07-19-2018, 02:17 PM
I rode North through Uptown this morning. Two construction crews were blocking the cycling lanes. On the way back I just took Regina as I normally would. I'm passing through and it's faster to take Regina anyway, but there's nothing about the infrastructure there that makes me especially want to ride my bike through the core of Uptown.
In fairness, I avoid the core of Downtown as well, I just don't need the volume of traffic that typically exists in the cores and am able to bypass it. I don't think these lanes serve a real purpose though, and even as a highly visible indicator that cycling in the area is supported by the city they fail terribly.
In theory I'll be riding from Homer Watson and Ottawa area to the Waterloo Manulife office on a regular basis next year, and the fastest route will be along the cores and I'm pretty sure my ride will be relatively unpleasant as a result. In 2016 and 2017 I rode to Bridge and University largely via Lancaster and Bridge and that was overall a very enjoyable ride but there's enough points of genuinely bad infrastructure between those points that I'm worried I'll be discouraged from riding altogether.
In fairness, I avoid the core of Downtown as well, I just don't need the volume of traffic that typically exists in the cores and am able to bypass it. I don't think these lanes serve a real purpose though, and even as a highly visible indicator that cycling in the area is supported by the city they fail terribly.
In theory I'll be riding from Homer Watson and Ottawa area to the Waterloo Manulife office on a regular basis next year, and the fastest route will be along the cores and I'm pretty sure my ride will be relatively unpleasant as a result. In 2016 and 2017 I rode to Bridge and University largely via Lancaster and Bridge and that was overall a very enjoyable ride but there's enough points of genuinely bad infrastructure between those points that I'm worried I'll be discouraged from riding altogether.