the old transitway bridge would be cheaper, and with the saved cost of not demolishing the bridge, might constitute a transfer of value into the cycling budget.

The current (Feb 2010) updated version of the BikeWest project report can be downloaded from  http://www.ericdarwin.ca/BikeWestReport.doc but it is picture heavy so it may take several minutes to download it.

BikeWest - Tunney's Station

How BikeWest could By-Pass Tunney’s Transit Station


The current Scott Street multipurpose path travels along the north side of Scott. At Holland, it passes the Tunney’s Pasture transit station. This passing is awkward for cyclists, pedestrians, and bus users alike. The route of the path is not apparent.

As shown in the photo below, people exit the pedestrian overpass at its south end facing Scott. They step out directly onto a concrete walk, crossing the asphalt multipurpose path to get to the concrete sidewalk that forms the bus waiting area for local westbound buses on Scott.

current situation - spot the bike path ! -- click to enlarge

Cyclists or pedestrians using the east-west multipurpose path face an unclear path between the bus stop and the pedestrian bridge. Not surprisingly, transit users linger on both the asphalt and concrete areas.

When the transitway is converted to LRT service, it will terminate at Tunney’s Station for a number of years, maybe decades. A major transfer facility is proposed for the site. Most buses will arrive at the transfer station using the western portion of the bus transitway; passengers will transfer on the north side of the cut in the Tunney’s campus area. The south side bus stop shown in the picture will remain primarily for local westbound bus routes on Scott, eg the #16. The preliminary conceptual layout for the transfer facility is shown below. At the time of the drawing, there was no provision made for cyclists using the east-west multipurpose path or for a more modern BikeWest route.

Tunney's Transfer Station - DOTT proposal

click to enlarge

The City needs to ensure that the provision of a large transfer facility at Tunney’s does not permanently block the BikeWest opportunity. Whether BikeWest is built as a dedicated cycling facility with parallel walkways or initially as a multipurpose path, care needs to be taken now. Transit Committee has directed staff (Dec, 2009) to “explore options to ensure that there is room for the BikeWest project to safely pass the Tunney’s Station on the south side between the station and Scott Street”. What could such an arrangement look like?

In the modified photo below, the suggested changes are very simple. The south facing doors at the Scott Street end of the pedestrian bridge have been replaced by doors facing east and west. Instead of stepping out directly into the path of cross traffic, pedestrians would step out onto a sidewalk that leads them several meters away from the building, to a point with open view lines, where they could easily cross over the east-west path on a typical pedestrian crosswalk.

This may not be the only or even the best way to address the issue. Presumably city staff could come up with several alternative means of safely reducing the conflict between east-west users and the pedestrians accessing the local bus waiting platform. Whatever solution is chosen should be replicable in other locations and follow principles for safe cycling for cycling arterials and multipurpose paths.

Note: if the BikeWest route is constructed as a multipurpose path with pedestrians and cyclists sharing the same pavement then presumably only one route is needed through the station. If BikeWest is constructed with two separate paths (much preferable for both categories of users, and the Scott right of way is wide enough for this) then the cycling route could be located as shown in the modified photo and the parallel pedestrian walkway located probably on the south (right) side, sharing a widened bus waiting area.

First expansion of Cycling Sundays in years ...

there is a fragmented path along the east side of the Otrain corridor in Little Italy

The Preston Street BIA (PBIA) is working on a marketing idea for closing Preston on cycling Sundays. The Preston street closure would connect the Ottawa River bikeways to the Rideau Canal paths. The PBIA is in logistics discussions with NCC and City. The idea is to make Preston street a useful link in the bike network, opening up new routing combinations, and making the street and its café’s a destination for cyclists. They are trying for July 2010 only as a trial. The street should be attractive to cyclists and roller bladders as it will be freshly repaved and very smooth.


 If the whole street is closed, volunteers or paid staff would be needed for each cross street/intersection. For that reason, they are also examining a model whereby only one half of the street would be closed to cars, for example, the southbound land would become a bike zone and cars would use the street northbound to access restaurants and residential street.

 They are planning to use the Preston “extension” which leads out to a legal crosswalk over the transitway and then connects to the existing NCC cycling paths. This route is also of keen interest to Bluesfest for crowds to access the park in front of the War Museum.

Cycling Sundays on Preston is a welcome initiative on the part of the PBIA. It may lead to further development/completion of the cycle path fragments along the Otrain corridor. The city cycling plan identifies this corridor as a cycling arterial. Maybe the PBIA will promote the improved path and see it branded as the CycloPiste d'Preston.

Where cyclists cross ...

