Quote:
Originally Posted by frinkprof
No, it's the opposite. There was originally supposed to be a pedestrian overpass connecting to a station head and the platform. After the changes to the routing, the community complained about the visual impact such a configuration would have and the current design is the result (with the at-grade-only access to the platform. A similar situation with the community also saw a pedestrian overpass to and from the Park N' Ride removed from the design of Sirocco Station.
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The original design of Shaganappi Point station was a 3 story building. There was a massive ramp walkway planned to get people up and into the station and then escalated down to track level. The committee at 26th was given the option of one walkway either the existing one at 24th street or the new one at 26th and they chose 24th. By widening that overpass to better accommodate bike traffic and by adding a berm on the south side of Bow, it is expected runners, walkers, skaters, and bikers will use this as the preferred route to the river valley not 26th street. I know I'll be using it instead of crossing at 26th once it's all done.
Too me this is a red herring for the current situation as any walkway would not be built or functional now as it would be integrated into the station. No matter what you'd still be left with the situation as is until the station was completed and once the station is complete the timing of the lights will change. Also most of the buses disappear so most of the foot traffic will too.
The problem right now is the configuration of the lights, and mainly the pedestrian crossing.
For evening traffic when people get off the bus and press the button the following occurs:
- West bound Bow Trail stops.
- East bound Bow gets a left turn signal to go northbound 26th street
- The pedestrians on the north side of Bow have a don't walk sign.
- East bound Bow stops and the pedestrians get their walk sign.
- Pedestrians eventually receive a countdown timer of
45 seconds.
As a result Bow trail is stopped for upwards of a minute which is entirely too long even given the expanded width a pedestrian must cross. I bet one could baby step across the road in less than 45 seconds let alone a minute. Decrease the time down and traffic will improve.
edit: Once 33rd street is opened up this will help improve traffic. Turning left from west bound Bow to south bound 26th backs things up because this is the only way into Shaganappi and Killarney right now. As for morning traffic besides speeding up the light at 26th I'm not sure what could be done. But that light needs to be fixed.