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  #1  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 7:03 PM
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Downtown Street Plan

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia...0.html?ref=rss

Found this on my igoogle this morning. I like it, I just with there were more bike lanes.
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 7:28 PM
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If done correctly this can lead to improved traffic flow. One city that has a large number of one way streets is Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton seems to have an efficient flow of traffic throughout the city.
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  #3  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 8:09 PM
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Does this mean they will finally change Lower Water to northbound only?

This is probably outside of the plan but I've always thought the street system through Spring Garden needed reworking with Brenton southbound, Dresdon northbound, Birmingham southbound, Clyde westbound, and Artillery eastbound.
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  #4  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 9:29 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Originally Posted by Bedford_DJ View Post
Does this mean they will finally change Lower Water to northbound only?

This is probably outside of the plan but I've always thought the street system through Spring Garden needed reworking with Brenton southbound, Dresdon northbound, Birmingham southbound, Clyde westbound, and Artillery eastbound.
Yes, according to this:
http://www.halifax.ca/traffic/docume...ationSheet.pdf
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  #5  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 9:35 PM
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There would be a lot of benefits to such a plan.
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  #6  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 9:39 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Yeah, I think its a good idea for downtown... I mean it can't really get worse.

Biggest problem in Halifax is the way people drive... just because the speed limit is 50 km/h on city streets doesn't give people the right to drive 30 km/h. If you get stuck behind the wrong people it can turn a 10 minute drive into a 20 minute drive. Robie is a prime example... you should be able to hit all of the lights between Bell Rd and College St in one go, but I am rarely able to do so due to other people driving rediculously slow.
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  #7  
Old Posted Mar 27, 2010, 9:55 PM
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I like it. The one thing that stands out to me as odd is Grafton and Market are both northbound. I would've expected Market to be southbound.

I'd love to see Sackville west of Barrington one-way again. I always forget to look both ways when crossing at Argyle..
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  #8  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 1:53 AM
hfx_chris hfx_chris is offline
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I think this looks great... you really don't realize it until you see the "before" picture in that PDF, just how screwed up it is, with two-way streets suddenly turning one-way.
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  #9  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 2:43 AM
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IMO instead of bike lanes they should have all the one way streets 2 lanes. Just because something is one way doesn't magically make traffic better. The moment construction happens on a one way street it will be backed up all the way to Windsor.
There is nothing wrong with cars sharing lanes with bikes, and IMO it's very rare to see someone in a bike lane, hell I drive down south park every day twice a day in rush hour and I hardly ever see a bike, they have to share the roads outside of downtown which is almost more dangerous. This shouldn't go through unless each of the 1 way streets is two lanes. That way people could at least pass the guys going 10kph.
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  #10  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 3:03 AM
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They are only doing bike lanes on certain streets. It makes sense to concentrate the bike traffic that exists.

I like the idea of doing this as long as there's a good balance between different uses of street space. If it means better traffic flow, more parking, and wider sidewalks then it is a clear win. As others have pointed out, the current half-done system just seems worse.
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  #11  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 4:43 AM
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no doubt the current system is worse
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  #12  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 1:58 PM
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Originally Posted by DigitalNinja View Post
IMO instead of bike lanes they should have all the one way streets 2 lanes. Just because something is one way doesn't magically make traffic better. The moment construction happens on a one way street it will be backed up all the way to Windsor.
There is nothing wrong with cars sharing lanes with bikes, and IMO it's very rare to see someone in a bike lane, hell I drive down south park every day twice a day in rush hour and I hardly ever see a bike, they have to share the roads outside of downtown which is almost more dangerous. This shouldn't go through unless each of the 1 way streets is two lanes. That way people could at least pass the guys going 10kph.
I partly agree with DigitalNinja, some (maybe not all) of the new one way streets should have two lanes in one direction. Especially having Hollis and Lower Water streets being 2 lanes in one direction should improve traffic flow. Except, I would remove the parking on these streets instead of the bike lanes.

One question that I have; are motorized scooters allowed in the bike lanes. I would never use one, but scooters might become popular if there is an allowance for them. Bikes and scooters are an important part of transportation in Japan (at least they were 25 years ago).
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  #13  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 2:48 PM
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One question that I have; are motorized scooters allowed in the bike lanes. I would never use one, but scooters might become popular if there is an allowance for them. Bikes and scooters are an important part of transportation in Japan (at least they were 25 years ago).
Good question and I'm not sure, usually this is the case, although bike lanes here are always the min. width allowed, and don't really seem capable of handing scooters. You do see more around now, but our winters (+ hills) aren't so friendly to use for year round travel.

Thinking about bike lanes - I'm not sure what is best. In the core, I think bike lanes are unnecessary and cyclists should be encouraged to use the roads. Traffic moves slow, roads are narrow, and bikes can quite easily negotiate with car traffic. Also with all these one way streets proposed, bikes have to be able to travel in both directions even on one way roads and bike lanes only make this more difficult by defining rigid paths to follow. Dedicated bike lanes are more useful and effective along busy roads where traffic moves at a higher speed.
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  #14  
Old Posted Mar 28, 2010, 7:04 PM
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Looks pretty good to me. Only two things I wonder about;

Why is the Market/Blowers corridor reversed from its current directionality?

