It is definitely road construction season in the community of Canmore, with multiple projects currently underway that have crews in the ground working to make the street and road system better.
As a result of the work of council and administration over the past four years, the focus of that road construction has been geared toward cyclists, pedestrians, and transit infrastructure and away from the private automobile.
For Town of Canmore engineers, the plan is to make the most out of how people in the community get around, by including pedestrian, transit, and cycling-focused designs into the capital plan.
Touring these projects by bike provides the context of how they have been designed – specifically to create space for those travelling throughout the community without a vehicle – and make it more comfortable and safe at the same time.
The key has been a complete street design, or in other words, creating a design for road construction that recognizes there are more than just cars and trucks getting around the transportation network.
The best example of the design in action is the entrance of Spring Creek Mountain Village on Main Street, the site of a $4.3 million road reconstruction and deep utility project that caused much consternation in the community when the road was shut down at the start of what was anticipated to be a very busy summer tourist season.
The section of Main Street, however, opened in time for Canada Day this summer, and included in its design is a shared pathway for pedestrians and cyclists, with cyclist space identified and separated with a red-coloured asphalt.
“This design creates separation for vulnerable users from vehicular traffic for pedestrians and cyclists,” said manager of engineering, Andy Esarte. “Visually, it also creates separation between cyclists and pedestrians.
“This is a typical standard design protected intersection in Northern Europe – there is nothing fancy about it, it is a proven approach.”
The work on the project, along with several others planned for 2017 in Canmore, has followed a strategic vision to accommodate growth and manage traffic and congestion, Esarte said.
“The vision is to make walking, cycling and transit an attractive alternative to driving and decrease reliance on the automobile,” he said. “What we have not had so far is a clear articulation of the design standards and design approaches that would accomplish that.”
According to the Town’s website, complete streets are: ‘designed with all modes of travel in mind including walking, cycling, driving, and transit. Complete streets create a safe environment for all modes of travel, encourage people to walk and cycle, provide a sense of place and create inviting connections between neighbourhoods and destinations.’
Esarte said in the past, municipal infrastructure design standards for roads did not include other ways to get around.
Even when pathways were built, standards used would not be tolerated when it comes to current road design. Pathways that swerve around fences, poles and bushes, for example, would not be how the municipality currently designs its trail network.
“The challenge we are having is that design standards have largely been geared toward automobiles with the assumption that people who cycle can behave like a vehicle, but that is not the case at all,” he said. “People on bikes are travelling at slower speeds, on two wheels and are vulnerable because they are lightweight.
“Relative to vehicles, it is quite a different experience to bicycle and when we try to treat people who bike like we treat people in a car, we leave out a huge segment of the population who would be willing to bike if we had design standards.”
At the entrance to Spring Creek, Esarte said the four metre wide shared pathway was chosen specifically to make it easier in winter to plow snow. He added the signage for cyclists and separation of users throughout the intersection is not yet fully complete.
What he has seen, though, is traffic flowing through the area at slower speeds than before it was redesigned.
“What I like is to see speeds consistently between 20 to 30 km/h,” Esarte said. “At those speeds, interactions are more comfortable and there are fluid gaps to get in and out of … we want it to flow. We want it to be a good positive interaction and flowing, not jerky, unsafe or exposed.”
The need to fix past design issues includes work at the pedestrian crossing of the CP Rail tracks behind Save-On-Foods. A large brick enclosure for waste container bins for the Spice Hut, and the restaurant’s previous incarnations, created a major visibility challenge for cyclists and pedestrians where the intersection of several pathways met.
Esarte said it took a significant amount of time to negotiate the agreements needed to remove the brick wall that was impeding visibility, and obtain additional easements to widen the pathway that goes past the commercial development to reach Bow Valley Trail.
“That had a fence on one side and garbage cans on the other, so it was quite narrow and uncomfortable in there,” he said. “It is very important that crossing the tracks and behind these buildings should be as comfortable as possible.
“More and wider (railway pedestrian) crossings will be things we things we have to think of in the decades to come, as we look at better tying in this area.”
But the project achieves more than just increasing the visibility at that corner, as it ties into Bow Valley Trail, which has direction in the area redevelopment plan created and accepted by council for better pedestrian infrastructure.
Currently, the pathway along Bow Valley Trail sits below the roadway in an adjacent ditch. The project is bringing that pathway up to the same level as the roadway with a retaining wall and installing new storm infrastructure.
The municipality and council have developed several other master plans that speak to the change in design to the transportation network overall.
That includes the 2016 recreation master plan, the 2015 open space and trails plan and the 2014 integrated transportation plan.
What has been absent in the province of Alberta while municipalities like Canmore make efforts to have a consistent design for all the different ways to get around, is direction from higher levels of government.
Esarte said the province needs a consistent standard, or interpretation of the standard, for things like cyclist crossings, multi use pathways, creating separation between users and retrofitting roadways, for example.
Canmore is one of several municipalities that have pushed the province to address the issue. As a result, a consultant has been hired by the province to prepare guidelines for shared bike facilities for all municipalities.
Currently, a member of Town staff sits on a committee working through proposed changes, which could also lead to changes to the Traffic Safety Act.
It could mean changes like the introduction of the ‘Idaho stop,’ for example, which allows cyclists to treat stop signs as a yield if no other vehicles or pedestrians are present.
“How do those rules need to change in order to have it clearer what the rules of the road are and how they work for people when they drive and when they cycle?” Esarte asked. “The predominate driver for transportation decisions is efficiency. It is about getting from A to B – that is the human condition. We want to do things efficiently … so when we build infrastructure we need it to be efficient. It needs to be direct and connected and there cannot be gaps.”
The result of all the work currently being undertaken to create a more inclusive design for Canmore’s roadways is a plan to completely redo Railway Avenue over the next several years.
Currently, there is $10 million over the next three years for Railway Avenue to be rehabilitated using a complete street design. There are also plans to improve the crossings along Benchlands Trail into the Cougar Creek neighbourhood with better sightlines and improved design for pedestrians.
