Spirit Trail East: Come show your support for pedaling to Seymour!

https://www.dnv.org/streets-transportation/spirit-trail-eastern-extension

The exact routing for most segments of the Spirit Trail Eastern Extension has not yet been determined. Join us at one of our upcoming drop-in info sessions to share your thoughts.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 6pm – 8pm at Sherwood Park Elementary, 4085 Dollar Road

Wednesday, March 6, 2024, 6pm – 8pm at Kenneth Gordon Maplewood Elementary School Gymnasium, 420 Seymour River Place

There will be information boards, an interactive activity to gather your ideas, and staff available to answer questions. During these sessions, we will also illustrate the different forms the trails may take and share additional details about the planned approach for the Seymour River to Windridge Park trail segment, the first segment on our schedule.

Mount Seymour Parkway

In support of the Spirit Trail, improvements to cycling infrastructure on Mount Seymour Parkway are planned to begin in 2024, to provide more separation between vehicles and bicycles.

The existing painted bike lanes on Mount Seymour Parkway between Seymour Boulevard and Mount Seymour Road are well used but not comfortable due to high vehicle traffic speeds and a lack of physical separation between vehicle lanes and bike lanes.

Improved safety and comfort for cyclists along Mount Seymour Parkway will provide better connectivity to and from individual Spirit Trail Eastern Extension segments as they are completed over time.

Wow this is great. Much needed. Some sections are expected to be completed in 2027? Why are the timelines so long?

My guess is new creek crossings which need environmental studies, etc...

Windridge Park to Ellis St/Plymouth Dr shows an existing path/bridge on Google I'll have to check out next time but the next creek between Hartford Place and Deep Cove Substation looks like a serious salmon-bearing stream that requires multiple studies and years of assessments.

(except for the fact Google satellite shows a new car bridge already planned or built on Spa-ath Road in the new subdivision just south of the proposed bike crossing).   We'll see if I'm wrong about the time, I hope so.

Yeah glad this is moving forward, I live just off Plymouth so it goes through my hood.

It seems like it's more commuter-oriented than I'd hoped, selfishly I was hoping it'd allow my 11 year old to be able to get around our area with more options to avoid Seymour Parkway, but it's destined to be the de facto commuter route for Lycra bros at high speed it probably won't help my desired use case. :)

That said it seems like some options seek to utilize greenspace to make a more multi-use trail/path, and some are more just glorified bike lane.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but as a 20 million dollar multi year project I kinda hope we get more of the former.

my experience with the rest of the Spirit Trail is the high-speed lycro bros stick to the adjacent straight and fast roads, not the wandering paths through parks like what I see on this map.

Posted by: heckler

my experience with the rest of the Spirit Trail is the high-speed lycro bros stick to the adjacent straight and fast roads, not the wandering paths through parks like what I see on this map.

Yeah that's still my hope for sure. It'll be nice to give people an option other than the section of dollarton by the gravel pit/bird sanctuary as well, even if it gets used by Lycra bros. That section is terrifying and I'm surprised people don't get hit there often, it's just straight up unsafe and there's no other option to get across to the college/stongs/bus loop. I often see pretty small kids or old folks on foot or bike trying to navigate that stretch and it makes me sad.

Posted by: Kenny

Posted by: heckler

my experience with the rest of the Spirit Trail is the high-speed lycro bros stick to the adjacent straight and fast roads, not the wandering paths through parks like what I see on this map.

Yeah that's still my hope for sure. It'll be nice to give people an option other than the section of dollarton by the gravel pit/bird sanctuary as well, even if it gets used by Lycra bros. That section is terrifying and I'm surprised people don't get hit there often, it's just straight up unsafe and there's no other option to get across to the college/stongs/bus loop. I often see pretty small kids or old folks on foot or bike trying to navigate that stretch and it makes me sad.

They should have fixed that part of Dollarton years ago, but won't because it belongs to the Port. Don't know why they can't deal with the Port on that - it's a better place to spend some money than on the proposed trails.

Windridge Park to Ellis St/Plymouth Dr shows an existing path/bridge on Google I'll have to check out next time

Going west to east, that's a set of long shallow steps to a tiny creek then a steep hike-a-bike to Ellis. I'd imagine that requires quite a bridge to cross that (or a lot of extra switchback trail) if it's to match reasonably benign trail standards.

Windridge Park already has some nice gravel bike friendly trails so I currently use those rather than Mt Seymour Parkway if I'm on my gravel bike. There's also some nice gravel through Roche Point if you want to get to/from Cates Park...

but it's destined to be the de facto commuter route for Lycra bros at high speed it probably won't help my desired use case. :)

As a self-confessed Lycra bros, I concur with Heckler. That route is too convoluted to be of use to high speed roadies, though I'm not so sure about clueless noob ebike commuters...

Posted by: heckler

My guess is new creek crossings which need environmental studies, etc...

Windridge Park to Ellis St/Plymouth Dr shows an existing path/bridge on Google I'll have to check out next time but the next creek between Hartford Place and Deep Cove Substation looks like a serious salmon-bearing stream that requires multiple studies and years of assessments.

(except for the fact Google satellite shows a new car bridge already planned or built on Spa-ath Road in the new subdivision just south of the proposed bike crossing). We'll see if I'm wrong about the time, I hope so.

There is a pedestrian bridge over McCartney Creek south of Windsor Secondary which connects to Ellis, but it has steep stairs on both sides of the ravine, which is very deep and wide. The ravine is narrower up by Windsor's running track, but even deeper. Any bike crossing to the greenspace south of the school on Tollcross is going to be a major project.

The bridge on Spa-ath road has been there for several years. It will eventually connect (with another bridge over Thomas Creek) to the new FN Health Authority complex at the bottom of Apex (and the soccer field which is going to replace the driving range). At some point, Apex will connect to Malsum Drive in Raven Woods, but that will require a bridge over Taylor Creek. As a long time Raven Woods resident, I don't see them building that bridge anytime soon.

From https://twnation.ca/our-government/planning/

well, that all explains the 2027 target for the Windridge to Roche Point section, and why it also makes sense to improve Seymour Parkway immediately.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 6pm – 8pm at Sherwood Park Elementary, 4085 Dollar Road

First one’s tonight!

🎯