Calgary Bike Lanes and Bike Paths

[CBBarnett]

Straight up doubling pathway widths would be a good start (where there is space), and still peanuts compared to road investment.

Riverwalk is a perfect example, no way should they have just put in a standard width bike pathway there. They had to know it was going to end up being a busy corridor, widen it up. And missed opportunity to do just that with the flood wall work, everything going back in right now like before.

This exactly - treat pathways as transportation infrastructure that requires capacity and demand to be considered in the design.

Riverwalk was designed as a amenity and park first, transportation network second. Now 10 years later it's being redone - as a flood barrier opportunity first, park second, transportation third. The result is the narrow cycling lane is increasingly congested, inefficient and not appropriate for the demand that has grown.

It's a good problem - we designed a place so popular it's overwhelmed and doesn't function as smoothly as it could as part of the transportation system (which it definitely is part of). Peace Bridge has the same good problem.

I have said this before in this and other threads, but the exact same mechanisms that made much of the city a car-oriented mess from 1960-2010 would do wonders to make us bicycle and pedestrian-oriented friendly - only apply it to pathways and sidewalks, instead of roads.

• standard (wider) sidewalk/pathway lane widths - if your sidewalk or pathway doesn't meet that standard it's a new project to widen it to that standard.
• automatically create projects to widening pathways and sidewalks where demand threshold is surpassed.
• Standard/predictable level of quality - standard quality lighting, benches and washrooms at fixed intervals, separating modes where appropriate etc.
• Plan the pathway and sidewalk network holistically with speed, directness and quality prioritized.
• Prioritize sidewalks and pathways expansion over existing roads when conflicts for space emerge.
• Require transit to have secured bicycle storage and parking at stations rather than requiring park-and-rides.

Of course, the land requirement and cost to do all this for sidewalks and pathways would be a fraction of the tens of billions we spent the past decades to make us car-oriented. Unsurprisingly, all the widths and engineering requirements of all infrastructure for pedestrians and bicycles are naturally far more relaxed that engineering everything to accommodate multi-thousand kilogram vehicles going at 15% over the speed limit in all situations on every part of the network.

Good news there's lots of pathway capacity programs being thought about, but too often it's wrapped up "park upgrades" where the pathway is really just a a nice amenity, not a transportation backbone of tens of thousands of commuters a day. Hopefully that will change.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

How would this be received here? Bike protest takes over German motorway

 

[lemongrab]

Not well.

 

[Mountain Man]

The Bro-dozer crowd would go nuts!

 

[CalgaryTiger]

So many people are so close to becoming strong allies of better bike infrastructure. They buy bikes for their kids, use the bike paths in their community with their family, complain about how their kids can't ride their bike out front of their house, but just can't understand why we need better biking infrastructure.

You're never going to get the person who doesn't ride a bike at all but I'm not sure how much the biking family sees themselves in biking infrastructure.

Also, saw this over the weekend out of Winnipeg.

 

[Mountain Man]

That's pretty impressive! Winnipeg doesn't seem to have great bike infrastructure so I'm kinda surprised.

 

[adamyyc]

I’m currently in Barcelona for a couple weeks. My (obvious) conclusion from my visit so far is that Calgary’s cycling infrastructure has a long way to come! Our pedestrian realm in general has a long way to come! We seriously need to remove at least one lane from every major street and avenue in the core in Calgary and dedicate it to bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Out of curiosity, I asked Google how I could get to McMahon on my bike.

Here's my result:

Safeway Garrison Woods to Northwest Calgary

goo.gl

Overall, not too bad at all. If you've ever tried to go to a game and didn't have a parking pass, you know it can be a bit of struggle to find parking unless you know sneaky spots around the surrounding communities (which I'm sure residents hate).

Transit is also pretty convenient, as I only have to hop on the #20. But most people probably drive (being that it's Calgary). I wonder if the Stamps ever put in any effort to get people to think about other ways than driving to get to McMahon? The train to Banff Ave Station is obvious, but I honestly never thought to bike or bus.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I’m currently in Barcelona for a couple weeks. My (obvious) conclusion from my visit so far is that Calgary’s cycling infrastructure has a long way to come! Our pedestrian realm in general has a long way to come! We seriously need to remove at least one lane from every major street and avenue in the core in Calgary and dedicate it to bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

I suspect Calgary (and almost all NA cities) are behind almost all European cities. Years back I spent a summer in Barcelona, and there was very little cycling infrastructure at the time and for the most part not many people cycling. At the time, cycling didn't really stand out in most European cities except Amsterdam. In the past 30 years it's come along way in Europe. Though trailing European cities, cycling's come a long way in Calgary too. IMO, Calgary today is further ahead in cycling than Barcelona was when I was there, so there's hope for us

 

[sidewalk]

New bicycle pump track coming to West Confederation Park - LiveWire Calgary

Cyclists in Calgary won’t have to travel down south to take advantage of the city’s pump tracks soon. Parks Foundation Calgary made the announcement that a new, $750,000 asphalt pump track would be coming to West Confederation Park in the fall. It’s the first of its kind north of the Bow River...

livewirecalgary.com

The Pump Track's coming along. Talked to a couple of local kids who were flying a drone over it watching the construction.. they're 'pumped' about it..(heh)
With a nice web of bike paths forming in the area it'll encourage kids to bike along to - what was - an under used corner of the park.

