The Jolley Cut is a nightmare... it's built like a freeway but the speed limit is 50. Good luck finding anyone going a reasonable speed, especially downbound.
Worst of all, the sidewalk is a joke. Through the major straightaway, where the pedestrians are squeezed between downbound traffic and a concrete guardrail, the sidewalk actually NARROWS to an ungodly width. It is very difficult for two people to pass without having so step off the curb.
Meanwhile, this is probably the number one access for bikes and walkers linking one of the best mountain parks to the lower city.
On top of all this, the bruce trail actually uses Jolley as part of its route. Can you imagine what a pathetic Joke Hamilton looks like to trail users who are all of a sudden spit from a forest path into the path of a downbound mountain bus careening around the corner?
This could be fixed so easily with not much more than some curbs and paint.
Downbound vehicular traffic should be limited to one lane. There is plenty of space at the top of the access to allow merging down to one lane before the curve. Downbound traffic currently moves too fast (well over the speed limit), and there is minimal need to actually pass on that stretch. Upbound can remain 2 lanes to allow for passing slow moving vehicles.
At the bottom of the curve (the top of the straightaway/bridge section), the pedestrian access from the bruce trail as well as the off-street path from concession both meet the jolley. A bike friendly ramp should be installed at the stairs here. At this point, the lanes on the jolley itself should be configured as follows from south to north
Code:
Escarpment Top
____________________
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ upbound traffic 1
____________________ upbound traffic 2
downbound traffic
==================== curb/median with plantings (or a barrier)
- - - - - - - - - - two-way bike lane
==================== curb
____________________ widened sidewalk
Escarpment Bottom
This should continue at least as far as the pedestrian crossing at the apartment building, but even better, it should continue to st joseph's drive.
The core (james/john) is in desparate need of a cycle-friendly mountain access. The James stairs are not bike-friendly.
There also needs to be better pedestrian access to sam lawrence park in general, and Jolley is the best place for that.
In fact, I think that a pedestrian crossing in the middle of the jolley would be great, with a small staircase to access the lower section of sam lawrence. It is really dumb right now, if you are in that lower section you can see the jolley and almost reach it, but to get back down the escarpment on foot you ahve to walk back up to the top of the jolley, down concession, around that back area and link up with the death-trap-sidewalk. A 30 foot staircase and crossing on the jolley would cut that trip by about 10,000 percent.
Another little bonus could be a mini-park in that triangle where the curve ends and the straightaway begins.