Raise the Hammer

I live on the Mountain between Upper James & West 5th. We use the stairs that connect Upper James to James & the Bruce trail path that connects to John Street, as well as the sidewalk on the Jolley Cut.. We emailed our Councillor early in January to request signage for both the stairs & the path as we are not sure most people are aware they are there. I know that since St. Joe's moved some of the out patient clinics we regularly have people stop & ask how to find the stairs from the top so I imagine the bottom isn't much different. We will see how asking for signs goes considering our Councillor seemed unaware there was a bike lane on the Jolley Cut. In my opinion as a mostly recreational cyclist the bike lane on the Jolley Cut is on the wrong side, in many trips walking it I have only seen one cyclist using it & he was obviously an experienced cyclist judging his speed, however, we often encounter cyclist using the sidewalk. While in Europe we saw a fair number of shared pedestrian / cycle ways and they seemed to work well, some were marked & some were just signed to tell pedestrians to stay right. I think it is unfortunate that this approach wasn't taken when the Jolley Cut was recently redone, as a shared path could have been added on the down bound side and the lanes narrowed and shuffled over.
As for the Claremont Cycle Track, one lane has been eliminated on the down bound side so it shouldn't make any impact to take out the up bound curb lane and barrier it with Jersey curbs. One of the other posts shows many options at the bottom, but I am thinking about the top. Right now 2 lanes on the Claremount curve around to join West 5th, however when it joins West 5th it blends into one. I would suggest continuing the barriers all the way to West 5th reducing it to one lane all the way, as it reduces to one anyway. Councillor Whitehead seemed to think West 5th has a bike lane, but it starts at Mohawk College & ends at Mohawk Road (both sides), unfortunately it is narrow where James Mountain Road & the Claremount connection meet. When St. Joe's took over the old HPH we were told at meetings that they would return the north grounds back to way grounds were & remove the parking lot they put in during construction, since this hasn't happened & brand new sidewalks installed I would suggest the following: Widen the sidewalks from the escarpment to Fennell & make it a shared pedestrian/ cycle path similar to the ones we saw in Europe, in compensation for not returning the grounds the way they promised. At that point join the cycle path from the Claremount to the new shared path, if possible allow the newly built Juravinski Dr. connecting with Brantdale to be used as a cycle path connecting to the west side of Mohawk College leading into Governor's Road.
It seems to me this approach would blend the proposed path in so we don't end up with another bike lane that just seems to start & drop you off into a high traffic zone.

Comment edited by mountain66 on 2016-02-01 17:50:54