Multipurpose path, aka a bike path, crosses a parking lot entrance. This is a crossing, not an intersection. Notice no painted crosswalk for the pedestrian users, as the crossing is not at an intersection. If at an intersection, there would be a painted crosswalk for peds, and cyclists are supposed to dismount and walk their bike across the road...

I like off-road cycling facilities like the NCC bike paths. I like painted bike lanes too. I think I would like physically segregated bike lanes along roads, too, but Ottawa has too few to experience.

One of the things I like about the NCC paths is they are set back from roads for the most part, and have grades and turns suited for cyclists rather than motorists. I like the set back way the Ottawa River path crosses River Street (road to the Lemieux Island filtration plant), then the Kitchissippi lookout road, then the Westboro Beach road, then the road to Britannia Beach.  What is in common for all of these crossings is that they are set well back from the nearest intersection. Cyclists and motorists can see each other well before they cross; there are no surprises from fast-turning-then-accelerating vehicles at intersections that whip around the corner then come face to face with a soon-to- be-roadkill cyclist or biped. It has been my experience that most motorists are polite and alert for cyclists at these crossings.

I recently wrote to the NCC suggesting that at least some of these bike-road crossings should be rebuilt a bit so the cycle path has the right of way over the entrance to a parking lot, for eg, the bike path could be raised on a speed bump that forces vehicles to slow to a crawl, and perhaps appropriate signage added.

The NCC response: Giving cyclist and pathway users priority over motorists is a new concept that needs to be closely studied, taking into consideration various factors, in order to ensure the safety of all pathway users. We understand the concept you are proposing of promoting the development of barrier-free utilitarian cycling facilities. We will re-examine the pathway crossings configuration with roadways at future rehabilitation projects for each pathway. That is a good answer, and is not a "no".

In contrast, correspondence with the city regarding how cycling paths cross roads, elicited this: There is even greater potential for dangerous situations where cyclists use these midblock crossings as they move faster and make it more difficult for a motorist to see them approaching. Both the city and NCC tend to be removing midblock crossings (by rerouting facilities) for the above reasons.

I remain puzzled at how rerouting a cycling path from a crossing a hundred meters from an intersection to being located at the intersection improves anything. When at an intersection, the cyclist is supposed to dismount and walk his or her bike across the offending parking lot entrance or roadway since cyclists cannot (legally) ride on a crosswalk. This rule is likely to be flouted. The turning vehicles are less likely, not more likely, to see cyclists.* And don't 70% of cycling collisions occur at intersections? That strikes me as a good reason to avoid them.

I prefer the NCC response to the City's.

*all right, I confess to being a criminally reckless parent. I always taught my kids to do as I do: cross mid-block rather than at intersections. There is usually fewer lanes of traffic, and it's coming from predictable directions at predictable speeds. (The exception to this is downtown core crossing, where everywhere is too dangerous). I used to be a rare loony with this attitude, but find more and more people expressing the same thought. Conventional traffic planning wisdom is all in favour of cars and penalizes those idiots who ride or walk. Rerouting cycle paths to meet roads only at intersections is more car-centric thinking.

More Detroit can do it ... can Ottawa?

http://www.metropolismag.com/

Shown is the Dequindre Cut, a former sunken rail line running through downtown Detroit. The St Clair River is in the background, with Windsor on the far (south!) side.

Detroit is reserving some of the cut for a future LRT line, but first it has built a bi-directional bike route and accompanying pedestrian path, with landscaping. Because the path is grade-separated from the street grid it is fast, direct, intersection-free, and has freeway-style on and off ramps that take cyclists in and out of the cut.

Detroit feels it is lucky to have a straight-line bike path going directly through the heart of established neighborhoods directly to the downtown and the riverfront recreational lands.

Do you notice the similarity to the Scott Street alignment where we built a sunken bus transitway 25 years ago and where we are now looking at a proper bike facility BikeWest? Do you notice the similarity to the OTrain cut where CPR lines were burried in 1960, where we have demo rail service but alas, still only bits and pieces of a bike route? Will the new LRT line that crosses LeBreton Flats just south of the current transitway be a stand-alone feature or will it have an accompanying grade-separated bike route into the downtown core?

We may get the BikeWest route someday, or the Cyclopiste de Preston, but only if we nag or politicians that we want first rate bike facilities and not just pretty signs nailed to telephone poles on the sides of roads.

On-Road Cycling Hazardous to cyclists?

click on table to enlarge - you should see 4 columns

In 2008 there were 292 collisions involving cyclists. My wife almost became one of the fatalities when she was doored two years ago on Bank Street in the Glebe. I have some interest in cycling safety.

