103A Avenue and 99 Street Streetscape and Underground Pedway

accommodate kiosks for some shops and venues…create some spaces along the pedway for people to sit and relax; perhaps define a space or two with benches where buskers can set up for a little entertainment…rather than have buskers sitting on a cement floor obstructing the pathway for pedestrians… Create portals for some natural light to enter the pedway at certain junctures. Need to use esthetically pleasing materials….please no use of vinyl, but please include natural woods to warm things up.

Good step towards building edmonton but no. 1 concern is safety , all transit lrt station full of drugies. People afraid to use stairs to go lrt in downtown. Acc to me it is just wastage of money. No one happy to use underground pedway especialy after getting dark where people smoke front of security and pee on corners.

I think any project not focusing on key issues in the city are a horrible idea. Housing can be in place for the homeless. Funding for the police to do thier jobs and arrest the people doing crimes. Other stuff that important. Not making our city look different. Start by changing the people AND THEN the city will look different.

Pedways are an excellent way to wreck public spaces by spending a bunch of money moving people indoors while giving motor traffic free reign. A better solution would be to fully pedestrianize the relevant section of 99th st, with pedestrian/cyclist priority crossing of 103A ave (including considerable traffic calming), making it into a proper space for people, not cars, which would have the benefit of being both less expensive, less disruptive during construction, and better for people overall. Additionally, pedway spaces are almost universally bleak and uninviting, existing solely as a thoroughfare, conceptualizing people on foot in the same way as cars. There is also the issue that this space would then need to be artificially climate-controlled, and yet not permitted to be used as a shelter for those who are experiencing homelessness, increasing interactions between said people and law enforcement, which is not something to be encouraged; an inviting streetscape that can be used by everybody, not just people commuting in from the suburbs for work, would be far more equitable.

Regarding winter, there are amazing technologies called "coats", "jackets", "hats", "gloves", and "boots" that can be used to ensure that people can remain comfortable while continuing to engage with the world around them, rather than being squirreled away. These relatively inexpensive, efficient, and effective technologies are surprisingly not very widespread among the motorist commuter community; their adoption should be encouraged by the design of our public spaces, not discouraged by creating expensive, ugly, and exclusionary warrens.

Always happy to see more active transportation infrastructure, but do it right. As a commenter below noted, raised bike lanes tend to be ignored, both by pedestrians and, worse, cars. As for the pedway, I'm not quite sure how they are supposed to contribute to downtown vibrancy. Any first year urban planning student will tell you that pedways do the exact opposite, but good attempt at spin. Also, as a woman, there is also no way in hell I'd be taking an underground pedway in Edmonton these days, no matter how much you talk about CEPTED.

Likes: Expansion of bike network, addition of curb bulbs, narrower roads and reduced crossing distances, removal of dangerous and unnecessary slip lanes from 103A Avenue.
Dislikes: The pedway is a mistake and should never have been approved, taking people off the surface does the opposite of increasing vibrancy and creates more safety and policing issues which only costs us more in the long term; raised bike lanes usually results in people wandering into them instead of treating them as separated infrastructure and needs physical separation from not just vehicle lanes but also from sidewalks; multi-use path along 103A Avenue should be separated walk and bike lanes, there is more than enough room, especially at the low volumes of vehicle traffic that currently use it (it could easily be a single-lane in each direction with a reversible left turn lane like on 100 Avenue).
Missing: Removal of the right-turn lane from 104 Avenue EB to 101 Street SB, as this intersection is still too large and dangerous and remains a physical and psychological barrier between the north and south sides of 104 Avenue; any semblance of plans for the weird "stub" of 104 Avenue between 101 and 100 Streets - why does this still exist?

While I support pedways to make walking between buildings easier, I am not sure underground is the way to go for (re)vitalizing the downtown core. Instead of tunnels, why not redesign the surface-level areas to make it easier and safer for pedestrians, cyclists, other non-motor-vehicle users to get from place to place? Particularly as downtown is typically where rideshares like Lime and Bird have access, and cyclists travel year round, an underground pedway just doesn't make sense.