Even with the Water/Hollis bike lanes the problem of connectivity is not adressed for cyclists. Either Morris or South should have them installed later on so there is a east/west route.
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  #15  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 3:42 PM
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Let’s idle traffic changes


ROGER TAYLOR
TALK ABOUT rearrang ing the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Downtown Halifax is in decline, yet city officials have decided now is the time to re shuffle traffic patterns by add ing six new one-way streets.

The city’s traffic department states that adding the one-way streets in the downtown core is one way to create more parking and “other business options," such as sidewalk cafes. It’s easy to ignore making change for the sake of change, but these alter ations could have serious impli cations.

City officials have confidently indicated the plan to change the downtown traffic pattern will be implemented by the fall, after public input.

But there are many reasons why people would oppose the creation of more one-way streets, one being that naviga tion in the downtown core, in a vehicle of any kind, is already confusing. And that is especially true for people unfamiliar with the provincial capital.

Lately there has been a glim mer of hope for the downtown.

Several major construction projects have been proposed, not the least being a new convention centre, hotel and office complex, which is at the heart of the re naissance.

It is more than likely those new developments will result in changes to the flow of traffic.

Rather than making the changes now, before any of the projects are off the ground, it would seem logical that waiting to see how the new construction will affect traffic would be a better approach.

Having a few more two-way streets in the downtown during construction may end up being a good idea.

In its report to regional council, the traffic department admits that some other cities have been converting their one-way streets to two-way to minimize extra travel distance and backtracking.

However, the Halifax traffic experts be lieve that adding more one-way streets to downtown Halifax is still the way to go.

“We believe that the closeness of our downtown streets means that extra travel on one-way streets will not be signif icant," the traffic department wrote in its information sheet, which may be found at www.halifax.ca/traffic.

I’m not a big fan of some of the traffic department’s decisions. Anyone who has driven down Kempt Road onto the Bed ford Highway, only to have the lane they’ve been travelling in disappear without much warning, knows what I mean. It doesn’t make sense and it’s dangerous.

The traffic department was also be hind the controversial widening of Che bucto Road and concerns about plans to widen Bayers Road, which cause some people to question whether it is planning for the future or is stuck in the past.

I don’t have much faith the changes being proposed for the downtown will improve anything.

In the information sheet, the depart ment explained that it believes the exist ing pattern of street flow is inconsistent and patchwork. Seven streets switch from one-way to two-way and, in some cases, back again.

The proposed plan strives to achieve more consistency by establishing either one-way or two-way flow for the length of each street.

“The key to this plan is creating two major one-way ‘couplets’: Hollis/Lower Water streets and Prince/Sackville streets."

The plan would also create a bike lane going north-to-south on one-way Hollis Street and south-to-north on one-way Lower Water Street. According to the diagram included in the information sheet, there are no designated bike lanes going east-west in the downtown core.

Rather than leaving it up to the traffic department to find a solution for road congestion, the municipality needs to adopt a more holistic approach. For ex­ample, it should take into account how improvements to the transit system could help solve a need to widen roads and find parking spaces.

(rtaylor@herald.ca)





Can't say I agree with him on this one. I think it is a really good idea. It would make the downtown street pattern a bit more consistent. I also really like that diagram on the information sheet that compares the block sizes. It's good to show that sometimes, not only for traffic reasons, but to show that maybe we can't build the same way that other cities in Canada do.
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  #16  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 7:33 PM
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Coincidentally, Roger Taylor's attitude of "wait until everything is perfect" is very closely tied to what I was just complaining about in another thread. The same attitude was at play a few years ago when councillors were grumbling about implementing various development moratoria during planning exercises. There's a huge cost to delaying these projects and it often accomplishes nothing other than creating years of uncertainty and inconvenience.

You also have to wonder why he is simultaneously complaining about past traffic designs while also resisting efforts to improve them. Magic disappearing lanes are exactly what exist right now downtown and they are trying to get rid of them.
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  #17  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 8:33 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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What a waste of an article... seems like this guy doesn't know as much as 17year olds on this forum. No wonder the newspaper is a dying medium.
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  #18  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 8:35 PM
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What a waste of an article... seems like this guy doesn't know as much as 17year olds on this forum. No wonder the newspaper is a dying medium.
Ouch ... that hurt ...

Just kidding but seriously we know more than you think (or at least I do).
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  #19  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 8:41 PM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Ouch ... that hurt ...

Just kidding but seriously we know more than you think (or at least I do).
It was a compliment to you... as I don't think this guy should be writing articles about topics that have frequently incorrect information and opinions that come out of nowhere.
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  #20  
Old Posted Mar 30, 2010, 9:10 PM
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It was a compliment to you... as I don't think this guy should be writing articles about topics that have frequently incorrect information and opinions that come out of nowhere.
Opps my bad I misread that. It's all cool now.

Hmm ... I wonder if I have as much sense as that David Jackson journalist.
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