|
|
Diet or starvation?
|
|
|
|
The image below includes the label "This half for cars". Is this a road diet or road strangulation?
The title makes the assumption that the roadway is only for cars, and need not accommodate any slower or stopped traffic: bicyclists, moped riders, service and delivery vehicles, transit buses at bus stops, school buses, breakdowns, left-turning traffic etc. Most of these cannot use the path. All types of users must access trip origins and destinations on the side opposite the path
Actually, the width is to be reduced to considerably less than half. The plan would remove the shoulder from the roadway, as other pictures in this presentation will show.
The path would be inaccessible during the winter months due to snowbanks between it and the roadway, and unusable due to ice and packed show even if repeatedly plowed -- in other words, no bicycle access during the winter and no ADA-compliant wheelchair access.
So, while I have no problem with a nice recreational path in the parkland, I don't see it as a viable alternative to a fully-functional road. While the street might be narrowed or restriped for fewer lanes and still have adequate capacity, it should keep enough width so through traffic can overtake slow and stopped traffic; otherwise, there will be backups, no matter how light the traffic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|