The plan is to build 18-storey and 9-storey apartment buildings containing 338 dwelling units and commercial space, with a total of 145 vehicle spaces and 340 bicycle spaces below grade at 933 Gladstone has been ongoing and Bike Ottawa has welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback on the plans over the last two years as the project has been ongoing and develops.
(Check out the full details HERE)
Here’s our most recent letter regarding how to make Gladstone Village a true 15 minute neighbourhood. The main takeaways:
- Build an active transportation network for the future with wide segregated pathways, not multi-use pathways
- Build streets that keeps kids safe
- Build a proper Trillium crossing at Gladstone and Trillium multi-use pathway that prioritizes movement and safety of people walking, biking and rolling
To: Andrew McCreight, Planner, City of Ottawa
Email: andrew.mccreight@ottawa.ca
CC: catherine.mckenney@ottawa.ca, jeff.leiper@ottawa.ca, advocacy@bikeottawa.ca
Date: October 12th, 2021
Subject: Gladstone Village Feedback
Dear Mr. McCreight:
Bike Ottawa is excited to see Gladstone Village that much closer to becoming a reality. We have the opportunity with this project to develop a 15-minute neighbourhood that truly puts residents walking, biking, or using mobility devices first.
We are excited about the active transportation connections permeating the neighbourhood, the orientation of buildings with entrances on the pathways, as well as above minimum standards for quantity of bike parking. However, we have several recommendations we think will be critical to making this neighbourhood a truly functional 15-minute neighbourhood (or 5
minutes by bicycle).
As this neighbourhood will focus on people moving around without the need for an automobile for daily activities, it is imperative that we build a network of cycleways, walkways, and bicycle parking facilities that are going to work for all residents for decades to come.
Instead of building multi-use pathways (MUPs) that are already beyond capacity, Bike Ottawa recommends building attractive and comfortably wide facilities that separate walking and cycling in order to reduce potential conflicts between those two modes. MUPs should only be used in short neighbourhood connections that have very low projected volumes. Volumes for active transportation in this area are already high, and this area network of pathways will become very congested as Gladstone Village adds its many new residents. If we don’t create wide active transportation pathways now, we will be in a regretful position later when the volumes surpass capacity, but we no longer have the space to expand. Let’s plan for the future now by:
- Building wide cycleways for comfortable side-by-side riding, passing and larger cargo bikes. We suggest a bidirectional width of a minimum of 4.8 metres, ideally 6.0 metres for the Trillium cycleway, as the ideal operating area per cyclist is 1.5m (OTM Book 18 (2021));
- Locating the Trillium cycleway next to the LRT line and the walkways next to the residential housing in order to reduce conflict for residents accessing the pathways;
- Segregating the cycleways and walkways with a buffer zone of natural vegetation and trees;
- Designing the cycleway in coordination with City of Ottawa winter maintenance staff to ensure year-round functionality.
While we realize the design of Oak St, Street A, Larch St and Street B is not yet finalized, the presented rendering reflects a design for a road meant to move cars instead of a street designed for people. We have the following recommendations for the design of these streets to be low-speed and low-volume and welcoming to all people by:
- Reducing car-lane width to the permitted minimum, narrowing to one lane in areas. This is more in line with the OTM Book 18 (2021) that suggests shared streets should not give drivers the opportunity to pass people on bicycles;
- Implementing speed reduction measures such as mid-block extensions, continuous-raised crossings at every intersection as well as mid-block crossings, speed humps, neck-downs, tight cornering and extensive streetscaping and tree planting;
- Keeping street parking for pickups and drop-offs, short-term accessibility parking and service vehicles only.
Bike Ottawa is concerned with the intersection where the current Trillium MUP intersects with Gladstone. Both Gladstone and the Trillium have high volumes of people walking and using bicycles, and, as documented in the TIA, a number of collisions with cars have resulted in injuries. This is serious despite the TIA suggesting there are no significant safety concerns. There are two years worth of data missing in this study that would have, for example, not captured the person hit only a couple of weeks ago or my personal experience of being hit by a driver passing me while making a left-hand turn. Volumes of people using bicycles, walking and using mobility devices will increase drastically with this new neighbourhood. We must prioritize people negotiating this intersection safely from all directions and all active transportation modes by:
- Implementing extensive traffic-calming measures to reduce the speed of all vehicle traffic on Gladstone approaching this intersection year-round;
- Building a raised crossing across Gladstone, continuing the surface material from the walkways and cycleways from one side to the other;
- Narrowing Gladstone at this crossing and add roadside streetscaping to encourage motorists to slow down;
- Adding an island refuge for people on bicycles making left-hand turns so that they have a safe place to wait to make left-hand turns off of Gladstone onto the Trillium pathways;
- Adding intelligent traffic signalization where people outside of cars have priority, experience very short wait times (especially during inclement weather), and use wait time indicators visible only to active transportation users.
Finally, we have several suggestions for bicycle parking, including:
- Making facilities available year-round by being located indoors in bike rooms, or if outdoors, covered facilities for short-term parking, or bike lockers for long-term rental;
- Bike parking facilities that are accessible for all ages and abilities and for all styles of bicycles. This means ensuring that people do not have to lift the weight of their bicycle. Bicycle racks like the ones located at Landsdowne are the ideal design for all types of bicycles. Also, plan for indoor floor parking for large and heavy cargo bikes, recumbents or other mobility devices;
- Planning for locations of future bike share stations that will eventually become part of our transportation system.
We thank you for your time and consideration of our concerns and recommendations.
Sincerely,
Dave Robertson
Board of Directors
Bike Ottawa