So I gather Vancouver has built a few centre-draining streets, and is considering them to be a regular feature of some future streets. Amongst other features, pedestrians don’t get splashed or perpetually soaked in salt spray all winter. If the city wants to store water on the street as it rains, it will be doing so amongst the waterproof cars not against the curb and crosswalks. I think the concrete drainage line down the centre of the street is overkill, though, if the street is asphalt.
I predict Ottawa will, with great fanfare, experiment with this design somewhere someday in the year 2057.
In the meantime … see how well our new pedestrian friendly crossings work on Queen at Bank, soon to be replicated along Elgin:
Try to imagine snow on that Vancouver street. Meltwater has a clear run towards the centre catch basin because the city and traffic always keep the centre of the street well cleared. In Ottawa, we direct the water to the lowest point – always the crosswalk – and then block its access to the catch basin with stored snow. There are other solutions to this issue too, but we don’t seem interested in trying them out.
Has anyone heard any reasons why this idea isn’t workable in Ottawa?
Does it make it harder to plow or something? Are they worried that afternoon snowbank thaws will turn into evening ice-roads? Did someone tell the road planners that evil smurfs like centre catch basins?
By the year 2057 the city as we know it will be no longer, due to climate change, which I think should be renamed “the Trump effect”. The scorching summer heat and the sudden devastating storms will make traveling around the city undesirable if not downright impossible. Add to this flying cars crashing into each other and falling onto the city below and it begins to look like the horror movie that it will truly be. I’m only glad I won’t be here to se it and won’t have any descendants to suffer it.
Snow isn’t completely unheard of in Vancouver, but it’s not common, so snowbanks are rare, small, and short-lived. Below-zero temps are likewise sparse, so icy roads aren’t a significant problem. No reason why a central drainage feature wouldn’t work in Ottawa but it would require some serious design thinking. Oh wait…