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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 1:44 PM
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Reversible Lane for North Barrington

Barrington St. is very narrow at it's north end and very few would argue that it isn't a bottleneck at times for a main artery into and out of downtown. There isn't a lot of landscape to really widen it to a 4 lane roadway without taking out sidewalks or infilling along the shipyards. Is there enough to be able to add a center reversible lane? Would it be beneficial and cost effective? Has it been mentioned before? I want to see what others think as I don't think 4 lanes in both directions are currently needed in that stretch.

P.S. I didn't intend to open this in the Halifax Downtown forum. If it should be moved to the transportation section can a mod take care of that for me?
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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 2:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Jstaleness View Post
Barrington St. is very narrow at it's north end and very few would argue that it isn't a bottleneck at times for a main artery into and out of downtown. There isn't a lot of landscape to really widen it to a 4 lane roadway without taking out sidewalks or infilling along the shipyards. Is there enough to be able to add a center reversible lane? Would it be beneficial and cost effective? Has it been mentioned before? I want to see what others think as I don't think 4 lanes in both directions are currently needed in that stretch.

P.S. I didn't intend to open this in the Halifax Downtown forum. If it should be moved to the transportation section can a mod take care of that for me?
I posted this in the transportation thread yesterday but it certainly affects downtown. I think there is plenty of room to have four lanes from North St. to the Windsor exchange.

Many people are against street widening. In some cases it makes sense to widen streets. The Mic Mac rotary/111 was one of them. After the 111 was widened and ramps reconfigured the bottleneck that stretched for a kilometer every night was eliminated. 20 years later there is no backup. The MacDonald Bridge is another example. Every night there was a serious backup on Barrington, Brunswick and Gottingen. After the third lane was introduced and the ramps reconfigured the backup was eliminated. The next area that needs widening is Barrington north. From North St. to the Windsor exchange it is a disaster. Two narrow lanes, no bus turn outs, no bike lanes and no crosswalks. This is a major route into downtown and it is completely ignored.

Very narrow unacceptable route into downtown....Barrington North.
http://maps.google.it/maps?q=Halifax...12,297.02,,0,0

Very narrow unacceptable route into downtown....Barrington North.
http://maps.google.it/maps?q=Halifax...1.41,,0,0&z=18

Very narrow unacceptable route into downtown....Barrington North.
http://maps.google.it/maps?q=Halifax...5.54,,0,0&z=18
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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 7:39 PM
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If we have the money (and we do, see Bayers Road widening) I would do 4 lanes all the way to just past the new bridge where it is already four lanes.

You could straighten it out at Superline (freeing up space to green space or develop in front of Mulgrave).

It seems like a no brainer to me. Might be politically sensitive to widen the overpass part over the Africville site, but I think it is high enough up the hill as it is that it would be okay, anyway.
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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 10:30 PM
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Might be politically sensitive to widen the overpass part over the Africville site, but I think it is high enough up the hill as it is that it would be okay, anyway.
Best be careful with that kind of talk. You don't want Burnley "Rocky" Jones calling you a racist and getting you run out of town on a rail.
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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 10:49 PM
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I like reversing lanes in principle because they are a way to use land more efficiently. In the best case they are equivalent to adding lanes without using more land. Does anybody know how much the signaling systems cost?

Do they use reversible lanes on Chebucto now? Are they being planned for Quinpool?

The traffic balancing issue is yet another reason why it's good to have infill. There's probably extra road capacity right now for people reverse-commuting from the peninsula to the suburbs. Unfortunately, when developments are up for approval petty local issues tend to get more airtime. The big scary highrise presented as a generator of gridlock is actually much better than the alternative suburban development.
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Old Posted Sep 23, 2011, 11:17 PM
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I like reversing lanes in principle because they are a way to use land more efficiently. In the best case they are equivalent to adding lanes without using more land. Does anybody know how much the signaling systems cost?

Do they use reversible lanes on Chebucto now? Are they being planned for Quinpool?

The traffic balancing issue is yet another reason why it's good to have infill. There's probably extra road capacity right now for people reverse-commuting from the peninsula to the suburbs. Unfortunately, when developments are up for approval petty local issues tend to get more airtime. The big scary highrise presented as a generator of gridlock is actually much better than the alternative suburban development.
Yes, there are reversible lanes on Chebucto. I find the system works quite well. Not aware of any plans for Quinpool. The issue on Quinpool is mostly street parking. Quinpool is a 4 lane road pretty much all the way through so if the parking was stopped than I doubt there would be much flow issue there.
I have no idea on cost. Chebucto uses pretty much the same signals as the MacDonald has had for years. I couldn't see them being too overly priced.
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Old Posted Sep 24, 2011, 12:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123 View Post
I like reversing lanes in principle because they are a way to use land more efficiently. In the best case they are equivalent to adding lanes without using more land. Does anybody know how much the signaling systems cost?

