New barriers off track

By Joanie Veitch - The Weekly News
The new barriers installed at two railway crossings on the Dartmouth Harbourwalk Trail have some cyclists fuming.
"Someone with a bike trailer would have a very hard time getting through. My guess is that most people would get so frustrated they'd give up and turn back," said Peter Rogers, an avid cyclist and father of two children, a four-year-old and an infant.
Illustrating his point, 28-year-old Rogers makes the trip from Halifax, with bike trailer in tow (sans kids, to check out both of the crossings - one at the bottom of Maitland Street and the other at the end of Old Ferry Road. He manages to get through, but not without a lot of backing up and careful manoeuvring through the posts.
"I've been doing this for four years and I'm pretty good at it. Imagine someone who's just a recreational cyclist? It would be pretty much impossible," he said.
The new barriers, or "chicanes" as Terry Drisdelle of the Waterfront Development Corporation Ltd. (WDCL) calls them, were required by CN and built according to their exact specifications.
Although HRM owns much of the land, CN has a 25-ft. right-of-way along the tracks, which meant they had to get approval from CN to cross the rail lines.
"The design specs were developed by Transport Canada, and adopted by CN for such crossings," Drisdelle explained.
The barriers are 1.2 metres apart and designed to ensure people going through have to turn in both directions before crossing the tracks so that even if they are hearing impaired or wearing earphones they will see the train coming. The narrow path through the barriers is to force cyclists to dismount while going through.
"The spacing of the barriers seems tight, but at 1.2 metres it is sufficient to enable most anything pedestrians would likely push, pull, or ride on to get through," Drisdelle said.
In Rogers' view, however, the spacing is not only too narrow, it's an ineffective safety measure to boot.
"It's not working. Cyclists can navigate the turns without getting off their bikes - but they're looking at the pavement, not up the tracks. That's not safe," Rogers said. "It's an embarrassing piece of infrastructure."
The city's Active Transportation Plan, Section 4.9, cautions that railway crossings "can be extremely dangerous for all trail users" and recommends traffic control devices such as pavement markings, signage and lift gates. Chicanes aren't mentioned.
While Drisdelle realizes many people are up in arms over the crossings, he said it was the only way CN would allow completion of the trail to cross the tracks. "We started negotiation with CN four years ago. They made it very clear that to cross the track we would have to abide by their rules and regulations."
Drisdelle added, however, that CN does seem to have different guidelines for the various track crossings, pointing out that the pedestrian/car crossing at the end of Ochterloney has the standard flashing signal lights and lift gates found at most road crossings, and the crossing leading out from the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal up to the stairs at the bottom of Portland Street has no barrier or visual cue of any kind.
"There is definitely an inconsistency here. When you look at that crossing (at the ferry terminal) and compare it with what we had to do, it's like two extremes," he said.
The cost of the two crossings, including the chicanes, paving and rubber mats that extend from the tracks to the pavement, and fencing to stop people from crossing the tracks anywhere other than at one of the designated crossings, was $90,000.
Officially opened in 2004, the three-kilometre trail extends from the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal to the Woodside Ferry Terminal. WDCL oversees two sections including the area with the two chicanes.
HRM and the Dartmouth Harbourfront Trails Association oversee the area from Tupper Street to Cusack Street.
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