Cycling and Active Transportation in Edmonton

[ntt1]

Do raised crossings impact accessibility?

I’ve always though of them as potentially impacting drainage, but being massively helpful for a number of reasons:
1) reduce bumps and discomforts for biking, strollers, wheelchairs.
2) add a table top to slow cars to ensure they come to a stop before entering the intersection and reduces speed.
3) helps with snow and ice melt in winter/spring as many of these crossings become full of water and make walking and biking a mess

Maybe there’s something I don’t understand. But to me, every major bike route should be “continuous” and where roads intersect, cars should have to go up and over as they yield. Every major arterial MUP for example would benefit a ton from this.

Yeah, it seems that raised crosswalks or speed bumps are the only way to get vehicles to actually slow down and/or stop. We could benefit from a lot more of those in problem areas. Some street labs projects have even been installing permanent asphalt speed tables in some suburbs like Allard, I believe.

 

[Gronk!]

Groat Rd/River Valley Rd MUP - old vs new

 

[dkazzed]

I wish they'd do more to flatten (as in grades <4%) more of the river valley, both for wheelchair accessibility and the casual cyclists. At the moment, the north shore from Groat Road Bridge all the way to Tawatina Bridge is fairly flat, but imagine if they did the south side as well and allowed people to do a loop.

Oh I climbed up Victoria Park Road over the weekend and that was a surprisingly easy climb. Just checked, the average grade is 3.7%, I figured it wasn't super steep at all. I know electric bikes are becoming more popular, I have one, but it doesn't go on or in my car and it's too big for LRT.

 

[erudyk_29]

Put this together today for an assignment.

This is the modal share of cycling by census tract in Edmonton and surrounding communities.

Data from the 2021 Census (most recent I could get)

Green = >4%
Light Green = 2 - 3.9%
Yellow = 1 - 1.9%
Orange = 0.5 - 1.9%
Red = Non Zero - 0.49%
Dark Red = 0%

We can see that South Central is really dominant here.

 

[itom987]

4% is the best we can do? Ouch...

 

[erudyk_29]

4% is the best we can do? Ouch...

The dark green is any above 4% (I typed the > the wrong way, oops), the highest is around 7.3% which is in the eastern part of Strathcona. Still not great, but it rounds up to 10 at least?

 

[fromyeg]

View attachment 601903

Put this together today for an assignment.

This is the modal share of cycling by census tract in Edmonton and surrounding communities.

Data from the 2021 Census (most recent I could get)

Green = >4%
Light Green = 2 - 3.9%
Yellow = 1 - 1.9%
Orange = 0.5 - 1.9%
Red = Non Zero - 0.49%
Dark Red = 0%

We can see that South Central is really dominant here.

Great Map!

Happy to live in a “Green” neighbourhood. (And ride a bike to work, scooter sometimes )

What was the overall rate of cycling for the City?

 

[erudyk_29]

Great Map!

Happy to live in a “Green” neighbourhood. (And ride a bike to work, scooter sometimes )

What was the overall rate of cycling for the City?

The overall modal split was a meager 1.26% however this is for the entire CMA which includes regions as far flung as Wabamun. I couldn't get it to spit out a number for the city proper (working on that) but it would likely be higher. I wouldn't expect it to be any greater than 2-3% though.

 

[thommyjo]

4% is the best we can do? Ouch...

I mean, global cycling hubs like Copenhagen are still under 30%. So us being in a 5-6% range in the next decade would be outstanding. Currently in the 2-3% range from most stuff I’ve seen.

Vancouver is 7%. Montreal is 4%.

 

[thommyjo]

View attachment 601903

Put this together today for an assignment.

This is the modal share of cycling by census tract in Edmonton and surrounding communities.

Data from the 2021 Census (most recent I could get)

Green = >4%
Light Green = 2 - 3.9%
Yellow = 1 - 1.9%
Orange = 0.5 - 1.9%
Red = Non Zero - 0.49%
Dark Red = 0%

We can see that South Central is really dominant here.

West central probably has the most commuting to the core potential. And millwoods likely the most local trip potential. Hopefully some of the upcoming investments start to see a shift!

 

[TAS]

The overall modal split was a meager 1.26% however this is for the entire CMA which includes regions as far flung as Wabamun. I couldn't get it to spit out a number for the city proper (working on that) but it would likely be higher. I wouldn't expect it to be any greater than 2-3% though.

Great map - thanks for sharing and deciding to do that as an assignment.

If we're currently in that modal share you expect (2-3%) I guess we are on the money in terms of our $100 million capital spend from 2023-26 in active transportation. But that will need to continue as we catch up from years of neglect and the need to build a safe, viable transportation option for our growing population.

From the city: "The 2023-2026 capital budget includes $100 million for the active transportation network expansion. It makes up 2% of the approximately $5 billion capital budget for transportation projects, including roads and bridges."

 

[Romanov]

Hoping to see some of those north central neighbourhoods shift from red/yellow to green. Blatchford is coming, but I was surprised by neighbourhoods like Queen Mary, Westwood, spruce avenue and McDougall. Glad that some new routes planned for 111 Ave, 113 st, 114 Ave, 106 st, blatchford, etc.

 

[thommyjo]

Great map - thanks for sharing and deciding to do that as an assignment.

If we're currently in that modal share you expect (2-3%) I guess we are on the money in terms of our $100 million capital spend from 2023-26 in active transportation. But that will need to continue as we catch up from years of neglect and the need to build a safe, viable transportation option for our growing population.

From the city: "The 2023-2026 capital budget includes $100 million for the active transportation network expansion. It makes up 2% of the approximately $5 billion capital budget for transportation projects, including roads and bridges."

This is actually one of the most effective discussion points I use with people complaining about bike lanes. I do a line of questions like:

“I agree it can feel like a lot. What do you think would be the most fair way to allocate money? Based on how many people actually use it? Like if only 2% of people bike, we probably shouldn’t spend more that 2% on bike lanes, hey?”

Them: “yeah exactly. When so few people bike, we shouldn’t be spending millions on bike lanes”.

“We’ll good news, the 100mil is actually 2% of capital spending, the same proportion of people that bike. And for decades we’ve spent next to nothing. So we should probably keep spending this much every budget cycle, just to be proportional like you agreed is fair. Then arguably we should spend even more to catch up for decades of not fairly spending.”

People are often pretty quickly shocked to realize their logic doesn’t line up with their feelings/biases.

 

[dkazzed]

The argument I'm hearing these days is that we don't pay gas taxes, licensing, and registration, therefore we're not entitled to using the road. That's about $1.1 billion per year in the province, which is good for what repaving 140 lane km of roadways each year? That's cute believing roads aren't heavily subsidized.

In other news, City of Edmonton is essentially doubling down on Hermitage Road by adding bus bulges at 40 St in both directions. They were installing them this morning.

 

[thommyjo]

The argument I'm hearing these days is that we don't pay gas taxes, licensing, and registration, therefore we're not entitled to using the road. That's about $1.1 billion per year in the province, which is good for what repaving 140 lane km of roadways each year? That's cute believing roads aren't heavily subsidized.

In other news, City of Edmonton is essentially doubling down on Hermitage Road by adding bus bulges at 40 St in both directions. They were installing them this morning.

View attachment 602335

At what point do we redo roads vs do the temporary setups? Anyone know the lifecycle on hermitage?