General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

Thanks for linking. Absolutely the design is an improvement. I will say there is some ironic comments though. The author is clearly afraid of being labeled anti car.

I know the feeling.

Outside of WRC - any suggestion I make about helping people move about the region is met with derision if someone has to lift the throttle or heaven forbid, touch the brakes. I just want all road and trail users to have a pleasant experience and feel safe but too many just think "but that will add time to my drive". In reality it's often a handful of seconds that would be added to a drive of 10-15 mins in this region. (these figures are not researched in any way, they reflect my bias and my experience from when I used to leave the house)

As for Keats Way, no reason it can't be improved. As Jam in can mentioned Lorraine is better. I think Margaret is better (Victoria to Union). So baby steps. Hopefully we see progress as projects teach what works and what doesn't.

I still think Lancaster from Frederick to Victoria should be one-way (I don't know which direction though) with the other lane for bi-directional pedestrian traffic. Not a popular suggestion but that section of road just plain sucks for all users as it is now.

Yeah, I mean, I can sympathize, I'm sure ones circle of friends is different living in suburbia than in DTK as I do. And I'm quite certain that some of the people I know....umm...hold their tongue around me. That being said, I guess I am fortunate, most of my coworkers, although they almost all drive to work, still generally support improvements to other transportation options, and have a realistic view of the difficulty of driving in the city.

Keats Way could definitely be improved. I don't live there, but I do cycle there, for me, it's not a high priority for change, it's a road that is already above average in cycle friendliness for the city. There is probably an argument due to the multiple schools on it that it should be a higher priority, but either way, it could be much better.  I will say the presence of the schools means that at certain times of the day, selfish assholes who happen to have children endanger me, and any child who wants to cycle to school by illegally parking in the bike lane, and nobody anywhere will do anything about this.

I actually find Keats Way better than Margaret or Lorraine (outside of school hours at least) because it does not have parking or driveways. I feel that both of those increase the risk and danger for cyclists, and certainly add to my discomfort while cycling. But that's obviously a personal opinion.

I do agree for Lancaster, although I'm open to seeing how Lancaster improves with the changes proposed, I suspect it could be substantially better. I also think the biggest problem with Lancaster at the moment is the Lancaster and Frederick (and also Victoria) intersections. At least for Frederick, I have a proposed improvement here.

https://betterbenton.netlify.app/

I actually put this together last year, long before the Keats Way proposal, so it's my own laziness that has resulted in me being pre-empted, but I would like to fix up my few links and create the change.org petition then I will push it publicly this weekend.