Northfield / 85 Exchange upgrades?

[danbrotherston]

The point is to take advantage of the fact that there is absolutely no traffic crossing the space between the two tracks for a long distance to put non-vehicular traffic in that space.

I think you're making an assumption that there is a big wasted space between the tracks.  In fact, there is not - what little space there is between the two tracks is occupied by the poles which support the Overhead Contact System ("Catpoles"):


I've taken the liberty of ghosting in the approximate dimensions to scale of the LRV's, at 2.65 m width.

I think the point is, the space currently allocated to the two 1.5 meter painted bike lanes, and the 1.5 meter sidewalk could be combined in the middle into a 4.5 meter wide MUT.  The tracks would be moved.

Obviously this would complicate using ballasted track, and perhaps other issues (polls for example), but the idea is not that there is wasted space right now.

Also, frustration of frustration, why is there a 2 meter painted buffer between the sidewalk and the bike lane, how stupid.  And how stupid not to use that 2 meter painted buffer to widen both bike lanes by a meter, instead squeezing cyclists in with 70 km/h through traffic.