The above table is from a city report to transportation committee this Wed. Jan 6th. Please notice that it covers a three year time period and only records the most hazardous zones, ie where there are repeat cycling collisions that result in injury or damages over $1000 (it covers 84 of an estimated 876 cycling collisions in the three year period).

I have heard said that 70% of cycling collisions occur at intersections. Of course this means that 30% of the injuries & some deaths could be reduced or eliminated with off-road paths or segregated cycling facilties.

Note that in the Ottawa stats, first table, that 3 of 4 fatal collisions occured mid-blocks; one (Ottawa River Commuter Expressway at River Street in the near west end) occured at an intersection. This seems to indicate Ottawa is not following the generalized stat.

The second part of the table shows the frequent mid-block collision sites; and the third part shows the most hazardous intersections. Forty-five percent of the most hazardous sites are mid-block; 55% are intersections.

This may have some relationship to Ottawa having only 2% of its streets with designated bike lanes and less than single kilomtre of segregated bike lanes. Recall that the above table only covers 9.6% of the cycling collisions, ie those that tend to cluster at the same locations.

The city staff report goes on to advise council that segregated lanes are not possible at most intersections. [Pardon my skepticism.] The report then goes on about hiring consultants to look at the hazardous spots, etc.

One suggestion I'd make that would be bloody cheap and easy is to eliminate the city's current advice to motorists to 'turn left anytime you can rush it' at signalized intersections. In their almighty rush to turn left across mutliple lanes, motorists cannot or will not see oncoming cyclists. Solution: left turn at multilane intersections only on a left-turn signal, when decent law-abiding cyclists won't be 'in the way' or causing $1000 of damage to precious automobiles.

The second solution is even better: build some proper bike routes. Start with BikeWest, there's space available and construction aplenty planned along the route.

Winter Cycling Path Maintenance

Alright, I admit that the multipurpose path on the north side of Albert between Bronson and Bayview is not really an official cycling path. If it were, it wouldn't be plowed in the winter, because the City and NCC do not maintain cycle paths in the winter. But since this is officially a sidewalk  ... it just happens to look like and function like and get used like a bike path ... it gets plowed and winter maintained.

I thought this path provided some insight into the feasibility of winter cycling in Ottawa.

Boring Job

Whilst walking along Somerset Street just west of the OTrain track, at Breezehill, I came across these gents taking bore-hole samples from the street. Little painted notations every few meters along the street indicate that they will be doing this for weeks.

I will nag the Somerset street planners for one bore hole result in particular. It will be the hole bored just a few meters east of the OTrain underpass. Eventually, a segregated bike route (CycloPiste de Preston?)  will be finished along the OTrain corridor, and to be useful it will likely have to pass under Somerset Street. Will it be possible to carve out a cycling tunnel along side the Otrain underpass?

If the viaduct (raised road surface that is Somerset Street) is composed of gravel and rock, it could be possible to pump that space just east of the Otrain underpass with grout (liquid cement) until it is solid, then carve out a bike route underpass parallel to the Otrain underpass. This would avoid digging up the road and building a cycling underpass in a cut and cover operation.

CBC Interview on BikeWest

Last Monday, CBC afternoon show interviewed Eric Darwin about progress BikeWest apparently made at transit committee. You can hear the short interview by clicking here: http://www.ericdarwin.ca/CBC_Interview_2.mp3.

The text of the BikeWest proposal (downloadable) can be found at this coordinate: http://www.ericdarwin.ca/BikeWestReport.doc. However, note that I do intend to update this document in the next two weeks to reflect newer information. The report is rather fat, because it has a lot of pictures in it.

BikeWest on CBC radio Monday

The route, from downtown to westboro

Possible intersection-free alignment along the LRT through LeBreton flats.

The CBC afternoon show will do a live segment on the BikeWest project Monday just after the 5pm news. If you can't listen in, I'll post a MP3 of the interview in a few days.

BikeWest motion passes Transit Committee

Faithful readers of this blog will recall I promote a cycling project called BikeWest.

It calls for a off-road bi-directional cycle route parallel to Scott and Albert Street between Westboro and the downtown. The city owns the land all along the streets, on the north side.

I am concerned that the DOTT  LRT project could block BikeWest at two key points, Bayview Station and Tunney's Station. Since transit committee was considering the LRT project, I spoke at the meeting, and asked friendly councillors to present a motion. But I got more than my minimal goal. Transit Committee passed a motion instructed staff to consider

- attaching the BikeWest path to the south side of the LRT route from Empress to Bayview, which if built would give Ottawan's a grade-separated no-intersection bike route for the first kilometer of so out of the downtown core

- what options we have for the Otrain overpass (more on this in a subsequent post)

- how BikeWest can safely pass the Tunney's station.

