DCA passes Percy Street cycling motion
DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1
Robin Bennett 11 Jan 2011
Diane Holmes
Cc Hans Moor
At the January 5th meeting of the Dalhousie Community Association the Association passed a motion with regards to Percy Street.
Bronson Avenue is to be reconstructed in the coming years. It is very busy and has no cycling lanes. Many feel it is very dangerous to cycle on Bronson. Fortunately, there is a quiet parallel street immediately to the east: Percy Street.
Currently, Percy has a cycling lane southbound; Bay has a cycling lane northbound. Percy goes under the Queensway, Bay does not. This results in a confusing jog in the northbound route, and Bay lacks signals at Somerset.
We would like the city to examine Percy Street with the aim of making it a more cycling friendly alternative to Bronson. We suggest that Percy have a painted counter-flow northbound cycling lane. Southbound cycles would mix with traffic; the speed limit should simultaneously be reduced to 30 kmh.
Percy would connect with the Laurier SBL at the north, has signalized intersections at all major crossstreets, connects with other east-west routes, passes under the Queensway, and traverses the Glebe.
The Association believes this could become a safe and attractive cycling alternative to Bronson and would encourage more cycling activities and safety by congregating cyclists on one street.
Sincerely,
Eric Darwin
President, Dalhousie Community Assoc.
755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1
Robin Bennett 11 Jan 2011
Diane Holmes
Cc Hans Moor
At the January 5th meeting of the Dalhousie Community Association the Association passed a motion with regards to Percy Street.
Bronson Avenue is to be reconstructed in the coming years. It is very busy and has no cycling lanes. Many feel it is very dangerous to cycle on Bronson. Fortunately, there is a quiet parallel street immediately to the east: Percy Street.
Currently, Percy has a cycling lane southbound; Bay has a cycling lane northbound. Percy goes under the Queensway, Bay does not. This results in a confusing jog in the northbound route, and Bay lacks signals at Somerset.
We would like the city to examine Percy Street with the aim of making it a more cycling friendly alternative to Bronson. We suggest that Percy have a painted counter-flow northbound cycling lane. Southbound cycles would mix with traffic; the speed limit should simultaneously be reduced to 30 kmh.
Percy would connect with the Laurier SBL at the north, has signalized intersections at all major crossstreets, connects with other east-west routes, passes under the Queensway, and traverses the Glebe.
The Association believes this could become a safe and attractive cycling alternative to Bronson and would encourage more cycling activities and safety by congregating cyclists on one street.
Sincerely,
Eric Darwin
President, Dalhousie Community Assoc.
I'm generally against contra-flow bike lanes. Drivers already accuse cyclists of not obeying traffic laws, and contra-flow cycling lanes enhance this perception. See http://theincidentalcyclist.blogspot.com/2011/01/right-to-turn.html to see what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI think doing a better job maintaining the existing bike lanes on Percy and Bay, as well as a bike lane on Arlington with clear markings and signage (Imagine if the northbound painted bike lane actually turned onto Arlington, for example), as well as lights at Somerset would be a better solution.
- Matt Rose
Also, the hill on Percy coming from Laurier is a killer, but we can't really expect the city to flatten a hill :)