After some prodding from local residents — including gentle reminders of the recommendations in the City’s own comprehensive Parks Master Plan that was completed last year with extensive public input — Council has decided to close the inner lane of the Victoria Park road for the use of cyclists and other forms of “active transport”. This is a pilot project. The closure is temporary, beginning in July and ending in September. It will be used to measure interest and determine what effect, if any, it may have on other users of the park, particularly seniors, who rely on cars for their enjoyment of the park.
At the meeting, the Manager of Parks and Recreation presented a number of excellent recommendations from the Active Transportation Committee, which should be rolled out in the future as logistics are worked out. The Victoria Park initiative is the only one that is confirmed at the moment, but I’m confident others will fall into place as the necessary planning takes place. Judging by the comments and the poll results on the Guardian’s website, residents have strong feelings about the Victoria Park road closure. This is not a surprise as the idea has caused an uproar in the past. I encourage everyone to make their opinion known.
The temporary lane will be just that, temporary, and as such the design and implementation will not be perfect; however Parks staff are determined to make it a success for all park users. In her presentation last night, the Manager made reference to a video I sent her earlier in the week entitled “The Stupidest Bike Lane”. She has committed to doing everything in her power to create Smart Bike Lanes.
It would be interesting to have bike-lanes as part of an overall traffic management/traffic calming strategy in the city. I use Queen to bike commute to work. The narrow street and slow traffic makes it a much easier ride than University. I tried University last week, just for kicks. The poor pavement and high speed traffic (at least for PEI) made it a route I will not choose again.
Hans Monderman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Monderman), a Dutch traffic engineer, preached that both motorized and non-motorized traffic could co-exist without the cacophony of traffic control mechanisms, signs, lanes, etc, that we insist keep us “safe”. In spite of the challenges both Islanders feel exist regarding the interaction between cars and people (pedestrian, cyclist or otherwise), there are already signs that a more inclusive, and less cluttered, transportation network would be readily accepted. I mean, really, where else in Canada do people actually stop for pedestrians to cross at cross-walks in the middle of major road!?!? That says more about the Island’s openess to multi-modal transit networks than any written or spoken word.
I bike from May to November for work and to run errands wherever possible and try to walk or take the bus (again where possible) during the winter months.
It’s not that I can’t afford to own or operate a car (I own one). I just take a very long view about the problems in being car-dependent so I am trying to consciously change my family’s lifestyle in case we face a period of rapid change in the not too distant future.
This is one of the problems I see with municipal spending on transportation infrastructure (such as the new parking garage, road maintenance, etc.). Charlottetown is facing some considerable financial issues in the coming years when it comes to public works spending and I fear that it will be unaffordable. I certainly do not want to see other essential municipal services such as water, sewer, parks, planning, etc. cut in order to satisfy residents who drive cars.
To give you an indication about what I’m referring to, this website from Massachusetts indicates historic liquid asphalt price changes since 1992:
http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/default.asp?pgid=content/fuelPrices&sid=about
If you look at the May-June 1998 price per ton (USD), it indicates $137.83 which according to this inflation calculator http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl is about $180.56 in today’s dollar value (I assume this takes into account the recent devaluation of US currency).
However, if you look at the Mar-Apr 2008 price for liquid asphalt, you can see that the price per ton has increased to $420.75. This is a 200 % price increase within the past decade.
And that’s in Massachusetts, with plenty of easy access to aggregate, and railroads and highways to haul it. And they have 6.4 million people (a huge tax base since there is a lot of wealth in that commonwealth) and they have to pay for a jurisdiction only 5 times larger than PEI. They also have 56,000 km of roads to maintain which means there is 1 km of road for 114 residents, compared to here in PEI with 5000 km of roads which gives us 1 km of road for 27 residents…
We’re rapidly facing crunch time here on PEI and in Charlottetown, where our asphalt surfaced roads that were paved in the 1950s, 60s and 70s are wearing out and the financial ability of our province and city will be unable to perform even basic maintenance. The costs for asphalt will continue to increase more rapidly for us compared to other jurisdictions in North America, since we import aggregate and liquid asphalt and both are tied to rising production and our unique transport costs on this island.
I ask “Why isn’t the city looking strategically 30, 40, 50 years down the road at reducing this burden for taxpayers by aggressively investing in ways to divert cars off the streets?”
We need more bicycle and public transit incentives. We specifically need dedicated bike lanes connecting residential areas to work and retail locations; more bike racks should also be installed and maintained. We also need to increase the subsidies to public transit to get people out of their cars; we also need to ensure that ALL future residential development is conducive to affordable transit service expansion (ie. less sprawl)
We have such a small municipality when compared to North America, yet we have a very car-centric transportation system. On a per-capita basis, we are far more car-dependent than virtually any other municipality I can think of. We need to improve existing development and ensure future developments have pedestrian-friendly streetscapes that take into account wider sidewalks and proper sidewalk snow removal.
We also need provincial incentives for non car alternatives, similar to what Ontario has implemented this year by eliminating provincial sales tax on bicycles.
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/notices/rst/61.html
Sorry for the rant Rob! I admire the work that you and your fellow councillors are doing for us and I do see a lot of progress on these issues having been made since the 1970s when I grew up here. I only wish that future progress would be quicker because I see the financial abyss approaching if we continue to follow our current approach to transportation infrastructure …
And no, I haven’t followed Jane Jacobs, although I do admire what I have heard of her work!
I appreciate your input David. The Mayor was on the radio this morning announcing a new committee to study where and how to introduce commuter bike lanes. The Parking Strategy study, which should be available tomorrow, also makes recommendations for reducing the demand for parking, i.e., fewer cars on the road.
One way, albeit a very aggressive way, to get people out of their cars and into alternative transit options — free public transit. It might sound crazy, but a detailed analysis of the financial side of it shows that it is economically feasible, in most cases.
Check out http://freepublictransit.org/ and http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/07/05/NoFares1/ for some good literature on why public transit should be free.
Hi, Rob,
We’re bike riders and just noticed a potential threat to life and limb for bikers (and wheels and frames for bikes).
On North River Road near the Brighton corner, a new storm sewer grate has been installed, which is domed. The grate also features very wide spaces, for, perhaps faster water drainage from the road.
Two issues: the dome of the sewer grate forms a quite a hump in the ostensible bike lane on North River and it comes up very suddenly for a biker, especially if they are unfamiliar with the area; and the openings in the grate are wide enough for a bike wheel to fall into, potentially resulting in a nasty fall or collision with a car. To top that off, the grate has been installed so the openings are vertical to oncoming bike traffic; the problem may be alleviated somewhat if the opening were horizontal to oncoming traffic.
If this new sewer grate design is to be commonly used on city streets, it could be quite a danger for cyclists.
I applaud the city’s initiative to become more bike-friendly and thought you should know about this.
IJ,
The issue of the alignment of sewer grates came up during the Managers presentation. The Active Transport Committee has asked that all grates be turned at right angles to traffic. The issue of the actual grate design itself is not something I was aware but I will pass your remarks onto the Water & Sewer Utility.