Before the motion was voted on, Councillor Legendre demanded of staff where BikeEast was as his consitituents deserved similar facilities.

I am delighted. Here is the key part of the motion that was passed:

Be it resolved that the subsequent design phases of the DOTT project include examing the possibility of including space for a segregated off-road bi-directional cycling path along the south side of the LRT alignment from Empress St to Bayview, and

Be it further resolved that staff evaluate options for including a bike route overpass over the Otrain cut at Bayview as part of the Bayview Station planning; and

Be it further resolved that staff explore options to ensure that there is room for the BikeWest project to safely pass the Tunney's Station on the south side between the station and Scott Street.

Of course, this does not mean BikeWest will be implemented. But the idea now has training wheels and is going foreward.

The Den Hague experience

The NCC invited Inge Molenaar, chief cyclist of the Den Hague city bureaucracy, to tell the NCC what it should do to make the National Capital Region cycling friendly. As part of that visit, she gave a public presentation Monday night.

A few of her points stood out to me:

-- ebikes will extend the comfortable cycling range from 8km now to 16km. The Hague will continue to let ebikes mix with pedal bikes on bike paths. Mopeds, on the other hand, being faster, are kept on the roads.

-- they have a practical policy guideline for where segregated bike paths should be built. If the speed limit is 50km/h or higher, there should be a segregated parallel bike path. If the speed limit is 30km/hr or lower, bikes can mix with cars or have painted bike lanes. (their common speed limit postings are 15, 30, 50, 60, 80, 100, 120 km/hr). In the Ottawa context, this means the City would not expect cyclists to play with trucks, buses, and cars on Scott-Albert but would build a segregated safe facility a la BikeWest.

-- in some locations, it is possible to switch roads to being cyclist priority with cars the guest vehicle that must travel slowly and yielding always to cyclists.

-- merchants will stop complaining about losing car parking spots for cycling facilities (lanes or parking spaces) when they appreciate the purchasing power of cyclists more than that of motorists. This is somewhat similar to what Geller said of Portland: when cycling hits a tipping point, merchants switch to catering for cyclists rather than cars as its cheaper (10+ bikes per single car parking spot).

BikeWest Report available to download

The current version of the BikeWest document is available to download from here:  http://www.ericdarwin.ca/BikeWestReport.doc  It is a fairly large file as it has a lot of pictures along the proposed route. It took me almost 30 seconds to down load it.

BikeWest on CKCU radio

I was interviewed by Danny Ghosen   of CKCU radio (Carleton U), on BikeWest, a week or so ago. Danny is from The Netherlands, the world's most condusive nation for cycling. He is in a state of shock at the conditions cyclists are supposed to ride in here. "Riding a bike on Bronson Avenue ... you've gotta be nuts" he told me in a conversation before the interview.

Click the link to listen to the interview. Unfortunately, the first few seconds and intro are not on the tape:
http://www.ericdarwin.ca/CKCU_Interview_1.mp4

DOTT plans affect west side residents (xi): BikeWest

The city cycling plan includes conceptual improvements for cyclists heading west from the core towards Westboro. Councilor Leadman is fighting for improvements to the ill-designed Scott Street mixed-use path and a connection to the downtown. Cycling advocacy groups want better cycling facilities. The BikeWest plan proposes a segregated bi-directional cycling path on the north side of Albert and Scott from the downtown (Bronson Ave) to Westboro.

One of the original purposes of the BikeWest plan was to tie into all the construction projects planned along the Albert-Scott corridor. It is important not to construct anything that permanently blocks cycling improvements, even if the cycling improvements are not yet being built. It is also economic and thrifty to tie in cycling path improvements to new major road and LRT works planned along the corridor.

Working from the downtown west, the currently proposed DOTT plan does not adversely affect BikeWest between Bronson and Booth. It remains to be seen if city planners can be convinced to include BikeWest either along the north side of Albert or along the new grade-separated LRT alignment. The intersection of Booth at Albert remains a horror for local residents and the new intersection plans make it worse. It remains to be seen if the intersection can be scaled down, single-occupancy car motorists tamed instead of catered to.

In the latest DOTT plans the Preston extension will be built very early in the LRT construction process. This opens a few opportunities to facilitate the cycling experience in the E/W and N/S direction. It all depends on the willingness of council to direct that cyclists be treated seriously. However they design this road feature it is unlikely to create insurmountable cycling problems.

The Bayview Station design calls for a huge widening of the current transitway bridge over the OTrain cut. It would be economic to widen the bridge a bit more to include a segregated bike path beside the new station platforms. This would overcome the biggest hurdle for westbound cyclists: getting over the OTrain tracks. The current Albert St alignment has narrow sidewalks and very fast moving traffic that creates a cyclist-unfriendly environment. It is especially inconvenient for downtown-bound cyclists to get from the Scott path over the tracks to Albert Street.