I think this is a waste of money & may just funner drug use & alchol abuse further allowing more spaces for this to continue in a new medway. Please reconsider. Had to quit my job Downtown to work elswhere as it was just to dangerous with the Meth use, and Herion use & alcohol abuse. The crime with the drugs and people coming down off illciet drugs was just too dangerous to take anymore.

A pedway will do nothing to enhance this area. It is unnecessary, expensive and counter to any efforts to improve access or safety of the area. It will harm the neighbourhood and its residents, visitors and workers by sequestering certain people from the street life outside of the pedway and create a literal tiered environment that reflects the stratified socio economic statuses it promotes and maintains.

It’s great to include active transportation options! But what are cyclists supposed to do at intersections along 103A? The bike infrastructure seems to end metres before each intersection. Should we ride in the crosswalks? Please go for full protected intersections by default here, and anywhere active options are included.

At the current stage 2023, pedways are unsafe, take care of the homelessness issue, don't waste taxpayers $$$.

I am not quite sure what this will accomplish. Many families are not coming downtown to the RAM because they do not feel safe. I worry that this is just creating another place for people experiencing homelessness to hang out in and vandalize. The heaviest areas of people living on Edmonton streets spans 100 Street to 95 Street one block north of the proposed project. What is the point of creating all this infrastructure when there is so much trash, theft, crime, drugs and insecurity surrounding it. I would rather see 100 million dollars be allocated to house, feed and treat these people. At this point the 97 Street 'living bridge' is a trash heap. If we have not been able to keep it clean for the last decade, what is the point? We care more about putting trees and glam on the streets than we care about people who are struggling to survive?

Removed by moderator.

There is a huge opportunity here that I fear will be missed. The pedway (underground as it is) could learn immensely from the lowline project in New York City -- http://thelowline.org -- instead of just being a tunnel conveyance connecting destination points it could be a destination unto itself... capturing sunlight from above and piping it underground to support plantlife features (vertical wall gardens, weeping walls, benches & planters). 99th street should be closed to vehicles from 102nd Avenue to 103A Avenue with the exception of an abbreviated access to the underground parking at City Hall. Move the bi-directional Bike Path over to the existing east lane of 100th street (equally less travelled at 99th street, presently). Dedicate the now freed up roadway that is 99th street from the AGA street frontage (western side of the AGA building) to 103A Avenue converting it into a permanent Outdoor Sculpture Garden (curated by AGA) -- temporary sculptures at first replaced by permanent pieces over time. As with AGA the land south of the new Sculpture Park from 102 Avenue to 103 Avenue could be developed for outdoor concerts in association with the Winspear Centre jointly with the Citadel Theatre (fund-raiser for a permanent amphitheater and an open-air theatre in the round concept -- both serving to make the City Civic Centre a truly world-class destination point. Landscape can then be adjusted to supersede the "tree-lined street" concept altogether.

Taking some space back from cars is good. How will cars be prevented from driving into and parking in the raised bike lanes? Protected bike lanes would give all modes their own safe space to travel and should be the preferred option above MUPs.

Please make it beautiful. No more "bait and switch", no more "value engineering". Please make it something we can be proud of as a city to showcase to visitors.

It looks better than what is currently there. I appreciate the road diet, and the improved integration of MUPs. I would agree with others that protective bollards should be a bigger feature in these streetscape updates. I would also like the street to be comfortable only to lower speeds through design. Ultimately this should be around 30kmh.

99 Street should probably resemble more of a woonerf (see Bear St. in Banff), as it is really only desirable to be used for accessibility/maintenance, not as a thoroughfare.

Great idea, I'd you can stop the homeless from terrorizing users

Proposed bus loading pockets on 103A avenue will make it more difficult for buses traveling east to re-enter traffic. This will create further opportunities for delay in the ETS network than currently exist at this location.

I would prefer more bus priority, even dedicated bus lanes.

Are there signs above and below ground giving an overall map of the pedway system? I am vaguely aware of the pedways, and have been through them by navigating using overhead signs, but I feel I lack the visibility needed to use them to their full advantage. I don't know the full extent of where they can lead me.