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Calgary Bike Lanes and Bike Paths

Credit to Urban Outdoorsman for his link in the construction update thread that put me onto this:

https://www.calgary.ca/roads/construction/144-ave-nw.html

Nice to see some more pathway connections up there. I'm not very familiar with the deep north, but the times I've done long rides up there I found the pathways to be particularly disjointed and confusing. Understandable in early stages, but I can't even tell if it's improved much since there are miles of pathways up there not labeled green on google maps - including long stretches of the Mattamy Greenway (I just made about 20 edit requests, but now I can't even keep track of what I've done or not).


The main thing this reminded me of is the bizarre 2+km stretch of MUP east of Rocky Ridge Rd (just north of the YMCA) that literally do not connect to any other pavement!?!? Does anyone know the backstory on this? It appears to have been built around 2006.
 
I rode that path for the first time a few weeks ago and it is most definitely very icy and dangerous. At times I was walking my bike and sliding toward the fence of the railway, and even the fence was leaning back. Very freaky. Kinda cool how many icefalls we have in this city though. Very pretty.
 
I ride that pathway every day and glacial is a good term, the ice is usually a few feet thick in places and doesn't fully melt until about mid June. The City should really do something about this, but I'm not really sure what with the slope above always on the move. That's probably why they close that pathway completely every winter. With my studded tires, riding over that glacier is actually pretty easy, definitely get some funny looks from people struggling to even walk on it.

I see people walking on the train tracks there all the time and am surprised more people aren't getting killed. With everyone staying home with the pandemic, that area has become about 10x more popular, and a lot of people really don't make good choices. Really feel for the train driver, that must be a hard thing to experience!
 
Well, never having been on that path in the winter time, it explains why some people may use the tracks as a detour. However, it does not explain why someone would be walking/jogging on the tracks with earbuds and presumably distracted from the dangers around them. That defies common sense.
 
GoVertical said:
And that side of the path is almost always in a shadow which doesn't help. Pretty sad. I wonder if they can raise the path off the ground to allow water to flow beneath the path there at some point?
Click to expand...

This is bang on. If there were a road located in that same location, there would be drainage built into the design to ensure ice flows didn't build up on the road. Even though this is a part of Calgary's primary pathway network and is heavily used, the City of Calgary hasn't invested any money in drainage solutions there. If we put just 10% of the effort into building pathways as we do to building roads in this city, we would have a much more resilient pathway and pedestrian network and a few more citizens would probably still be alive.
 
This section is also high enough over the rails that it would be pretty easy to bridge a raised path right through without encroaching into CP airspace. Would just need some really deep pilings and extremely tough steel as to withstand the flow of the glacier every winter.
 
That section of riverbank is likely due for some major engineering work in the near future:
  • pathway is always wet or icy
  • pathway is very narrow
  • pathway repeatedly heaves and erodes
  • uphill slope is slowly sliding
  • railway is partially built on river fill. If regional passenger rail ever happens, would be very difficult to twin this section
 
JonnyCanuck said:
Well, never having been on that path in the winter time, it explains why some people may use the tracks as a detour. However, it does not explain why someone would be walking/jogging on the tracks with earbuds and presumably distracted from the dangers around them. That defies common sense.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that part is mindboggling. That tracks are already dangerous enough without adding ear buds to the equation.
 
UrbanWarrior said:
This section is also high enough over the rails that it would be pretty easy to bridge a raised path right through without encroaching into CP airspace. Would just need some really deep pilings and extremely tough steel as to withstand the flow of the glacier every winter.
Click to expand...
If they did it right, we could probably be the only city in the world with both natural(ish) ice-climbing and surfing spots - and there'd be a few months where you could do both in the same day!
 
outoftheice said:
This is bang on. If there were a road located in that same location, there would be drainage built into the design to ensure ice flows didn't build up on the road. Even though this is a part of Calgary's primary pathway network and is heavily used, the City of Calgary hasn't invested any money in drainage solutions there. If we put just 10% of the effort into building pathways as we do to building roads in this city, we would have a much more resilient pathway and pedestrian network and a few more citizens would probably still be alive.
Click to expand...
I think the fact that there isn't a road there is telling of the challenges of building infrastructure at the base of a very steep, 200' hill that's slowly sliding into the river. The only real solution here would be a massive retaining wall (probably 20' high by about a kilometer long and a couple feet thick) with some major drainage accommodated for. Basically, the city isn't going to spend millions to improve the pathway when you could just cross the river at Edworthy and again at Crowchild. What will likely happen is more fencing and signage along with CP Police charging people with trespassing. The pathway is closed from November 1 to June 1 in this location because it's not feasible to spend the money on a bike path. CPR may have a long term plan to expand to 2 tracks, but I'm sure that would completely close the pathway there.
 
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