City Bus Traps

Recently, you have replaced the Shaganappi bus trap underpass with a gated closure (and sometime before this, the Silver Springs bus-trap had a gate installed). These suck for cyclists, while bus traps are generally a Good Idea for cyclists. Replacing the Silver Springs gate with, say, a (very tall) median-type island with room for a bike to get through would be a Very Good Idea (I realise the bike-path thing routes around it, but I ride my bike on the road, and it is dangerous and inconvenient to get onto this bike-path extension, especially if there is traffic at the intersection of Silver Springs Gate and Silver Springs Blvd.) The gated monster under Shaganappi doesn't even have a bike path routing around it. The best thing would probably be to remove the curbs near the north pole of the gate so that one may easily ride around it. Better-yet, make a person-sized hole in the middle of the gate so that a skilled cyclist may ride through it when it is closed. I used to try and incorporate these accesses into my routes in and out of town; now I attempt to route around them. I don't know the status of the trap where Harvest Hills Blvd. N becomes Centre Street, but that one has been highly useful to me in the past when coming into town from the north. I really hope your plans don't involve putting a gate on this, too. Thanks,

Dear Mr. Warren, Your email with regard to the bus only crossing has been forwarded to us for a reply and we offer you the following information. Calgary Transit has replaced the Ranchlands/Dalhousie bus-only crossing with a new gate system that will accommodate both community shuttles and regular buses. This system has been tested in a pilot project at Centre Street and Beddington Trail NE for over a year and has been effective in providing controlled access for transit and emergency service vehicles. The new gate system will also allow Calgary Transit to convert over 400 weekly hours of transit service on Routes 37/137, 43/143 and 76 from regular bus to community shuttle during weekday evenings and weekends. The use of community shuttles during these time periods will significantly reduce transit operating costs and be environmentally beneficial to the community. The removal of the Varsity Estates Place bus-only crossing was the result of Calgary Transit's new feeder bus network in conjunction with the opening of Dalhousie CTrain station. The new feeder bus routes no longer required access to this crossing. A gate has since been installed to maintained emergency service vehicles access, and this has also been environmentally beneficial to the Varsity community. The installation of a gate system at these two locations as you stated has hindered your access to the bike-path, but please note that prior to the installation of the gate system, the design of the bus-only crossing did not allow for bicycles access. From a safety aspect, the narrow strips on both side of the bus-only crossing as shown on the attached photos are not designed for cyclists access. Sidewalks and cycle paths are already provided for alongside these crossings and are maintained for cyclists, even with the implementation of the gate system. In conclusion, it is our assessment that the conversion of the bus-only crossings to a gate system has not inconvenient nor compromise the safety aspect of cyclists, but is beneficial to the community and also provides a safer environment to cyclists. Yours truly, Tony Tam Senior Transit Planner Calgary Transit #SG166 Phone: (403) 537-7888 Fax: (403) 537-7737 Email: tony.tam@calgary.ca

"Tam, Tony" <Tony.Tam@calgary.ca> writes: > Your email with regard to the bus only crossing has been forwarded to us > for a reply and we offer you the following information. [..] > The installation of a gate system at these two locations as you > stated has hindered your access to the bike-path, but please note > that prior to the installation of the gate system, the design of the > bus-only crossing did not allow for bicycles access. > From a safety aspect, the narrow strips on both side of the bus-only > crossing as shown on the attached photos are not designed for > cyclists access. Sidewalks and cycle paths are already provided for > alongside these crossings and are maintained for cyclists, even with > the implementation of the gate system. [..] First of all, I find your response very insulting: I wrote in with some specific, simple suggestions about how to improve cycling access to two very popular commuting and exercise routes, and I'm told that cyclists can't and don't use these features. Well, sorry for trying. To respond to (some of) your points: the elimination of the bus traps has hindered my use of *city streets* for cycling, not the bike paths; I generally avoid the bike paths as they are dangerous, usually don't go where I need to and have an unusably-slow speed limit of 20km/h, far slower than most cyclists' average speed. I am suggesting that the old bus-trap design was far better for cyclists since we can actually use them (that is, ride at full speed through them, your "safety concerns" notwithstanding) whereas one now cannot use gated bus-"traps". Before using more money to convert more bus traps to gates, perhaps you should consider this. As a bonus, you might consider a new design which allows bikes through, as I also suggested in my previous mail. Also, is illegal to ride on sidewalks and very frightening for pedestrians. I noted in my previous mail that the bike-path (as in: dirt trail) which side-steps the Silver Springs former-bus-trap is dangerous to get onto, since you have to cut across two lanes of traffic in an unexpected fashion as you're coming around a blind (hedge- and- fence- obscured) corner to do so. I suggested a simple improvement. If you need more details (e.g. pictures with diagrams) I can certainly oblige. > In conclusion, it is our assessment that the conversion of the bus-only > crossings to a gate system has not inconvenient nor compromise the > safety aspect of cyclists, but is beneficial to the community and also > provides a safer environment to cyclists. That's nice, but this is *not* my conclusion and was the entire point of my email. To restate my suggestions: 1. Don't put gates on bus traps -- cyclists can't use them. 2. The old bus-trap design accommodated riding (despite your proclamations and/or intentions to the contrary). 3. When permanently closing bus-traps, install a barricade which cyclists can ride through. Vancouver's city planners can provide many examples of medians through which cyclists may ride at full speed. Yours, Mike Warren 282-7030 (Brentwood) p.s. For completeness, I include my original email and your response below.