09-13-2016, 01:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2016, 01:15 PM by danbrotherston.)
(09-13-2016, 12:04 PM)zanate Wrote:(09-12-2016, 12:16 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Promote multi-use trails to be streets that happen to have no motorized vehicles permitted. Then where they meet motorized vehicle streets, have a regular intersection. With, obviously, no turns permitted by motorized vehicles.
This requires major (provincial level) changes, because right now multi-use trails intersect with streets at crosswalks-- as in, according to the HTA, a person should dismount from their bike and walk across. So the region can't promote this.
This isn't exactly true.
First of all, multi-use trails do not have to intersect with streets at crosswalks....they may simply intersect streets with no provisions whatsoever, as they do for most Iron Horse Trail intersections.
But to the meat of the matter, there aren't necessarily provincial changes needed to consider MUTs a "public highway". Public highways are allowed to have restricted lanes, such as bike lanes, and also allow pedestrians, if there are no sidewalks. All a MUT is, is a public highway composed ONLY of bike lanes. There's nothing in the law precluding this.
At that point there's no reason that you cannot have a MUT meet a vehicular road at a normal intersection.
My understanding of the law is this is perfectly legal under the HTA, we would only have to choose to do it, which really seems to be the sticking point. Of course, IANAL.