09-07-2023, 08:13 AM
(09-07-2023, 06:40 AM)plam Wrote:(09-06-2023, 10:41 PM)KevinL Wrote: That will make trips to campus much easier for residents of that entire block of dorms - no need to cross University in bad weather or heavy traffic, just take the bridge to this new building then the existing bridge into the Engineering block.
Problem with bridges is that sometimes it's much longer to take the bridge than to cross at ground level. I guess the current bridge also has a nonsensical termination point so the new infrastructure might help.
The existing bridge is a master class in bad UX design.
Probably the designers had good intentions...they wanted to make the road safer and more convenient for pedestrians (although it's also possible the goal was to make it more convenient for drivers...but ultimately this doesn't matter).
But they had zero understanding of the needs or experiences of those walking. As a result the bridge is basically pointless, I've hardly ever seen anyone use it. I think I crossed it once just to check it out. But 99.9999% of users use one of the level crossings. I can't really think of another example of such an expensive crossing that has failed quite so spectacularly.
I'm not really sure whether the bridge could be fixed. Certainly if it was connected to CMH and the new residence, there would be a small number of people who it is ideal for, maybe it would get some use. But I really don't see how you redirect the trail in a meaningful way to redirect most of the traffic. If there was direct access up the trail, maybe it would divert some of the pedestrians, but really the region should just fix the at grade crossing--but that would require that they be aware of the fact that the crossing is problematic.