Avalon Place Highway 7/8 Multi-Use Trail Crossing

[danbrotherston]

There is no reason for that section of Homer Watson to be what it is, but I don't see what improving it would serve without the bridge also existing. At the end of the day the roundabouts are borderline impassable as a pedestrian or cyclist, and fixing that (such as with pedestrian/cycling underpasses) would cost far more than this bridge which provides a bypass to the roundabouts.

I don't see how the bridge bypasses the roundabout at all?

Basically, anyone using the bike infra west and southwest of the roundabout will continue to have access regardless of whether the underpass is at Homer Watson or Avalon Pl. (if you come down Homer Watson from the north and go west on the MUT to Strasburg you end up in the same place as if you came over the Avalon Pl. bridge.).

And it doesn't matter if you come across the Avalon Pl. bridge you'd still be unable to access the Homer Watson MUT or Ottawa St. east of Homer Watson.

So yeah, if the roundabout is the obstacle, then the Avalon Pl bridge still doesn't help, and we should have spent money fixing the roundabout (you know, the thing we just spent a fortune building because the intersection was unsafe).

But fixing the roundabout doesn't have to cost 10 million. Underpasses are the best answer, but we could do a lot to fix the bad design without going with underpasses, beacon lights, traffic signals, raised crossings, more pedestrian island and re-configuring the geometry all combined would still cost less than the bridge (which remember is massively expensive).

The main reasons we're getting a bridge is because our engineers are bad at their jobs, they don't know how to build good infra, so they don't even try...