07-25-2018, 10:47 AM
(07-25-2018, 10:20 AM)jamincan Wrote:(07-25-2018, 09:58 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: The Iron Horse Trail at Palmer and at Kent is especially horrible. We say we want more bikes to travel more easily and safely, and fewer cars to travel more slowly and safely, and yet at trail crossings in low-traffic neighbourhoods, we put these horrible experiences there for vulnerable road users, and these unnecessarily easy experiences for drivers. Instead of lowering the trail to cross a road and having priority go to the car, the roadway should bump up to match the trail, and give priority to its users.
Riding the Spur Line yesterday, I was thinking the same thing. I can understand having the trail give way to traffic on a busier road like Union, but there are so many tiny back streets that see scarcely the traffic of the trail which should have a stop sign and raised surface so that the trail is the default right of way.
In terms of the Spur Line, really the only roads which should have priority over the trail are Wellington, Weber, Union and Regina.
For the Iron Horse Trail: Park, Union, Glasgow, Victoria, Queen, Mill (eh..?), and Courtland/Stirling (something should be done here, though).
Definitely not Mill, if we go by the standards of auto traffic, I'm pretty sure the IHT has a higher volume of users.
That being said, I don't think that's the standard we should give.
There should only be two options, trail has priority, or fully signalized intersection.
Signalization should be used if the road is too big and too fast to safely implement trail priority. A road like Queen, which could easily have a 40 limit, and is narrow, and one lane at a time, could easily have trail priority with lower traffic impact than a fully signalized crossing.
I don't think we have roads which are too busy to prioritize trail users, but which are safe enough to cross without a signal.