The other day I came across this odd length of one-way street in Hintonburg. It’s a short block joining Armstrong to Wellington Street West but it has a “contraflow” lane for bicycles, meaning that while cars on this block drive north, cyclists ride south. The cycle lane features two small cement islands at the top and bottom of the street with a ladder pattern of yellow paint running between them.
While such a feature was new to me, Kathryn Hunt of the Incidental Cyclist blog pointed out that a similar contraflow lane has operated in Old Ottawa South for several years, beginning at the corner of Bank and Cameron and running west toward Carleton U.
Whether running against the flow of car traffic, or parallel to it, the islands at either end of such a construction appear to be an attempt at “grade separation”; the physical separation of cycle lanes from encroachment/interference by auto traffic.
They are not a continuous barrier though, and that’s what would make for true grade separation according to Michael Powell, Chair of the City ‘s Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee, who sent along some images from a consultation the City held earlier this year. The laddered paint of the Hintonburg example might be a good indication of what the pilot project of the Centertown East-West Bike Lane will look like if it is placed on a residential street instead of a commercial thoroughfare like Somerset or Gladstone. Such paint makes for a visual demarcation but it is not a physical barrier; it remains to be seen just how much it will increase the all-important “perception” of safety as felt by cyclists actually using the lanes.
7 comments
Are northbound cyclists expected/allowed/permitted/required to travel in the automobile lane?
Northbound cyclists are indeed permitted and expected to use the main (auto lane) part of the roadway.
There’s a bike counterflow for eastbound bikes on Stewart St, for cyclists coming off the Mackenzie King bridge.
I work right across the street from this obstacle, and the city wasted the taxpayers’ money for this idiotic idea.
They actually had to tear it down and rebuild the barriers 3 times, as first, they made the barriers to wide, so cars could not make a right turn. Once they fixed that, they relaized they made it too long of a barrier, that trucks could not backup into the docking bay of the building next to it. If you see the patchwork on the road, you can see the original work they had done.
This grade separation actually leads bikers to nowhere, as there is no bikepaths on wellington, nor armstrong to facilitate the need of this obstacle.
Having worked arpund that block for 10 years, the only reason for this obsurdity is to block cars from parking the left side of the road.
Moreover, I have never seen any bikers use the pathway. I dont know who the urban planners of Ottawa are, but there is clearly no sense or logic behind this median.
Hi Joe,
Some good observations from someone right on the spot! Have to admit that since I discovered I have actually been using it to get from Armstrong over to Wellington; a fair number of cycling commuters do use Armstrong as an eastbound route in the morning and the idea was probably to find a way to safely shuttle them over to Wellington/Somerset so they could then continue east for the trip up and over the bridge, as Bayview makes them curve back a little and go uphill before making the turn onto the Somerset, not always the easiest move for a bicycle. But I do resent being funneled down to an intersection ( Wellington/Somerset/Merton) that is “always” a red light when I get there, and I notice that most other Armstrong cyclists somehow seem to have their own tricks for getting over to Welly that don’t involve waiting patiently for a slow light.
At the very minimum, I suppose this contraflow lane is there for cyclists that want to get onto Wellington legally and safely, even if not conveniently.
Thanks Evan, for the response!
This may bring a bigger discussion down the road, but I believe when the redid wellington (primarily the stretch from Bayview to Island Park), I really hoped they would have created a bike path lane as well, instead of just having a wider sidewalk.
That would have allowed for more bikers to use wellington a a direct bicycle lane, with the side streets (i.e. garland) bring off shoots from wellington. Moreover, it would have been much more safer for bicyclists, and add more people commuting through the main artery (wellington), thus, in turn, better for business.
re Bank and Cameron contraflow – Actually saw a car driving down the contraflow at Bank and Cameron last summer. How’s that for perception of safety?
It was a small car though…sigh….