Approved design at $448,270. In my opinion this is a waste of money given the current option to access the bridge. $7.3 million of bike infrastructure can be better spent.
Thoughts?
3 Likes
It’s the worst piece of bicycle infrastructure in the city. It badly needs to be changed. There were far cheaper methods, but the expensive one was chosen to make sure cars don’t have to stop or slow down for bicycles crossing the road at the end of the bridge. Bicycles use this bridge all year around. Bicycles need viable options more available to cater to more cyclists that are less capable than many of us seasoned riders. If Halifax is going to be serious about promoting active transportation and all the many benefits of that, we need this piece of infrastructure.
4 Likes
Yup it’s expensive and there are cheaper ways to make the access much better. I agree with @landandwater the approaches need to be made more accessible for a broader range of riders, so this change is necessary. Is it the most cost effective? Nope. Hell, I hopped the rail there for years with no issues until they eventually made it to high and filled in the gaps.
The only option that this city is willing to accept is one that does not inconvenience cars or traffic in any way, so there you have it a $7million bridge that car drivers can complain about their gas tax being wasted. (even though gas tax is not paying for this, or any other bicycle infrastructure)
Side note: I actually quit riding on the road this year after 27 years of road riding I finanlly said f*ck this town. I don’t need to be splattered all over the pavement by some tool talking on their phone while driving or be up on charges for assault. 50+ close calls in the last 2 years. Now I ride on the sidewalks, back alleys, stairs, trails, AT paths… however I damn well please to get to where I need to go using the streets as little as possible because infrastructure here blows and the city has no real commitment to making AT projects a priority. My life is worth more than whatever fine I might get, of course there’s no enforcement either so life is good and so much more stress free!
8 Likes
The current design sucks. You waste time and energy going back down the hill if you want to head up North St. You’ve got to have pretty good legs if you don’t want to dismount and you’re riding up sidewalk. If you want to carry on up North St. you have to go back across.
$7 million is a LOT of money though. I like that they’re willing to spend that money on cyclists, but I wonder if there are cheaper options. Anything you’d do rerouting the car traffic would probably be even more expensive.
I always wondered about a merge lane onto North St., but then you’d have some yahoo driver not see you or not care and cut you off making the turn down to Barrington. It also wouldn’t help people getting onto the bridge from the Halifax side.