News   Apr 03, 2020
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Calgary Bike Lanes and Bike Paths

The John Hextall bridge rehabilitation in Bowness looks finished. Now with LEDs:
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That can't possibly be finished...where is the obstacle course?
Much better! So glad they took out those stupid planters!
All a byproduct of the era where bicycle and walking infrastructure is just "placemaking" exercises as opposed to transportation infrastructure. Benches, planters and park amenities are super great and needed of course... just maybe not in the middle of a bridge for no reason that causes a bunch of unnecessary conflicts and blind corners.

More broadly, that whole Bowness Road corridor is actually remarkable now. Thanks to the street rebuild in Montgomery and some of these add-on connections, it's full protected or separated cycling from downtown until the Bowness side of this bridge, then bike lane all the way to Bowness Park. Most uniquely and unlike the NW river pathway, this route goes far more directly and efficiently and to actual neighbourhood destinations.

Would love this full corridor approach to be applied in all directions from the core, like a rapid transit network but for walking and bicycles. The key difference from previous pathway improvements is directness and consistency in infrastructure quality. That's the game changer here.
 
Would also love to see the Bowness Bike Lanes upgraded to proper cycletracks to make the entire route safe and separated.
That would be great to basically have full protection from downtown all the way to Cochrane once everything is connected. More protected intersections too, absolutely hate cycling through all-way stops
 
I ended up on the Edmonton Trail bike lane the other day - It seems so obvious to extend it over the flyover and along 5 Ave through dt... That section feels so useless, and 5 Ave can likely handle the removal of a traffic lane.
I've used that section of cycle track once, and yeah, it kind of feels at bit useless as it is quite a short stretch. Better than what was there before, but doesn't connect well at either end. The connection to the bridge is clunky, and then once on the bridge the pathway is too narrow for bikes and pedestrians. For roughly 22 hours of the day there isn't much traffic on that bridge, but of course drivers would freak if they proposed taking out a lane.
 

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