Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebot
That said, the 5th St debacle is an embarrasment to the city. There is a 3-4 block traffic jam, in the morning right now because of the lane reductions and the bottleneck that is now the 12th Ave left turn. Yesterday, 5th st was not moving at all, with people honking like no tomorrow. This type of traffic jam blocks cars in the middle of intersections who are impatient, blocking other streets, while pedestrians are stuck weaving between cars and hope not to get hit by cars. It's a total gong show.
I could bike to work, but when my walk is less than 10 minutes, it's pointless for me. It benefits a very small number of people for 5 months of a year, nothing more.
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Yeah, after another couple days with the 5 st battle, it's going to be a real problem when there's any sort of traffic, not that of a "3 day before the long weekend" reduction. It's a major route out of downtown, the city building it 4 lanes wide at its peak, no matter how much making it a two-wayer past 17th meant to change that perception. From my office, can see it backs up to 7th Ave yesterday. And now there's one freeflowing lane past 12 Ave if there are cars needing to turn left on 12th.
Adding on to previous complaints, with buses headed south, and then turning on 12th east is going to be another issue. Part of the reason for the dual turn in the first place was the bus (the #3, a major north/south route), since there is a bus stop right away on the south part of 12th. Now, only a single turn lane for all cars wanting to go east/a different way south other than 5th, in the same lane as one of the two that go south, including buses.
There's a lot of foot traffic too going south, so everyone turning has to wait for that (though I hope they can sync pedestrain and bike lanes) So it goes down from 2 lane to 1 (and essentially 4 to 1 with the new bike lane) as 1 of the 2 lanes will have cars waiting to turn left...and even if not stopped to turn, people turning left will slow which slows down the cars wishing to go straight and the cars back up. Bottom line; there will be 1 freeflowing lane at 12th avenue, when there's 3 lanes (used to be 4) that feed it from basically as far back as 4th avenue.
Finally, they'll be no turns from this single lane probably on red, because either n/s bikes on 5th or e/w bikes on 12th will have a green light, nevermind its now harder to see west down 12th to see if you can turn on red with the bike lanes taking up the near lane on 12th, and youre not able to poke your nose out... and all this is assuming you're first at the light in this lane in the first place.
As said, that's going to be a big mess sooner than later, backing traffic up into the core. It also will back traffic up on 10th, as many exit the core on 1st, then take 10th to go e/w or to get to 5th to go south or west. 10th is now a single lane with the building construction, so that backs up to 2nd st sometimes since only one lane can turn onto 5th the way it is now(ie not lane reduced). Of course, when winter comes and there's 20% more cars on the road. Alternate ways out of the core is getting more jammed all day, not just rush hour...8th, 1st, Macleod...already fully utilized but will gain more traffic...and all those are 2 lanes, at best (parking is allowed on those streets before rush hour, making them 1 lane).
This is a deterrent for those who live within 5km of downtown to think about cycling....but past that, if some of the most expensive daily downtown parking in North America isn't going to slow down the number of cars coming downtown, this isn't either, its just causing everyone involved more logistical problems.
Giving people a 5 month a year bike lane which affects a lot more people 12 months of the year on a daily basis, is a poor idea on that particular route.
Instead of just complaining, may as well give some solutions;
Even somehow routing bikes to 6th or 7th St after 10th Ave, both of which carry though all the way to 17th, would've been a more sensible idea to reduce the bottleneck that basically is caused by the 12 Ave intersection.
Or something even more radical? Such as putting these bike lanes on 2nd street, not 5th. Currently 2nd goes all the way through to the river north from 9th Ave. Create a bike pathway somehow through/around (and over the train tracks) the city owned parkade on 2nd, and connect to 2nd street on the south side, which also goes all the way through to the Elbow River at 27th avenue. 2nd st south was already converted to two ways, as to be more bike friendly, and is not a major car route out of downtown because it does not connect out of the core. It's more suited to bike traffic as a result, and its impact of vehicle traffic is significantly less than 5th St with no worries about going from 4 to 2 (1 freeflowing) lanes, or major turns which cause bottlenecks blocks behind it for blocks and blocks.