Quote:
Originally Posted by frinkprof
^Agreed. "Alternative" implies that automobiles (especially private, but public too) are and should be the norm, while active transportation is kept on the fringes. Nevertheless, good idea for a thread. Calgary actually has an extensive bike path system, however some improvements would be welcomed, as it can be disjointed in some places. The article mentions making secondary routes bike friendly, which is good. Makes more sense than trying to add bike lanes to routes like Macleod Trail. Not much of a cyclist myself, although I'd like to try doing more in the next couple years. As for walking, I think the City should focus on making current high-pedestrian-traffic areas more friendly. The Beltline and the underpasses under the tracks come to mind. In the suburbs, more pedestrian bridges (they don't have to be "fancy" and they can even be designed by local arcitects!) in appropriate places over thoroughfares would be welcome as well.
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I love biking to work. I think there should be a good combination of bike lanes on roads, plus expanding the existing bike path system - including more pedestrian overpasses like you mention. I'm really looking forward the the pedestrian overpass over McKnight by the (now) Police Headquarters, it will save me often waiting 2 minutes for the lights to change. Places like that are great for pedestrian overpasses, places where automobiles can't take the same route. I know for me, if I couldn't cross McKnight there and continue south, it would add several kms and minutes of biking for me to get to work - as I had to do earlier in Spring when the snow hadn't melted off of the paths yet.
Making connections that are impossible to do by car, makes the pathways attractive to people for whom that connection is very convienient.
I think the city should work on making a few longer bike corridors, where you can travel a distance without too much interruption. These could be totally seperate from the road system. Connecting the missing links would be really good too. Also, in some places, there are short sections where there are section of only narrow sidewalk in the middle of what is otherwise a wider bike path. If I would bike down 52nd Street/Falconidge Blvd, like I used to ( a bike path), going past the McDonalds just north of mcKnight, it's only a narrow sidewalk, then, past the Co-op at 64th Ave, it's also only a narrow sidewalk. As well, by the Gas Plus at the corner of 52nd/Temple Drive/44th Ave, also just a narrow sidewalk. Places like that should be fixed up.
The last while, I've also dreamed up a system that would benefit bikers when they cross minor residential streets on bikepaths. If a system could be devised that would sense when a biker was approaching, and start the lights flashing so traffic would stop early - similar to train crossings - then the biker could continue on, perhaps only slowing down a little bit, instead of stopping before the road, making sure traffic stops, then (if you want to be "legal") walk across the road, get back on the bike, and start up pedalling again. All that work is a big deterrent to getting people out biking, IMO. The more advantages we can give to bikes, the better. Forcing bikers to slow down and stop many times is a huge disadvantage to bikers.