Car Centrism and Anti-People design in Blackmud Creek, Edmonton

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• published: 14 Aug 2015
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I don't live on any of the streets shown here but I live in a house pretty much identical to these, and live on a street pretty much identical to any of these local access roads. Don't forget to like, subscribe and ask questions about my ideas. And read the rest of the description. While riding in Southbrooke/Blackmud Creek (as fast as I could because it was really hot and dry, which is also why I stopped a few times for water), I pointed out some of the car centric things and anti-people things. Fences between good neighbours? That doesn't seem to promote interaction. I often think of why my house has a fence between my backyard and that of my neighbours who are just behind the fence between our backyards, even though their children and my siblings often like to play with them and have excellent relations between my family and theirs. The curbs that allow cars to drive up onto the sidewalk at places other than driveways too, that allows cars to block the sidewalk all they want, and the sidewalk itself is rather narrow, when I measure the sidewalk in front of my house, it is only 1.2 metres wide, no joke. Good sidewalks at at least 2 metres wide. This type of street needs no cycle tracks and the roads other than the collectors are fine with no special cycle facilities, the collectors could have some advisory cycle lanes (see this link for a picture https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct;=j&q;=&esrc;=s&source;=images&cd;=&cad;=rja&uact;=8&ved;=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCNaC4dzWp8cCFcyaiAodpBACRg&url;=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRoads_in_the_Netherlands&ei;=pmbNVdaXN8y1ogSkoYiwBA&bvm;=bv.99804247,d.cGU&psig;=AFQjCNHg9D9R51RCZ4uYfnAUsBcr7O63wg&ust;=1439610907365933) and a 30 km/h zone with unmarked, raised intersections with curb extensions where parking is prohibited (usually within 5 metres of intersections, near fire hydrants and near bus stops), with clear delineation with a concrete gutter are simple things that could be added to make this a great neighbourhood to walk or cycle in. I found that those advisory cycle lanes on average reduce speeds by 5 km/h and can be up to 11 km/h reducing speed, which is enough to bring speeds from 45-55 km/h down to 29-50 km/h or so. Other methods used in combination, the speed limit sign itself, probably a couple kilometres/h slower, removing indications of priority, another couple kilometres, speed tables and raised intersections another 5-10 km/h, easily enough to make this area work well. When the school is finally completed in a year, I predict that almost everyone will be coming by car. Maybe a few dozen by bike and maybe some from the apartments and a few hundred metres away in the fall and spring and summer will walk, but I can never see a school with the roads designed like they are getting statistics like the Netherlands where 3/4 attendees at primary schools use active transport. The only place where people tend to drive slower is on the collector to the west of the pond, where if there are cars parked the drivers (like myself) know to slow down in case of children dashing out. You can see how few people come by active transport for the soccer games held in the fields even though they are less than 3 km away. To show you the planners barely even considered cycling, under the section in the NASP called "Pedestrian and Bicycle Circulation", it actually says nothing about cycling whatsoever. No cycle lanes, no 30 km/h zones neighbourhood wide, designing roads so as to avoid the possibility of a stop sign, no filtered permeability for cyclists, nothing. The existing conditions further degrade pedestrians by making them go up and down lots of places where the cars should be calmed because this is a residential area where 20 (mph)'s plenty. It is not too late to fix this. You can layer some asphalt up to widen the pedestrian shortcuts, add a sign and a centre line to turn them into shared use paths (OK when volumes of both are expected to be low, and you design them as bike paths you are allowed to walk on), replace the two stop signs between the collector roads as mini-roundabouts with some paint, create advisory cycle lanes with road paint, add a no entry, cyclists excepted at Bowen Wynd/James Mowatt Tr, add a protected intersection at Blackmud Creek Drive and the two arterials, and add a 30 km/h zone, plus take away indications of right of way to create uncontrolled intersections. Cheap, effective and increasing safety. Minimal impact on emergency services and transit, plus a self enforcing speed limit. Is that too hard to do City Planners? Here is the blog with this channel http://cyclinginedmontonfromtheeyesofateen.blogspot.ca/