At Tunney's, cyclists today are supposed to cycle on the north side of the Scott Street sidewalk/bus platforms. For much of the station length this is not a major problem with the current bus passenger volumes. However, when Tunney's becomes much busier it will be a major difficulty. Unfortunately, the current DOTT plan continues the unsatisfactory cycling-unfriendly  arrangement.

It is possible to do much better, and cheaply too. Recall that the new platform shelters for the LRT deep in the cut, will have roofs level with the ground at the Scott Street side. The City proposes a "green roof" here. They also propose widening the pedestrian overpass by 3x, while keeping the current elevator shafts, stairs, and exit buildings. It would not be difficult nor expensive to use the LRT platform roof as additional pedestrian areas, with entrance doors directly onto the new widened pedestrian bridges. This would reduce or eliminate the current exit that opens directly onto the bike path. While not ideal, since pedestrians would all have to cross the bike path at grade to get to the bus stops, it would be an improvement over the current plans.

Even better would be for the planners to sit down with cycling advocates for a few hours to hash out some ideas for reducing conflict. Note that the conflict with the sidewalk and station exists whether a bi-directional segregated bike path is built per the BikeWest model, or a uni-directional path is built along the edge of Scott Street itself. Opportunity knocks, will cycling be given a boost or a permanent block?

DOTT plans affect west side residents (vii): Bayview Rapibus Station?

The City has been evaluating the structural soundness of the historic Prince of Wales Railway Bridge over the Ottawa River to Gatineau. The City bought it a number of years ago for transit.

Friends of the OTrain and  LRT transit proponents have long viewed the POW bridge as a great solution for taking transit across the River. The interprovincial transit study offered renewed hopes for extending LRT service from downtown Ottawa to Gatineau over the POW as the first phase of a loop system serving the two downtown employment centres and to alleviate bridge congestion. Alas, logic may be loosing out to other concerns.

I gather that a leading proposal for addressing interprovincial transit woes is to widen the POW bridge to a two lane transitway (not LRT or OTrain) to bring the Rapibus system (Quebec's new bus rapid transit system just like Ottawa's 25 year old transitway) over to the Ottawa shores. A transfer station and bus storage area would be constructed under the new Bayview Station, connected by elevators to our E-W LRT line. The Rapibus terminal would be in place until such time as LRT was extended across the River. Of course, building a new terminal and widening the bridge * will work to delay that day by at least a quarter century.

 I dislike the idea of building a bus parking lot on valuable LeBreton and Bayview Yards development lands. Extending the LRT across the river and having it service a transfer station on the Gatineau side and having a terminal station at Place de la Chaudiere makes more long-term sense to me. The interchange at Bayview would then be much smaller, more efficent, and technologically advanced. Has the interprovincial study really gone so far "off the tracks" and gotten stuck in bus mode?

* I hear rumors to the effect that the existing POW bridge is in really bad shape, and may only be worth the scrap value of its steel, and that to extend either bus transitway or LRT service from Gatineau will require a totally new bridge. In any case, double tracking it, converting/widening it to two way bus way, or building a new bridge altogether will be very expensive. Mind, a bike and pedestrian link along the bridge would make for a wonderful new link in the bike network.

DOTT plans affect west side residents (vi): Bayview Station revised

Currently the transitway passes over the railway tracks at Bayview with a simple high level overpass. At the east side, it widens for the Bayview station, which is built on a downslope into the LeBreton Flats area. The only access to the Bayview transit station or OTrain station is from the east side of the overpasses.

Passengers can transfer to the OTrain tracks which are on the east side of the railway right of way, simply by walking down the sloped asphalt paths (being careful not to fall off the broken up edges of the path). Recall that the OTrain service north terminus is at Bayview.

The transitway will be converted to LRT use. Earlier plans showed the new LRT station located roughly where the existing transitway station is now located, but with slightly revised elevation and alignment. The new plan proposes major changes to that scheme. The existing transitway overpass will remain in place, but will be widened by about 20' on EACH side, and the station will be on this elevated structure directly over the OTrain cut.

The west end of the station will be on the existing embankment with elevators down to the new OTrain platforms that would be relocated to the west side of the cut, about 100' west of the current OTrain platforms. Presumably the west end of the LRT Bayview station would also have access onto Scott Street, although this is not yet shown (plans are not fully developed). The Otrain platforms are being moved west to open up the area under the overpasses for future LRT construction and possible Rapibus terminal.