 

[potatopizzafan]

Thats awesome, construction on the South Calgary Park pumptrack should be starting fairly soon as well

 

[Surrealplaces]

I’m currently in Barcelona for a couple weeks. My (obvious) conclusion from my visit so far is that Calgary’s cycling infrastructure has a long way to come! Our pedestrian realm in general has a long way to come! We seriously need to remove at least one lane from every major street and avenue in the core in Calgary and dedicate it to bike lanes and wider sidewalks.

I haven't been to Barcelona for some time, but I was away in Europe recently and managed to spend time (at least 3 or more days) in the following cities: Rome, Prague, Munich, Paris and London. While there, I paid attention to the cycling infrastructure and just how easy in general it would be to cycle around, and I have to say, Calgary isn't doing too badly, at least compared to those cities. Pedestrian-wise, they all do better than Calgary, but not sure about the cycling part of it.

- London and Paris had some protected cycle lanes - I saw at least two in each city. They were well used, but protected bike lanes or dedicated paths were hard to find as there were very few of them, and trying to cycle on most inner city streets is dangerous or next to impossible. Most of the bike lanes I saw were the same painted sharrows that we have, but the roads were too narrow to safely accommodate cars and bikes. Given the population of the cities l didn't see very many people cycling in either city.
- Munich didn't seem much better than London or Paris, and surprisingly not that many bikes out and about. The bike lanes I saw were dedicated lanes using painted lines (like 10th street NW). I was speaking with a local and he said they didn't have protected bike lanes, but the city was planning to build them.
- Prague and Rome. Beautiful cities, both of them, and very walkable, but neither are cities that are great for cycling IMO. Very few bike lanes or dedicated paths, and trying to ride on the streets would be a death wish lol Especially Rome. Rome has a few dedicated path sections along the river that are really nice, but much like London and Paris they are few and far between in the city in general.

This post isn't intended to dispute Barcelona's infrastructure, nor to say how bad those other cities are doing, only that Calgary has made some good headway, even when compared to some European cities. Looking at the dedicated paths in those other cities made me really appreciated the efforts of the city in building the 1000kms of pathway and the cycle tracks that we have in the city.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Calgary scores near the top in annual North American cycling rankings - LiveWire Calgary

The backbone of Calgary’s high score in a recent North American ranking of bike-friendly cities is built on the city’s extensive multi-use pathway network, said one city councillor. The sixth annual PeopleForBikes city ratings had Calgary ranked fifth in the large city (300,000+ population). In...

livewirecalgary.com

I wanted to point out something that wasn't mentioned when this first came up back in June. The other cities being compared against Calgary are going by their city proper area and not the metro area. Calgary being being a mostly a unicity would be like comparing a metro area in one of the other cities... not apples to apples, yet we still managed to score pretty high on the list. We've done reasonably well for a car loving city, we just need to keep the foot on the petal.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

I wanted to point out something that wasn't mentioned when this first came up back in June. The other cities being compared against Calgary are going by their city proper area and not the metro area. Calgary being being a mostly a unicity would be like comparing a metro area in one of the other cities... not apples to apples, yet we still managed to score pretty high on the list. We've done reasonably well for a car loving city, we just need to keep the foot on the petal.

I didn't mention this when it first came up back in June, but this analysis' methodology is absolute hot garbage and the rankings are meaningless, the valid point about city vs metro aside. Any road with a speed limit of 40 is cycle friendly by their definition, so even though you have some jerk in a jacked-up Ram blasting past you at 57 km/h, that's a cycle friendly facility, exactly as good as the best section of the pathway system. One of the worst places in the city for cycling by their analysis is the block between 6th and 7th St in the Beltline, between 14th and 15th ave. It's a block with (inadequate) cycle lanes on both the north and south side, and is within a block of the 5th St and two blocks of the 12th Ave cycle tracks. One of the best places in the city for cycling by their analysis is the interchange of Macleod Trail and the ring road. The Country Hills Town Centre area scores better than the Bow River Pathway in Parkdale.

 

[AJX]

I didn't mention this when it first came up back in June, but this analysis' methodology is absolute hot garbage and the rankings are meaningless, the valid point about city vs metro aside. Any road with a speed limit of 40 is cycle friendly by their definition, so even though you have some jerk in a jacked-up Ram blasting past you at 57 km/h, that's a cycle friendly facility, exactly as good as the best section of the pathway system. One of the worst places in the city for cycling by their analysis is the block between 6th and 7th St in the Beltline, between 14th and 15th ave. It's a block with (inadequate) cycle lanes on both the north and south side, and is within a block of the 5th St and two blocks of the 12th Ave cycle tracks. One of the best places in the city for cycling by their analysis is the interchange of Macleod Trail and the ring road. The Country Hills Town Centre area scores better than the Bow River Pathway in Parkdale.

Maybe we're looking at two different things, but on their website it shows Macleod Trail/Ring Road intersection as high stress. I see Country Hills town centre as a mix of high and low stress, but the Bow River pathway as low stress.
This is where I'm looking https://bna.peopleforbikes.org/#/places/4f374ae8-09cf-4f81-aa1e-902cc879da7d/

I agree the methodology isn't perfect, I would have three categories: Low stress for dedicated pathways or protected cycle lanes, medium stress for roads at 40km/h and high stress for those above that. Cities with boatloads of dedicate pathways like Calgary would do even better.