Barriers from hell

Not to boast, but I’ve spent the last year and a half heroically navigating, on my trusty and very dependable comfort bike, the living hell that is the area around where the new central library is being built. The part where Scott turns into Albert, specifically.

First the old hill was closed to cars and left open for pedestrians and cyclists going both ways. That was glorious because it was wide and felt safe. The corner of Bronson and Albert was a nightmare for about a year (literally a different configuration every week) but now that one is mostly tamed. I hope.

The new eastbound hill was looking like it was coming along nicely from a cyclist and pedestrian standpoint. It has of course been a lovely road surface for motor vehicles for months already, as you can see in the picture below. Not that we didn’t know who has priority around here.

The last few weeks of summer my schedule differed a bit and I saved myself a few weeks of biking through hell. I was shocked at 6:30 yesterday morning when I resumed pedalling in front of that library construction site. I gasped, stopped, and snapped this doozy.

First of all, why is the path along this mostly straight road not straight?

And second of all, why is the spot where the path switches direction exactly where someone put metal barriers for reasons that thoroughly escape? To make sure that if it’s dark and you’re slightly distracted, you ram yourself into unforgiving metal?

And what tortured mind came up with the idea of putting bike racks next to those stupid barriers and too close to allow people to park on both sides of them?

(And while we’re on the subject of impenetrable stupidity, if you zoom in you’ll notice a bag of dog shit on the sidewalk in front of the first barrier. I need to know what kind of moron goes to the trouble of bagging doggy-do and just leave it there.)

The absolutely crucial question in all this is: exactly what are those barriers supposed to protect? It’s not to protect cyclists going downhill from veering onto the road because that’s the uphill lane. The downhill lane is across the road. Very hard to lose control with undesired speed when climbing.

Pedestrians? If so, why just on one side? And why not instead separate the bike lane from the sidewalk better right from the get-go? This road is completely and entirely new. It was literally just built. The design includes space for active transportation, which is a good thing. But why not design it in a way that doesn’t require metal barriers? Surely we have urban designers in this town up to that task? If the fear is that cyclists are going to run over pedestrians, why build both lanes side by each in the first place?

I need help figuring this out. Did any of you encounter such stupidity elsewhere in Ottawa? I need to know. Drop me a note, will ya? With pictures if you have ’em.