Showing posts with label Terminal ravine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terminal ravine. Show all posts

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Thread: Terminal Ave / Nicol Street
1 “No problem can be solved by the same kind of thinking that created it.” Albert Einstein

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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Nanaimo's Terminal / Nicol
highway corridor "re-imagined" —
Here's the one thing I need to know

Above are the stated goals of the Terminal Nicol (highway corridor, left) Re-imagined Committee. This is a City of Nanaimo advisory committee (the City’s official name for the steering committee calls it a “streetscape” project) overseen by the Downtown BIA and comprised of City Councillors, the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the Chamber of Commerce, Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation, the South End Community Association, 3 members-at-large with participation of both the City of Nanaimo and the BC Ministry of Transportation traffic engineers.

 These goals are laudable, even beyond reproach. Who could possibly disagree with them? Here's the one thing I need to know: what exactly is meant by the fourth principle? If it means what I fear it means the first three are unachievable.


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Saturday, April 23, 2016

Jeff Speck in CityLab — Let’s design more streets like the streets we already love

When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And when you’re a traffic engineer, it seems, everything looks like a highway. If traffic engineers did not control the design of so many of our public spaces, this might not be a problem. But they do—and that’s especially true here in the U.S. Even when traffic engineers have the best intentions, too many simply lack the tools to make successful places. In the typical American city, asking a traffic engineer to design a walkable street is like asking a hammer to insert a screw. Read more: The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab
The Case for Copying More in Street Design - CityLab

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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Here's another example of
a Euro-style boulevard

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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Terminal Ave as a Euro-style boulevard

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8aiEYfB1194V9bopeT8o58y92GHZugLPJcZ_b7eqSYpWG9IMnMID9AOnkfaWjFCYLrRorLqk21Wr4K9fn8ngaz5DfzuFxBrCZnojMp__X-nlprewrEvTryiz_XYwRZ98TDTV4iMyMd0s/s1600/Terminal+Ave+to+Comox.jpg
There are concept plans and proposals being prepared to address a problematic highway that runs through the centre of Nanaimo. Here's the "Traffic Backgrounder" that lays out the thinking behind the work done to date. In my view it's faulty reasoning and in a Twitter thread I posted earlier you can if you want see the nature of my concerns. I've taken a different approach, one that has long been successful in Europe, a truly shared boulevard that works pretty well for all users.
Pictured below is an example from Barcelona's Eixample. In the rendering at top (click to enlarge) I've played with the concept of two centre thru-traffic lanes. These would be narrow to calm the traffic with max 50kph speed limited posted. As in the Barcelona example I've placed a local traffic lane, also narrow with ideally a textured surface treatment and no (or graduated) curbs, at the street's outside edges. This would be a max 30kph zone designed to alert the driver to be aware of others sharing the street. Bike lanes are protected, buffered from car traffic but sharing the well-lit boulevard with pedestrians within a tree canopy.






Streetmix is a very user-friendly tool for arranging street elements to try to arrive at a city street that includes, safely and pleasurably, all users. Give it a try.




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