The east end of the station will be on the embankment where the current transitway station is now. However, the embankment itself will be gone, replaced with an elevated concrete structure to hold up the tracks and station. Pedestrians will walk over a pedestrian bridge from Albert Street to a mezannine level under the tracks, and then up escalators to the side platform station. Or, from the mezannine, they could go down one level to the future LRT station for the north/south LRT should that be built (currently converting the OTrain line to LRT service is phase 3 of the LRT system buildout). Until the N/S LRT is built, or LRT service is extended to Gatineau via the Prince of Wales Bridge, they may be going down to a Rapibus terminal instead.

The new station location preserves and serves all the necessary options for LRT service to Gatineau, to the south along the OTrain alignment, and east-west. It permits transfers and continuous service by the same LRT vehicles from the downtown to points north, west, and south. It seems a logical design, if expensive and years ahead of living up to its major full potential.

Given that so much bridge widening will be necessary at Bayview, it is time for cyclists and community associations to lobby for improved cyling access from the Albert Street rights of way to the Scott Street corridor rights of way. The simplest thing is to widen the transit bridge on the south side to include a bi-directional segregated bike route. If this link is not built (and during transit construction is the best time to do it) then the dreams of efficient and safe cycling from the west to the downtown will be thwarted as there are no plans to widen the Albert Street overpass over the cut.

Roger Geller, Portland's Bike Experience

Roger Geller, cycling coordinator for the city of Portland, OR spoke last evening at the CfSC meeting held at Tom Brown arena. Here are some of the points he raised in his PPT presentation on cycling in Portland.

1. There is a continuous interplay of facilities, ridership, politicies/politics, and funding. It is akin to a virtuous cycle, with any improvement to cycling facilities leading to increased ridership, more political support, then more funding of improved facilities, etc. The most common spot for the cycle to be broken is the policies/politics phase. He advises cycling advocacy groups to go for simple, easy to implement facilitiy improvements first, and then nurture the cycle onward.

2. Portland has an auditor that measures what the City does. Thus they have impartial counts of cyclists at a number of points -- particularly bridges, since they focus cycle traffic onto a few routes -- over a number of years. Thus the facts on the ground indicate to political and bureaucratic decision makers the payoff of their decisions. Geller cited numerous charts and graphs to show that each dollar invested in cycling was yielding a bigger and bigger return as the cycling momentum grows.

3. Portland has an economic model that shows the impact of cycling on the city budget. Rather than just looking at cycling expenditures as "expenses" they show that cyclists consume fewer road resources than motorists. If all the cyclists switched to cars, they would have to increase the road budget by $1.2 billion dollars (annually or one time expense? - not clear). Furthermore, since all expenditures on cars and their parts leaves the city (there is no auto parts or assembly plants) the replacement of cars by bikes frees up $800 million anually to spent locally.

4. He had a pithy expression of the city's saving: cycling is cheap. It is perhaps the cheapest expenditure the city can make to deal with travel. It makes it easier to sell cycling to politicians and taxpayers as it is so cost effective. He had other stats too, that claimed each dollar spent on cycling infrastructure saved health dollars or each mile of cycling saves one dollar of health expenditure.

5. The city has a number of innovative cycling measures it is currently working on.
- pavement with green plastic imbeded in it so it appears to be painted green. This gives clear visual signal to motorists and cyclists.
- bike box - a green square on the pavement ahead of the automobile's  stop line, so cyclists jump to the front of the queue and get first crack at moving through the interesections. Ironically, his illustrative photo of a bike box in operation showed the cyclist had moved ahead of the box and partway into the intersection, foot down to the ground, straddling the pedestrian crosswalk.
- they invest in custom bike signals, signage, passing lanes for bikes on hills (ie a slow lane and a fast lane for cycling, side by side)
- they are always having to go back to widen the bike lanes as traffic increases. Their lanes are now 3m wide per direction
- make bike lanes visible and separated by taking over car lanes. In built up areas it is seldom possible to add cycling infrastructure to a street, it is generally required to convert road infrastructure to cycling infrastructure

6. He showed pictures of businesses that favour the removal of on-street car parking from in front of their businesses to be replaced by on-street bike corrals, replacing each car with up to 20 cycle parking spots.

7. to get more cycling in a city, it is necessary to build facilities to increase cycling attractiveness

8. the population consists of
1% - strong and fearless cyclists who are willing to compete with cars in vehicle lanes (these cyclists will not move onto segregated paths)
25% - enthused and confident cyclists, who very much want cycling lanes/routes
51% - interested in cyling but concerned about safety, routes, etc
33% - no way, no how, will not cycle

9. Geller identified 5 principles for improved cycling;
- comfort (cycling in the middle of a vehicle lane may be safe but it is not comfortable)
- safety (measurable and perceived safety)
- attractive facilties
- direct routes
- interconnections that are known (so riders are confident they can get there from here)

10. He showed a slide of a miniscule dusting of snow on a road (not enough to be plowable) with cyclists to illustrate that cycling is doable year round.

