Kelowna new downtown

[maple leaf]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#80967
So far I'm not liking it.Looks like we loose a lot of parking by moving to parallel,and we loose two lanes to be replaced by turning lanes.Personally I never had a problem turning at the lights.What are others opinions?

[Logitack]

you will get used to it...

[GordonH]

The City is trying to encourage people to leave their vehicles at home and either take transit, walk or cycle.

14 million dollar gamble

[cv23]

Personally I don't care for the wooden beam style lamp posts/banner holders, especially when mixed with what looks to be black traditional cast ones.
Parking shouldn't be an issue for most healthy people as they'll just walk from the new $14mil parkade being built with our tax dollars just a block away, that is if IHA doesn't get all the spaces in it. That makes the Bernard revitalization a $28mil project not the $14mil we were initially led to believe was going to be the cost. I wonder what the final bill for everything will actually be?

[grammafreddy]

I am still stunned they switched to parallel parking - that was not in the final plan I saw, and I don't recall it was what the merchants wanted, either.

[Cumungala]

I think it will look great when its done. I must say that the new streetlights are a lot better than those tacky late 70s ones that are being replaced. A lot of those trees shown in the video are already there from a previous streetscaping project.

[Captain Awesome]

Doesn't look all that spectacular but hey, it's a street...

[maple leaf]

I hardly went down there anyway because of the parking,so probably will never go down now.But am sure it will look beautiful,just not functional.

[GordonH]

I am still stunned they switched to parallel parking - that was not in the final plan I saw, and I don't recall it was what the merchants wanted, either.

I was aware check this thread viewtopic.php?f=23&t=35224&p=1085109&hilit=parallel+parking#p1085109

[grammafreddy]

http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDF ... ssment.pdf

5.0 Proposed Bernard Avenue Streetscape Options
Bernard Avenue is currently a four lane street with 173 angle parking stalls in the six
block long stretch from Richter Street in the east to the lakefront park in the west. The
existing sidewalk is 2.60 metres wide.
Over the past several months, Space2Place landscape architects have developed two
alternative street beautification/revitalization plans for Bernard Avenue. Both of these
plans reduce the number of traffic lanes from four to three. One of the main
distinguishing features of these two alternative plans is the configuration of the on street
parking: parallel spaces and angle spaces.
In terms of impact on street level businesses, two major differences between the two
alternative options are the parking capacity and the width of the sidewalk. The pros and
cons associated with these two design elements are outlined in turn below.

5.1 Parking Capacity
According to the Space2Place Workshop #4 document (February 7, 20ll), there are
currently 173 parking stalls on Bernard Avenue between Richter Street in the east and the
lakefront park in the west. Based on the figures shown above, the number of parking
stalls on Bernard Avenue will decrease by 23% under the parallel parking option and
increase by 13% under the angle parking option.
A loss of on street parking is not a good thing for any shopping area. In the short term, a
reduction in parking will cause some customers to avoid downtown in general and
Bernard Avenue in particular and switch to other competing shopping centres in suburban
areas of the city.

[Captain Awesome]

What are the latest urban planning trends when it comes to parking, I wonder...

[grammafreddy]

I am still stunned they switched to parallel parking - that was not in the final plan I saw, and I don't recall it was what the merchants wanted, either.

I was aware check this thread viewtopic.php?f=23&t=35224&p=1085109&hilit=parallel+parking#p1085109

Well, yes, I remember all that - but the last documents I saw were still angle parking mixed with parallel parking.

And STILL no bike lanes.

So they have reduced the number of parking stalls by 23%, made it only one lane from the previous two lanes, changed to parallel parking which most drivers can't do on the first try and have to jiggle back and forth and take several runs at, which will basically stop traffic while they do that, and didn't provide anything for cyclists to make them any safer - and in fact, created a more hostile environment for them as drivers get totally frustrated with all this. Good job, city planners! Nice going, city council!

[Cumungala]

If the city wants to make downtown pedestrian friendly, then scramble crosswalks would be a bonus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble

Heres one in action in Toronto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpFmlV9MZSc

Basically every time the light changes, traffic in all directions stop and the entire intersection opens up to pedestrians who can cross the street diagonally. Kelowna may be too small of a city for this but they could install one at Ellis and Bernard and maybe put them in at other Bernard intersections if it works well. They should only be in operation during certain hours of the day and run every second light change in the winter time.

[Jordan123]

what a crappy rendering ...... Hoping they didn't pay currency for that.

[grammafreddy]

What are the latest urban planning trends when it comes to parking, I wonder...

The latest trends are to build up the subdivisions into their own urban centres, creating parks and cycle paths to facilitate getting people going shorter distances to work from where they live with the desire that people will walk or cycle instead of drive. They also are trending to putting civic amenities and rec facilities into the suburbs rather than putting them all into the downtown like Kelowna is still doing.

By following trending logic, each area of the city (Rutland, Glenmore, the Mission, South Pandosy, etc) would become mini-towns which all had a mix of office, commercial, recreation, cultural, medical, etc).

Modern urban planners are moving away from the "highway and freeway" style of urban planning and stressing "community". They call it "Placemaking" and use the community concept to create places that have become not only vital community hubs, but also some of the best incubators for local jobs being undertaken in recent years. Placemaking supports small business - mom and pop type shops - and allows residents to stay close to home for almost all their work, shop and play needs.

Placemaking also answers the need to grow up rather than out and supports multi-storey and multi-family residences in close proximity to the new small urban centres and also provides walking and cycling paths to farther away SFD areas to encourage people to not drive.

Recognizing that there will always be people who will drive, parking is built into the base of new buildings rather than taking up flat land for parking lots. Commercial and office space is built on the outside street-level of the parkades.