2-3 SF Bike map

A Safe Biking Map for Smiths Falls

Since moving here from downtown Ottawa in 2010, I find Smiths Falls a very nice place to get around by bike. However, I used to be a bike messenger in Ottawa and I am also prone to bike (and trike) in the winter. Maybe what I consider 'very nice' is unusual. Well, to the degree that it might get more people to use bicycles instead of cars, taxis or even walking, I decided to make a safe biking map of my new town.

What do I mean by 'safe'? What is not safe? There are very few routes here I think are not safe to bike. By 'safe' I mean a route that feels safe. I'm thinking about routes that a parent would feel safe riding a bike with a child trailer behind it. The presence or absence of cars and trucks is the key. There are a few non-road routes that only have pedestrians and bikes, but not many. They obviously feel safe. If a street is normally a quiet one, it feels safe. Opposite to this are streets that are busy with traffic. Look at this map of the downtown core, which I pulled off of Google Maps and de-colorized.

The white streets of Cornelia, Elmsley, Beckwith, Brockville, Jasper and Lombard all don't feel safe for biking because they are usually busy with motor vehicles. Add to them Abbott Street North and William Street West on the left. There are two kinds of not feeling safe, though. The lesser kind is felt on most of Beckwith Street.

Its not that I don't ride on much of Beckwith, the town's main drag which goes downhill toward the river, I do. North of Main Street there is room to ride beside the traffic flow. However, Beckwith has angled parking. Downhill, you can't build up much speed because you have to react quickly to cars backing out in front of you. At the bottom of the hill, Beckwith feels more unsafe. South of Chambers Street, Beckwith loses its parking spots and narrows into a four-lane freeway across the bridges. I will ride down to Confederation Drive but then I get off Beckwith and ride over a pair of foot bridges across the river. They aren't visible on the map above but they run beneath the words 'Parks Canada' on the left of Beckwith.

Reversing direction from the foot bridges and Confederation Street, Beckwith is useless. There is no traffic light or crosswalk at Beckwith and Confederation and the view of oncoming traffic from the south is obscured by the humped bridge road surface itself. This intersection is nearly always the greater kind of not feeling safe. If I have a destination on Beckwith, I will take the long way by using Confederation to connect with a parallel side street. If my destination from these foot bridges is actually Chambers Street, I will still use Confederation and go all the way up to Main Street, cross Beckwith there, and double back to Chambers.

Using side streets to reach destinations on Beckwith might take a little longer but they feel safer, which makes for a more enjoyable, less stressful ride. This is also true for Russell Street, and even Main Street with its angled parking. They tend to be busier than other quiet streets but not by much. Traffic isn't fast. If you don't like steep hills, don't use Old Mill Road from Confederation. Use George Street instead. Meanwhile, getting across Beckwith Street is best done at Russell Street and Main Street where there are traffic lights.

Another strong example of a bike route not feeling safe on the map above is Lombard Street at the bottom of the map. Lombard is only two lanes wide and has no on-street parking. Fortunately there is a recreational pathway along the river from Abbott Street on the left, connecting to the above-mentioned foot bridges, running beneath Beckwith, and extending along the river to the right.

A further example of a bike route not feeling safe is Elmsley Street. Its not as busy as Beckwith or Lombard but the traffic is faster. Crossing Elmsley isn't much of a problem which is good because from where it intersects Beckwith at the top end of downtown it has only one traffic light at Chambers Street.

The point of my writing this has to do with getting people to bike to places instead of driving or walking. In the downtown core of Smiths Falls I've explained which streets are best avoided and also where to cross the river to the south. In my next entries, I will spell out more on crossing the river and railroad, visiting Big Box Store Land and the south side of town, and also going to the train station and other places. 

Oh, by the way, my comment near the start about pulling a child trailer? Smiths Falls actually has a bylaw on the books which makes that illegal. It was implemented in the early 1990s. No, they don't enforce it, but to any cyclist with little kids that's an insult. If Town Hall intends to promote cycling downtown, even just a little, repeal this archaic cowpie first.

The further pages on this blog about the Map reveal the preliminary work I have done through 2013. My profession leaves me no time to work on this project except during the winter.

I plan to complete the last neighbourhood map in draft form (like the others). Then, I will update and refine all of them. New streets have been created and various buildings have been removed or added, which affect traffic patterns at specific locations. As well, there are a number of unofficial trails which have not been previously incorporated. Further, I will trawl Police records for bicycle accident reports to compare them with the data I have accumulated.

In the middle of this, I will be actively soliciting public feedback. Here will be a neighbourhood you live in or travel through. Do you agree with the route colour? 

Once the draft maps have been completed, I will get them refined using graphics software to remove the ‘fuzziness’ and improve the labelling. Then there is the matter of distribution. Two ways can be used to disseminate this information to the public; printing hard copies and creating computer files for downloading or on-line viewing.

Printing hard copies would be useful in several ways. Getting a printed copy of these maps into many local households is an obvious way to reveal the information to adults, parents and kids alike. But complete distribution is neither necessary or effective, so making it available on-line for viewing or downloading is also needed. Plus, it is not as simple as making the maps available to the public. They must be used to affect public and corporate policy and decision-making. For example, Smiths Falls has a distinct shortage of bike racks at many destinations, including major retail centres and municipal facilities like public schools or even the Post Office.

In case you are wondering why approaching the municipal government wouldn’t be the right method, it should be pointed out that the Municipality is strapped for cash and lacks the expertise, competence and even jurisdiction to make this kind of project a success. No offence, that’s just the way it is. As a resident in this community, I seek to outperform the official bodies formally entrusted with its stewardship.