Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[Erick Estrada]

I imagine it should look better at night if you like the sky glow look. I'm more curious to see what they will be like for pedestrians as LED lighting is now being specified in most industrial buildings we do but we find they are very intense to the eye when you look in the direct area of the light. Diffused glass or polycarbonate fixes this for the most part but reduces the effectiveness of the light especially near the boundaries of its pattern.

[Bigtime]

Oh and in other pedestrian bridge news the new one on Anderson road is opening this weekend I believe.

Construction on the Anderson Pedestrian Overpass is wrapping up now that it’s mid-October. Join us at the opening event at the end of October to celebrate the opening of this new community connection between Cedarbrae and Woodbine.

WHEN: Saturday, October 29, 2016
9 to 10 a.m.
WHERE: Starting on Cedardale Cres S.W.
Speeches will be on Woodbrook Way S.W.


This is a dog-friendly event so bring the whole family! Light refreshments will be provided.

[V]

Haha, why did they put fluorescent lights in there in the first place? You don't put fluorescent in an outdoor winter environment, that's just stupid.

Originally Posted by Estrada

That's a flat out lie as 2012 is not that long ago.

Yup, straight up lie. There were plenty of options, even for very capable LED luminaires to use in an outdoor environment. I can only imagine they did this to reduce the capital cost, which was pretty shortsighted.

They should have installed LED in the first place.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by octothorp

No, you'd only ever want to get one blue one. You make the second one orange, and put it at the south end of the city. Then you can 'portal' between them. My understanding is if you put up a second blue one, the first blue one would just disappear.

I would find it funny if they ended up constructing more rings for the Olympics if they should come here.

[You Need a Thneed]

There is now a Sun article courtesy of Rick Bell, that blames Calatrava for specifying inadequate light fixtures.

Frankly, if anyone is responsible for the inadequate fixtures, Rick Bell himself might be at the front of the line. The city was pressured to value engineer more than what they reasonably should have done, and Rick Bell tried to stir that up as much as anyone else.

[Bigtime]

The media stirring up all the public outcry definitely deserves some blame in all of this, but I wish the city could have stuck to their guns with things like the LED lighting and why even if the cost was higher it would be the right call long term. You know they saw this day coming the moment they changed to fluorescent lights.

I rode over the bridge on my way home yesterday, work being done on the south part of the bridge on the west section, looks like some of the deck lights have already been changed out too. The overhead fixtures appear to be the same, no visual change sadly. Was hoping that maybe they would be lower profile and not as bulky looking. Really want to see how it looks when done.

[GGG]

What's interesting about this is private sector projects do this all the time. Ever wonder why lots of office buildings have terrible HVAC? It's the last minute cuts to stay on budget. It's just much more visable when public

Or sometimes people make the decision to intentionally defer capital costs into op costs depending on the drivers of companies. Here the driver was make it look like the project came in on budget and that they were trying to cut costs. They accomplished their goals.

[Fuzz]

The new deck lights look way better. The overhead LED's are brighter and a little less yellow. They are bout 1/3rd of the way done, though they haven't touched the lower side ones yet.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The new deck lights look way better. The overhead LED's are brighter and a little less yellow. They are bout 1/3rd of the way done, though they haven't touched the lower side ones yet.

That process is going really slowly. They've been at it for three weeks or so already.

[Bigtime]

I haven't seen how they look at night but the new lights set into the concrete floor look much better and hardy compared to the original design.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

There is now a Sun article courtesy of Rick Bell, that blames Calatrava for specifying inadequate light fixtures.

Frankly, if anyone is responsible for the inadequate fixtures, Rick Bell himself might be at the front of the line. The city was pressured to value engineer more than what they reasonably should have done, and Rick Bell tried to stir that up as much as anyone else.

I think you are giving Bell much more credit than he deserves here.

[Locke]

Did somebody get hit by the pedestrian bridge or am I getting my threads mixed up again?

