trtcttc
Senior Member
And the beach recliners? Shouldn't a park have infrastructure that encourage people to socialize? Picnic tables or something similar seems like a much better choice than 5 people lying there sunbathing.
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General Construction Updates
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
Judging by how long this project has taken, I think the beach recliners were for the construction workers.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
City parks and plazas are not hard to design, we've only been building them for hundreds of years. Somehow this design got through multiple levels of approval, how this was even presented as a concept I have no idea, it is too clever and not practical at all. I hold out hope for the riverwalk west... but my hope is fading.
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Col du Edworthy
Active Member
Having now seen this close-up this design again fails to recognize what actually is going on here. The path immediately adjacent to the beach is one of the busiest cycle paths in the city and the design forces bikes to make an unnecessary weave around the point circled below. The desire line for me (and probably most cyclists) would be the dashed line
I wonder how long until someone misses the turn and catches their wheel in the drop off to the sand...
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Agreed - it's an awkward pinch-point.
The new river pathway sections are usually pretty good, but they all often have this same weakness - where the whole exercise is one of environmental design rather than one of active transportation. I get the push is always this public "gathering space" philosophy, but it's underweighting the role the pathway plays in transportation and the volume of traffic that actually occurs here. I have never been a fan that the cycling path disappears in the "mixing zone", when it should be the opposite - high traffic areas are exactly where we need delineation more, not less.
Shaka
New Member
I ride this path a few times a week and I'd guess the intent is a traffic calming measure to slow cyclists down. It's been a little dangerous with the construction walls up for the last couple of years because it's been so blind. It will a least be improving now that you can mostly see around that corner. The potential for a cyclist to hit that sand is definitely there though.
100% Agree.
I've also wondered that myself. As someone who uses these paths a fair bit, I'd rather see the separate cycling paths kept straightforward and simple. For example the 12th ave cycle track as opposed to the 11th street cycle track. I love the straightforward transportation friendly way the 12th ave track is done. For 11th street, I don't like how it weaves from side to side.
Shaka
New Member
Oh I agree, I'd much rather a straight path like you get on the west side of town along Bow Trail. The way it zig zags through the Eau Claire area, and with all of the low tree cover, makes it dangerous if you have people passing each other on blind corners. Still one of my favourite sections on my commute though.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
It's the bicycle equivalent of randomly removed all road line paint and randomly change the amount of lanes down on Deerfoot and Crowchild from 5 lanes wide to 2 and back again in a 100m stretch. And not just a random spot, probably the single highest traffic spot in the whole citywide network.
The counterpoint - and the argument that probably won in the design room - is that cycling and pedestrians are more nimble, lower speeds and the area should be a gathering space and destination rather than just a corridor. Mixing therefore is fine, separation is actually something to avoid, not encourage.
I get that but only to a point - all the rest of the plaza and riverwalk are acting as gathering places. Failing to recognize there's a dual role here is a miss. And it's not just this project. Much of recent cycling pathway, even the separated ones, are only 3 - 3.5m wide, woefully undersized for the given traffic on a typical day, let alone a busy summer weekend. Cycling path alone from 14th Street to East Village could easily be 4 to 5m wide to allow for people to ride side-by-side and safer passing. Despite having way more amenity and gathering space, the cycling pathway is way undersized.
MichaelS
Senior Member
Too bad they removed the 3rd Ave cycle track.....
outoftheice
Active Member
Agreed. The 3rd Ave cycle track should have served as the high speed cyclist bypass to this section of pathway. It's a shame the City caved and took it out after it had already been installed.
I also agree that the pathway curve was likely a design choice to slow cyclists. If the pathway followed the desire-line curve cyclist could maintain a high speed through that stretch. I would argue that the main thorough-fare at that intersection is actually pedestrians going north-south from downtown, across the cycle pathway, and onto the bridge onto Prince's Island, especially during events. Forcing cyclists to slow before hitting that crossing point probably isn't the worst idea.
I also agree that the pathway curve was likely a design choice to slow cyclists. If the pathway followed the desire-line curve cyclist could maintain a high speed through that stretch. I would argue that the main thorough-fare at that intersection is actually pedestrians going north-south from downtown, across the cycle pathway, and onto the bridge onto Prince's Island, especially during events. Forcing cyclists to slow before hitting that crossing point probably isn't the worst idea.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
I definitely think it's a traffic calming measure as well since that pathway is so busy and cyclists can easily go 30-40km/h in a straight line. I regularly hit 40 on the 12 Ave cycle track, that is the #1 way to cross the beltline. Downtown needs a similar cycle track.
1875
Senior Member
cant be bothered to find the arc 33 thread so put this here
I've always wished that we had a cycle track on 6th ave and another on 3rd ave. 6th especially would be nice as it goes all the way through downtown at both ends, and cuts through EV toward Inglewood.