The question of whether MUTs are preferable or not aside, there's a few details from planning that I remember from reviewing it on ATAC a couple of years ago.
On Ottawa, the MUTs won't be continuous. They are meant to provide park/trail connections, and there are areas where this was viewed as being important... in particular, the trailhead at the eastern edge of Stanley Park over to just past Franklin where the Dom Cardillo trail system is. I also recall a portion of Ottawa deemed impractical to continue the MUT because of the cost of moving hydro.
(Disclaimer: matching map details to fuzzy memory, some lossiness expected, and sometimes plans change too.)
Now, as for MUTs vs. painted bike lanes: well, as always context matters. But in general, if given the choice between a MUT and an on-road, unbuffered bike lane, I would pick the MUT. I want to see our region put bike infrastructure in place for 8 to 80 year olds, and even though intersection handling for MUTs currently sucks, I expect legislation to eventually catch up.
So what kind of context would change my mind?
These days I place a lot of hope and emphasis on separated bike lanes. They seem to provide most of the strengths of MUTs and painted bike lanes, with fewer of the weaknesses, but they have their own challenges too (such as snow clearing.)
On Ottawa, the MUTs won't be continuous. They are meant to provide park/trail connections, and there are areas where this was viewed as being important... in particular, the trailhead at the eastern edge of Stanley Park over to just past Franklin where the Dom Cardillo trail system is. I also recall a portion of Ottawa deemed impractical to continue the MUT because of the cost of moving hydro.
(Disclaimer: matching map details to fuzzy memory, some lossiness expected, and sometimes plans change too.)
Now, as for MUTs vs. painted bike lanes: well, as always context matters. But in general, if given the choice between a MUT and an on-road, unbuffered bike lane, I would pick the MUT. I want to see our region put bike infrastructure in place for 8 to 80 year olds, and even though intersection handling for MUTs currently sucks, I expect legislation to eventually catch up.
So what kind of context would change my mind?
- High pedestrian volumes suggest pedestrian/cycling separation
- High cycling corridor volumes suggest a directional separation of bike traffic
- Connecting bike lane infrastructure could make MUT to bike lane transition a problem
These days I place a lot of hope and emphasis on separated bike lanes. They seem to provide most of the strengths of MUTs and painted bike lanes, with fewer of the weaknesses, but they have their own challenges too (such as snow clearing.)