(09-04-2018, 06:23 AM)Canard Wrote: Queen: Do you know for a fact that a snowplough could fit through a narrower lane with curbs on both sides?
Weber: Please draw a diagram explaining how you think it could have been made wider without moving the outside lanes, encroaching nearby properties.
Not sure about Queen, but on Weber there are boulevards on both sides. On the west side there is a strip of grass between the sidewalk and the parking lot and building. Also, I strongly suspect the traffic lanes are wider than they need to be. Given the nature of the road, it’s probably appropriate to have wide lanes for most of the road, but there is no reason they couldn’t narrow slightly near the crossing. Even taking 20cm from each lane (i.e., not much) would give an extra 80cm to the island. Or take a full lane width by using the boulevard space. Or a combination. It’s pretty obvious when you look at it in Google Maps:
https://goo.gl/maps/GqTjSJpwZxR2
A quick measurement suggests that the space between the existing sidewalks is over 20m, which is enough for 4 lanes 3.75m wide (wider than the approximately 3.6m currently in place) plus a 5m island. Of course I wouldn’t be in favour of eliminating the boulevard completely but it’s pretty clear there is space.
Even if encroachment on neighboring properties were needed, I fail to see how this is a problem. If the traffic engineers determined that a longer left turn lane was needed, and this required encroachment, they would probably just go ahead and do it. Why should non-motor-vehicle infrastructure be any different?