You may recall that back in March 2022 a cyclist was killed at an intersection on North River Road. This summer, Bike Ottawa visited the site with the president of the Vanier Community Association to see what could be done to move promised changes forward. This area was well known as problematic even before the fatal crash; earlier, a pedestrian had suffered a traumatic brain injury in the same area. Now it is even busier thanks to the popular Adawe Bridge and Rideau Sports Centre.
The City has just released the proposed design for the improvements of North River Road. There are two different pages on the City’s website, each with the drawings and a survey to be filled before 9 September. There are some nice things (raised intersection and raised pedestrian crossings, for example), but also a lot of painted bike lanes (and all together we shout: “paint is not infrastructure!”). The speed hump could also be improved (why does the bike lane end just before the hump, instead of having a longer lane with a shorter hump that doesn’t stand in the way of people on bikes?). Consider answering the surveys and sending feedback to the project manager:
South of Donald – focus on traffic calming (French, English)
North of Donald – focus on active transportation (French, English)