Aylmer to Britannia pedestrian bridge concept

[Jay31]

Originally Posted by Horus

I know that this still in the realm of fantasy planning, but how many people does this bridge actually benefit? There are low density neighbourhoods on both sides of the river and the Ottawa side doesn't even connect to the primary E-W cycling routes.

Seems like a lot of money and effort so that a few cyclists and pedestrians can get a closer look at seagull island in the rapids.

You'd need to consider how many areas are within a reasonable biking distance - which is probably about a 10k radius on both ends of the bridge, which would include all of Aylmer, some of Gatineau, all of Nepean and even part of Kanata (though effectively all of Kanata as there would be no better router). There are some pretty high density areas in those radiuses. I think it would have a significant amount of bike commuter traffic, as it would be the best route by far for half of each city.

I've also noticed over the years that estimated usage on pedestrian/biking bridges is significantly lower than the actual usage as they tend to induce a lot of usage once built - even in the winter.

Don't get me wrong - I still think this is a pipe dream. It would cost a ton and I don't see the political will to get it done - particularly on the Ottawa side. Britannia and the local councillor will fight it tooth and nail and the Ottawa mayor hates anything that cars can't drive on. The only hope would be the NCC picking it up and including it in their shore revitalization plans, though this would probably cost more than they've budgeted for everything else.

[Ottawacurious]

If it connected to the Britannia yacht club, it'd reduce the bridge distance from ~800m to about ~630. Might increase traffic and help them w/ funding better food at their restaurant. They might not want the additional traffic?

[vtecyo]

I think the only way well get a pedestrian crossing there is if it's transit + pedestrian. It would certainly cost more - but it would also get used a lot more of the time. And then it would even be useful during bad weather, wintertime, etc...

It's likely the only place in the west end a bridge makes sense, unless the various levels of government really want to spend billions on crossing Lac Deschênes. That was proposed a long time ago - and never gained traction.

I don't think they'll ever expand the Champlain bridge to add rail or brt lanes. So we might as well get a dedicated transit crossing farther west.

[Jay31]

Originally Posted by vtecyo

I think the only way well get a pedestrian crossing there is if it's transit + pedestrian. It would certainly cost more - but it would also get used a lot more of the time. And then it would even be useful during bad weather, wintertime, etc...

Given that the NCC insisted on burying the LRT along the river, I see zero chance that they'd allow it to come above ground with some kind of complex interchange only to cut across Mud Lake over to Gatineau that would completely destroy their South river bank plans. A transit tunnel probably has a better chance.