11. He did not discuss the vehicular model of cycling (cyclists mixed with traffic) vs segregated lanes. I do not recall any slides showing segregated lanes.

12. Political support is key. His city is in competition with other cities to be the most environmentally "green", the most bike friendly, etc. and thus the cycling measures have a boosterism or marketing element.

Geller's presentation was interesting and overlapped in many points the previous evening's presentation by Suzanne Lareau at CycleVisionOttawa. He mentioned that Portland has a population of 500,000 in a metro region of 2million. He did not mention if the municipalities representing the other 1.5million residents shared downtown Portland's enthusiasm for cycling. I wondered if the modal split numbers would be as attractive if they included the surrounding more-suburban areas. Picture for example what Ottawa's cycling and pedestrian numbers would look like if they only included the inner city areas and excluded post-1960 suburban growth.

Portland is well known for its city policies, "smart growth" mantra, transit and cycling measures, etc. It is rewarding to research the controversial nature/impact of these practices, since the impacts are not always what is expected. His presentation was definitly worthwhile seeing and I look forward to one day visiting Portland.

After Geller spoke, Councilor Leadman spoke about the importance of cycling initiatives in her ward. She highlighted the 2011 introduction of a bike box at the Churchill / Richmond intersection and one at Bay / Wellington (no date). She mentioned the importance of a Scott Street cycling initiative, once referring to it as BikeWest.

Words of Wisdom from Velo Quebec in Ottawa

On Monday evening over 100 people jammed into a too-small reception room at the Lord Elgin to hear Suzanne Lareau. She is head of Velo Quebec, a cycling lobby and information group. The event was organized by Cycle Vision Ottawa (why weren't they signing up memberships??).

It wasn't just ordinary citizens that came out in unexpected numbers to hear her speak. Prominent in the front row were Roger Geller (cycling coordinator from Portland OR and speaker at tonight's meeting at Tom Brown arena), Vivi Chi and Mona Abouhenidy and Robin Bennet from the City, and Marc Corriveau, new transit and cycling honcho from the NCC. A number of local cycling advocates were amongst the crowd, and a few were noticeable by their absence. Clive Doucet was there, spoke passionately on global warming, sporting a battery-powered red light (not flashing at the time) on his butt.

Ms Lareau spoke for 90 minutes about some of the successes and problems of cycling in Montreal. She had a PPT presentation to illustrate some of her points (could someone please volunteer to take some new photos, ones not taken at 5pm in the winter? No doubt some good points were lost in the murky images). While not minutes of the meeting, here are some of the points raised:

1. Recreational paths are fine and have a valuable purpose, but should not be confused with the importance of having a network of routes usable for day to day activities, like commuting or shopping. (The recreational paths she highlighted in Montreal tended to be circular or purely recreational and differ significantly from the more linear NCC paths in Ottawa that adequately double as origin-destination paths.) Local trips are just as important as commuter trips.

2. The network of routes or links need not be lengthy. Rather it is important to first identify key desired segments where improvements can be made quickly and easily (and often cheaply) which has a cascading effect of increasing cycling traffic in other areas. She cited the example of McGill St (?) in Mtl where the addition of a counter-flow lane (complete with parking between the lane and the curb for traffic going the opposite way to the path!) for a short few blocks dramatically increased cycling rates on dozens of contributing or feeder streets.

3. Chevrons seem to be important. These are painted markings on the street, usually consisting of two thick arrow points ahead of a bicycle outline, painted on the street. In Montreal, they are painted very close to together, just a few feet apart. The chevrons also indicate the direction of cyclist travel. They are painted across intersections to guide cyclists from one cycling lane or position to another. They remind crossing traffic that cyclists are present. They remind everyone of the presence of a counter flow lane or bi-directional lane.

4. There were more painted features. Cycling boxes are a painted square on the lane ahead of the vehicle stop line so that cyclists move to the front of the queue and may have first chance at moving into the intersection. Yellow cross-hatching was painted near intersections to make certain parking or stopping spots illegal, where it was desirable to preserve sight lines of cyclists or of motorists to see cyclists. The usual diamond painted in the lane to identify a bus lane or cycling lane were also visible in some pictures, although some cyclists present at the meeting did not seem to recognize the symbol.

