The
adaptive lane program is back for this summer -- it has been for a while -- and it's not as secretive as it was last year. Most of what's there now was there last year as well; the Memorial Drive lanes in Sunnyside, the lower deck of the Centre Street Bridge, 12th St in Inglewood/Ramsay, Elbow Drive, 50th Ave and Crescent Road.
There's a new lane as well, on the Bow Trail Connector from Pumphouse Road to 10th St W -- this lane is reversed on weekday mornings to run eastbound into downtown, and now on weekends it's opened to cyclists, pedestrians and other active mode users.
View attachment 323416
It's kind of a fun road, the bridge under 14th St is cool, and it's a busy pathway, especially the east end, which was the single busiest pathway segment for cyclists in the 2018 counts. (It's a missed opportunity that they didn't take this lane all the way to the Louise Bridge, because that's the busiest end of the pathway, and they could easily have diverted the traffic south on 9th St.)
Unfortunately, in my experience, it's not being used -- probably 85% of the cyclists I've seen in two trips on this corridor were on the pathway, where on Memorial it's more like 85% on the roadway. I suspect this is partially the signage's fault.
From the east end, here's the signage -- the arrow on the sign is actually pointing away from the adaptive lane:
View attachment 323419View attachment 323420
From the west end, it's worse; the arrow also points away from the road, but you also have to backtrack to go onto the road from the main pathway connecting from the Crowchild bridge. This is what it looks like (as you approach at 15+ km/h):
View attachment 323421
And in the middle, there's no way to connect near the 14th St bridge at all other than going across a bunch of grass and down a curb -- there is a great spot about 150m west of the bridge where the pathway and road come together with a wide shoulder space on the road just before the jersey barrier starts, and a plausible spot about 200m east of the bridge. At 11th St, which is a bike corridor and by far the busiest street, the signage is:
View attachment 323422
There's the pathway sign on the sides of these posts, so if you're already using the lane you know it continues, but not even a clue to those who aren't.
It's a good route, it could be better with tweaks (extend it to Louise and open it Friday at 6 PM) and much better signage and access. But I'm worried that people won't understand it's open, so the ridership will be low, so it'll be cut.