Bicycle Scenes from the Three C’s… Canmore, Calgary and Coquitlam…
Three names that don’t always go together, but I had a quick trip to Calgary to present Lessons from the Dutch at the Southern Alberta ITE Luncheon, and as always, I took the opportunity to learn a little by checking out the infrastructure while there. I make a quick stop to see what’s new in Canmore, take in a few routes around Calgary, and a quick check-in on our Guildford Way project in Coquitlam…
Canmore
After landing in Calgary, I headed out to Canmore to check in on a few interesting things happening there. For a while now, Canmore has been implementing as many lessons as possible from the Dutch, and every time I’m in town, there’s something new to see. Last time it was the intersection with near side signals, turn lanes with dedicated phases, and no right turn on red… A combination of design elements that removes all conflicts and improves safety…
On this visit, something new was the turbo roundabout with active modes priority in the Three Sisters neighbourhood… The turbo configuration would be better conveyed with a drone shot to show the laning configuration that better guides people through the roundabout. People need to decide on their exit early as there are median islands separating the two approach lanes, that are much more substantial than the Dutch implementations I’ve seen. Another Dutch design element is the perfectly circular bike path around the permitter avoiding those awkward turns when we try and keep the bike path close to the circulating lanes while still providing an offset at the crossings. The crossings in this case are raised, which is different than the Dutch who typically have the bike path at the same grade as the road, but this works well too and better slows traffic…
Next up are some new implementations of continuous sidewalks and bike paths on Bow Valley Trail that my ISL colleagues have been working on. Some interesting designs elements would be the yield for vehicles, wide bike path, the large offset from the vehicle lanes, angled driveway entry with rocks at the edge to enforce tighter turns, and TWSI’s…
If you didn’t know, Canmore is maybe the only place in North America to mimic the red bike paths of the Dutch, albeit in concrete, helping convey the message that you ride on red and walk on grey… Some aren’t getting the message though…
Did you know Canmore shuts down it’s Main Street over the summer? It was a bit late in the day and weather wasn’t great while I was there, but I’m keen to see this in the peak of summer…
Calgary
I was primarily in Calgary for the ITE presentation on Lessons from the Dutch with my colleague Andrew Monson, but was able to check out a few things while there. I don’t know about you, but when I pick my hotel location I make sure there’s a decent bike lane nearby to get me where I need to go. On this occasion the 12th Ave bi-directional bike lane did the job most of the way… It’s a quick build using mostly precast concrete and flex posts…
After the presentation we took in a site visit with local ISL and city staff for a project just kicking-off, taking the LRT system up the hill, which my little 2 speed Brompton would have struggled with… Neat to see the tube style map and I was surprised to learn Calgary has quite a few LRT and BRT corridors… I need to check that out more on a future trip…
In the evening I managed a quick spin around downtown to capture some bicycle scenes around town… I liked this 5th Street underpass that adds a bit of vibrancy to what is usually an otherwise dark and sometimes intimidating space…
I think many of our North American cities need more pedestrian streets so it was great to see Stephen Ave busier than I’ve seen it before…
The Peace Bridge is an iconic bridge, one that people come to take photos of themselves at… One that says I’ve been to Calgary… Like pedestrian streets, every city should have at least one iconic piece of active modes infrastructure…
With the Bow River cutting through the City, it’s not the only bridge of course. I didn’t get to them all, but I like that they suspended an active modes connection under the LRT bridge…
At the end of that bridge the pathway divers under the adjacent road bridge arch, almost feeling a little Seine like…
The river pathway got an upgrade a few years back with nicer paving for the pedestrian realm and a separate bike path. The mega benches along the pedestrian pathway provide an extra degree of flood defence I believe, while on the bike path, it was interesting to see this radar speed sign on approach to this mixing area urging people on bikes to slow down…
The next day I rode to the ISL office, taking the 2nd Street protected bike lanes…
Then the river pathway…
Then a day in the ISL office helping out a bit on a few projects before heading home… It’s crazy that I somehow fill the same bag for two days on the bike as I do for four weeks on it…
Coquitlam
Before we wrap this one up, we might as well add a third city beginning withy a C that’s doing good things… Just after getting back from Calgary, I stopped by our ISL Engineering project on Guildford Way in Coquitlam where Phase 2 is now pretty much complete. While there is a whole lot more to Phase 2 than just the protected intersection at Pinetree Way and Guildford Way, we’ll get into that when I have more time and the weather is a bit better. For now, it’s great to see protected intersections becoming more common in the region…
On this occasion, the rain was truly terrible, but there were still a few people out and about…
Some best practices include no right turns on red to reduce conflicts wth cross traffic as well as reducing the likelihood of drivers creeping forward to make that right turn and blocking crosswalks… This is the default in many places around the world, but not so common in North America, so great to see safety and accessibility being improved at this intersection…
Bicycle signals are common on bi-directional bike lanes where they are a necessity, but are less common on uni-directional facilities as it was often assumed people riding bikes would go on the vehicle signal or walk signal… The problem is that this was rarely signalled in any way and thus not clear to many people cycling. The bike signals improve comprehension and removes all doubt. It also helps make drivers more aware that someone may be coming through on a bicycle if they are turning right in the same phase as people riding through on a bicycle. The lean rails are a simple, yet still uncommon addition that let you sit comfortably on your bike while waiting for the green bike signal…
Directional TWSI’s improve wayfinding for people with sight loss…
This is definitely the last blog post for a bit as I head back to Europe for a few weeks, but more good stuff should come out of that so stay tuned… Subscribe to the newsletter if you’d like notifications when those come, you can sign up in the footer below…