5. Signage: the only Montreal cycling route sign shown was a 3D silouette of a cyclist mounted atop a pole. It had no text at all. It was clean, elegant, not large. It was certainly better looking than the clumsy big signs (in two languages) used in Ottawa that reflect the car-traffic mentality. Similarly, Montreal now has some cyclist-scaled traffic signals -- smaller than those for cars, with the red-yellow-green lights shining through a cyclist outline.

6. Bi-directional paths. The topic of on-street bi-directional paths came up repeatedly during the evening, and it is only by dint of connecting all the single bits of info that a comprehensive view of the situation comes about. I really wished Suzanne had addressed the issue more directly. On one prominent one-way downtown street a single curb lane was removed from regular vehicular traffic and separated by a conrete curb about 18" wide from the rest of the road. The lane was repainted as a two-way bike route (bi-directional). It seems there have been some issues with this route. Ms Lareau stated a preference for having a one-way path on two separate one-way streets rather than the bi-directional path now in place, but upon clarifiication it turns out her ONLY concern with the bi-directional path was that there is not enough width from converting a single car lane into a bi-directional path plus median, but if they lane had been a bit wider, then she was completely comfortable with it. She later clarified that the bi-directionality was not the problem.

7. Bike route types: Ms Lareau was politely scornful of simple claims that making the right-most vehicle lane wider than other lanes was satisfactory accomodation of cyclists. Wider lanes make for faster vehicles -- she was clearly a fan of vehicle calming measures like speed bumps and curb bulbouts and felt Montreal was behind in this respect. Ms Lareau prefers marking cycling lanes, seeing an improvement  from on-street painted lanes to the much-preferable on-street segregated lanes where there is a 18" or wider median separating the cyclists from motorists. Even more useful and safe were photos of intersections where cyclists had priority, better signalling, and even exclusive cycling lanes approaching the intersection separate from car lanes. In the latter case, the improvements will be lost if the wait times are too long for cyclists due to signal light timing favoring cars.

8. Suzanne Lareau emphasized that there were different types of infrastructure choices for different clientelles and functions. The 20km commuter has different needs than the local retiree going to the library or depannier. She admitted she would never take her 9 year old son cycling on a busy downtown street even with bike lanes. The cyclists own perception of safety and convenience is key, not abstract policies of what is right or wrong.

9. Average cycle commute: According to her data, the average Montrealler commutes 8km to work, which is a 20 minute cycle ride. Cycle commuting is therefore feasible not just for a select few but for the majority of the population, if we provided safe and comfortable facilities. An audience member said that Stats Can shows similar data for Ottawa.

10. Timing: like most cities, cycling infrastructure improvements in Montreal are tied to other road-reconstruction improvements, ie the driving force is less the needs of cyclists than the needs to improve motorist's roads. Regretably, sometimes cycling improvements are not made during reconstruction, this is especially true in some boroughs where cycling is not regarded so favorably, and where "old" functionaires rule the roost. What is required is a combination of action: identify high-payoff cycling improvements and lobby directly for them, while similtaneously working for cycling improvements as part of other road projects.

11. Winter  cyling is now a focus of her group's activities. Certain cycling routes are to receive snow clearing in the winter. The problem now is identifying reasonable standards of clearance. Finding equipment is not an issue -- sidewalk plows or road plows do the job fine -- it is ensuring the paths are clear and by what time of day they are clear. Bike racks are now being left in place all year.

12. It used to be illegal to lock a bike to a parking meter post. Now, parking meters are being equiped with simple 1' diameter horizontal ring 30" above the pavement, expressly for the convenience of cyclists to lock their bikes to the post. Such a clean, simple measure with immediate payoff. (Note, Ottawa will shortly be removing all the parking meter posts in favor of pay-and-display vending machines, which cannot be used as cycling posts).

13. Helmets: Suzanne favors voluntary helmet wearing. She cites evidence that making helmets compulsary severely reduces the number of cyclists by making cycling more cumbersome / less easy. She also felt that some cyclists felt wearing a helmet increased their immortality which contributed to more risk taking.

Her presentation was interesting and clearly stimulating to the many cylists present. I would like to see more facts and figures and concrete expressions of policy of the organization. We were left with the impression that things are great in Montreal and getting better, but several times during the meeting I was uncomfortable with what seemed to be left unsaid or glossed over. This was especially true with the Bixi Bike system (short term rentals) which was portrayed in booster terms without any mention of expense or difficulties. The organizers, CycleVision Ottawa, performed a valuable public service in bringing in this speaker. They concluded with a survey of attendees to identify the "first" segregated bike route in Ottawa. (I suggested BikeWest was ideal).

I look forward to seeing if Roger Geller will be as interesting at tonight's meeting.