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132 Ave Renewal

There's some really exciting stuff happening all along 132 Ave from 127 street to Fort road. This is honestly a gigantic shift. If you live on the north side, or just care about bike infra across the city, definitely do the survey or sign up for one of the live online sessions. I'm honestly in utter disbelief that this is the plan - I was expecting something way more mild.

 
Heres the link directly to the survey. I have feeling there's going to be a lot of people upset with this, so we could use as many positive voices as possible.

I can't believe we're actually building something like this in Edmonton, especially somewhere that isn't downtown. These areas, especially near all the schools, could definitely use the better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. I went to high school on 132nd, and it was insane how overcrowded the sidewalks and bus stops got. This is definitely needed.
 
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@archited @itom987 you two are officially the Skyrise Edmonton Gardening Consultants 🪴🧑‍🌾

Please inform us on the issues of low-maintainence flora & fauna and the placement of 3D rendered flowers respectively.
 
I am not an expert gardener, but I do know that of the hundreds of plants to choose from only a few will live and thrive in the salty soils alongside a road. I think we would already have them by now if it was easy to do.
I'm not against the idea of gardens, I like them very much. If they can make it financially worthwhile, go for it!
Not to be rude, but you recognize these exist all over the city already, right? Curb bulbs and street planters aren't a new thing. I'm sure they can figure it out again 😁

I ride past many of these in Crestwood and Parkview. And the rendering shows some color cause renderings love to give extra shine. I'm sure they'll find a sustainable solution thats not flowers getting planted every spring.
 
If there is anything that could do with a little value engineering, this would be it. How much will it cost to plant those gardens every year, are volunteers going to do that? The garden in the middle should just be grass with a tree in the middle. I hope the foot and bike traffic is busy enough to account for 40% of the total paved surface area dedicated towards them (the Netherlands have over 10x the traffic). What will the maintenance budget for the roundabout be like 10 years from now? This is being proposed for a location that isn't even prominent within the city.
Also I doubt its 40% of the paved surface...maybe 20-30? Hard to tell. But if you're so worried about proportional allocation of street space to mode of transportation, you're going to hate hearing about our downtown 😬
 
Hello Gorgeous!

View attachment 374986

This is a proposed option for 90 Street and 132 Avenue. Yes, this is Edmonton! There are several schools along 132ave in this area including Queen E and O'Leary High Schools (I'm a Spartans grad!) So providing safe active transportation options like this znd traffic calming is right on the money.

More cool plans located here regarding 132 Ave renewal:
Here's the signalized version of that intersection, as well as the pros and cons of each option.
Screenshot_20220117-131651_Drive.jpg
Screenshot_20220117-131721_Drive.jpg
Screenshot_20220117-131737_Drive.jpg

Also, certain stretches of this renewal project have two alternatives: Orange and purple. The details vary at each spot, but overall it looks like orange is far superior because it leaves more room for trees and low impact development (LID for short: Plants and soil that absorb excess water to lighten the burden on sewers), and has less "impermeable surfaces" like pavement. When giving feedback, please keep this in mind.

Here's one example:
Screenshot_20220117-133034_Drive.jpg
Screenshot_20220117-133100_Drive.jpg


Lastly, I was a bit confused about why the bike lanes and shared use paths were shown to keep going down 90 street, since there aren't any there right now and I wasn't sure if 90st would be part of this project's scope. So here's the wider area context for each option (taken from the design booklet).
Screenshot_20220117-132707_Chrome.jpg
Screenshot_20220117-132635_Chrome.jpg
 
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This would be a huge upgrade over the two current options of surviving a roundabout in a bike a) accept the fact you will dismount, awkwardly mon onto the sidewalk and waste 5 minutes. b) act like a car, claim a lane, hope you don't get hit from behind or turned into from the inner lane or by someone entering the roundabout right in front of you or...the possibilities of injury are endless and if you survive, get some angered drive to yell at you to get to the f... sidewalk.
 
This is so good. It's great to see bike infrastructure in this area. I tried getting north of the Yellowhead a few times over the summer by bike, to see what it's like. Crossing the Yellowhead is a problem; the area north of it is a quagmire. The endlessly wide streets and complete lack of anything not built solely for cars in terms of transportation infrastructure makes it super difficult to navigate; and to be honest, the wide expanses of pavement, especially when there doesn't seem to be nearly enough traffic to fill it, just feels desolate. It felt like a lonely place, unwelcoming to humans. This plan will fix a lot of that, providing more trees, a bike route paralleling the Yellowhead, and create a safer space for actual people to inhabit, not just the theoretical 4 lanes of traffic that would appear if everyone left their house for work in the exact same 15-minute window. Sorry, these 1960's streetscapes just make me all kinds of angry/sad. glad to see one disappear.
 
Also I doubt its 40% of the paved surface...maybe 20-30? Hard to tell. But if you're so worried about proportional allocation of street space to mode of transportation, you're going to hate hearing about our downtown 😬
I am more concerned about how much it will cost to maintain the roundabout than anything else, and I am aware that the amount of space allotted for bicycles may be lower than 40% but I am focusing on only the roundabout. I already know what is going on downtown. :)
 
I just want to mention that the streets shown in the images above appear to be wider than they need to be. Do we really need a sidewalk then a median and a bike path then another median than a road heading one direction then another median and a road heading the opposite direction then a median a bike path then another f*king median then a sidewalk. The roads are meadianed to death with wasted space that nobody is going to use, so much for reducing our ecological footprint... room for planters and benches!
 
I hope the foot and bike traffic is busy enough to account for 40% of the total paved surface area dedicated towards them (the Netherlands have over 10x the traffic).
I went to high school on 132 Ave and I can say that the area is sorely lacking in sidewalk area at the moment, especially around the bus stops. I'd rather have sidewalks/bikelanes that are a bit too wide than grass that will quickly die and turn into ugly desire paths.

Here's a 1km stretch of 132 ave with 2 high schools and 2 junior high schools. I had to estimate the enrollment of the catholic junior high, but all together it's around 4300 students total. 4300 students mostly all arriving from 8:30-9am, typically in big batches from busses.

132schools.png

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I am more concerned about how much it will cost to maintain the roundabout than anything else, and I am aware that the amount of space allotted for bicycles may be lower than 40% but I am focusing on only the roundabout. I already know what is going on downtown. :)
Wait until you hear about the costs of a car dependent city. Projects like this move us closer to the necessary future we're pursuing.
 

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