Mike Powell Fanclub

Below is what I sent to David Reevely for his Worst Intersection in Ottawa Poll:

I am a bit surprised that no one has suggested Baseline and Merivale in your worst intersection contest.

A couple of thoughts on it: First, it seems to always pop up on lists of “most accidents in Ottawa”, and my (limited) encounters with traffic certainly hold that it can be more than a bit confusing and produce congestion, even if not to the same degree that narrower and busier choke points (ie Bronson and the Queensway or Bronson and Carling). Secondly, and more in keeping with your comment about the pedestrian focus of the response, is that the intersection makes distances in the area seem more daunting.

I only realized this this weekend, when a friend of mine was in from out of town, and staying with a friend who lives in a townhome in Central Park. In conversation, in-town friend remarked that one of the things he misses about centretown is that it was much easier (and nicer!) when able to walk to the grocery store. Out-of-town friend pointed out that in this case, the problem was not that the store was much farther (it may even be closer), but that the way the roads were designed discouraged people from walking even that reasonable distance.

Now, I know am not so naive as to suggest that we can totally avoid having busy streets, or that we are just one magic fix from removing people from their cars and having a happy people-powered transportation infrastructure. But there should be a goal of creating safe, efficient roadways that also encourage people to get out of their cars and walk as much as possible. Here we have an example of an intersection that not only is inefficient at being safe, but in doing so forces people into their cars, compounding the traffic problem and limiting the ability to create communities.

(cross posted to Cycling in Ottawa)

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