Do they use reversible lanes on Chebucto now? Are they being planned for Quinpool?

The traffic balancing issue is yet another reason why it's good to have infill. There's probably extra road capacity right now for people reverse-commuting from the peninsula to the suburbs. Unfortunately, when developments are up for approval petty local issues tend to get more airtime. The big scary highrise presented as a generator of gridlock is actually much better than the alternative suburban development.
The Chebucto reversing lane seems to work great along with the adjacent ones on Herring Cove.

Some roads aren't designed for reversing lanes and having too many of them can be a bad thing. North Barrington sees heavy traffic flow in both directions at both rush hours so having four lanes is ideal and the current underdeveloped state of the road should make it easier (politically and economically) to widen. IMO Barrington and Robie should be the north-south arteries and such have at least four travel lanes. Quinpool and Bayers should be the east-west routes.

Just my opinion but I think these roads should have a reversing lane installed;

- Bedford Highway (Mill Cove - Bayview)
- St. Margaret's Bay (Armdale - NWA Connector)
- Dartmouth Road (Bfd Hwy - Magazine Hill)
- Victoria Road (Albro Lake - Thistle) OR Wyse Road (Albro Lake - Boland)
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Old Posted Sep 24, 2011, 4:34 AM
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I think there is room to widen Barrington St. and there doesn't appear to be any real bottleneck. No big trees, no heritage homes, no permanent structures etc. Bus turn outs and separate turning lanes for Young St. and Devonshire Ave. would improve the flow greatly. The current condition of clogged traffic, poor bus access, no bike lanes and dangerous pedestrian crossings isn't really a model of good urban planning. Take a look at Portland St. and it would be hard to imagine it at two lanes.

Portland St.........bus turn outs, dedicated bus lanes, alternate turning lanes:
http://maps.google.it/maps?q=halifax...,80.9,,0,10.08

Room to widen Barrington St.
http://maps.google.it/maps?q=halifax...bp=12,315,,0,0
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Old Posted Oct 2, 2011, 11:51 PM
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Normally I don't mention sensitive topics like this but it happened in the section under the MacKay Bridge.

Over the weekend a motorist was killed in what appears to be a head on collision on the narrow two-lane stretch of Barrington running under the bridge. This section has good visibility but there is heavy traffic flow and no barriers between opposing traffic. I'm not in favour of extending the concrete median down the road but maybe in conjunction with widening a narrow median could be installed to improve safety?
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Old Posted Oct 3, 2011, 12:22 AM
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Normally I don't mention sensitive topics like this but it happened in the section under the MacKay Bridge.

Over the weekend a motorist was killed in what appears to be a head on collision on the narrow two-lane stretch of Barrington running under the bridge. This section has good visibility but there is heavy traffic flow and no barriers between opposing traffic. I'm not in favour of extending the concrete median down the road but maybe in conjunction with widening a narrow median could be installed to improve safety?
Yes this was very, very unfortunate. Someone has to take note of how treacherous this route is. In my opinion, it is completely unacceptable. Not only is the configuration of 2 lanes no workable, the street is in deplorable condition with numerous potholes, no markings and very poor sinage. HRM traffic scores a big fat zero for a solution to this serious condition.
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Old Posted Oct 3, 2011, 9:30 PM
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Yes this was very, very unfortunate. Someone has to take note of how treacherous this route is. In my opinion, it is completely unacceptable. Not only is the configuration of 2 lanes no workable, the street is in deplorable condition with numerous potholes, no markings and very poor sinage. HRM traffic scores a big fat zero for a solution to this serious condition.
Is this section under control of HRM, the province, or the Bridge Commission? I honestly do not know.

I remember when the MacKay first opened, this section seemed almost like an afterthought or a temporary solution that was meant to be upgraded later. Of course in typical Halifax fashion it has not been changed one iota in 40 years. It is ridiculously bad.
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Old Posted Oct 22, 2011, 12:25 AM
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Well, now that we have the DND contract you would think that an upgrade to this part of the street is a no brainer. We are talking about hundreds of additional vehicles during rush hour if public transportation isn't provided. I know I opened this thread as a reversible lane but with the Shipyard workers being added I'm thinking the city should widen to 4 lanes in all possible areas.
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