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

There is now a Sun article courtesy of Rick Bell, that blames Calatrava for specifying inadequate light fixtures.

Frankly, if anyone is responsible for the inadequate fixtures, Rick Bell himself might be at the front of the line. The city was pressured to value engineer more than what they reasonably should have done, and Rick Bell tried to stir that up as much as anyone else.

This garbage happens all the time, and it's extremely frustrating. Especially when people like Rick Bell are the ones being complete hypocrites and they can't see it.

The original design called for a crosswalk across memorial at the bridge as well. However, it was stopped by NIMBY and cost cutting and "people will walk 600 meters out of the way to the next crosswalk."

Now, four years later, people understand that there's a problem with jaywalking and all that, and the media (and critics) are wondering why there wasn't a crosswalk there in the first place.

Fact is, there WAS. But the media themselves, and the critics of the peace bridge themselves, were the ones that forced the city's hand in making a poor decision. Basically the city has to let these people see firsthand what they are asking for, and basically obtaining "social license" to do the right thing. Ugh.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Regorium

This garbage happens all the time, and it's extremely frustrating. Especially when people like Rick Bell are the ones being complete hypocrites and they can't see it.

The original design called for a crosswalk across memorial at the bridge as well. However, it was stopped by NIMBY and cost cutting and "people will walk 600 meters out of the way to the next crosswalk."

Now, four years later, people understand that there's a problem with jaywalking and all that, and the media (and critics) are wondering why there wasn't a crosswalk there in the first place.

Fact is, there WAS. But the media themselves, and the critics of the peace bridge themselves, were the ones that forced the city's hand in making a poor decision. Basically the city has to let these people see firsthand what they are asking for, and basically obtaining "social license" to do the right thing. Ugh.

And then the solution was to put another crosswalk on the other side instead of just making a single one at the bridge

[Fuzz]

Twice a day I hit that cross walk button, watch 100 vehicles have to stop and go and think about all the gas burned/wear and tear on vehicles/lost time and that at some point it must cost more than it would have to just build a short bridge over Memorial like any sane project would have done.

And now they've added another set of lights.

[Bigtime]

Or just be like the guy that went right through the red westbound yesterday afternoon as I was about to cross. Sun must have been in his eyes...

[Fuzz]

Yup, I am very cautious crossing. I assume it isn't safe until both cars facing the setting sun have stopped. It can be dangerous this time of year.

[Bigtime]

Absolutely, lots run the yellow but that was one of the first times I've seen someone blow through the red after a few seconds.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Or just be like the guy that went right through the red westbound yesterday afternoon as I was about to cross. Sun must have been in his eyes...

I see people treat those lights like a crosswalk with semi-regularity.

"Oh, person has crossed? #### this red light!"

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Twice a day I hit that cross walk button, watch 100 vehicles have to stop and go and think about all the gas burned/wear and tear on vehicles/lost time and that at some point it must cost more than it would have to just build a short bridge over Memorial like any sane project would have done.

While it's easy to say they should have just built a pedestrian bridge over Memorial by the bridge, where would it go?

A bridge would need to be tall enough that the vehicles on Memorial can pass under it, and you need to have ramps to get people from ground level up to the height of the bridge.

Ramps take up a lot of space. Look at the other pedestrian bridges over Memorial (9A St, Prince's Island, Bridgeland C-Train, and Franklin C-Train). The ramps to access those bridges take up a lot of room.

There is no room for a ramp on the north side of Memorial near the bridge. To build one, the city would either have to buy and demolish one (or more) of the houses along Memorial there (which would not be cheap), or build the pedestrian bridge right at 8th Street and build the ramp in the middle of the street, blocking vehicular access between Memorial and 8th St (similar to what was done at 15th Ave across Macleod from the Stampede C-Train station). That would be the only real workable solution, but would cause uproar from people who use the 8th St-Memorial intersection on a regular basis.