First(ish) Ride: Dallas Rd Trail

We are a little bit late with this, but given today’s rain we figured a few pictures of the sun from earlier last month is not a bad thing. So here are some photos from the Dallas Rd trail and protected bike lane.

The first part of our waterfront can now be biked safely by everybody. The trail starts around Ogden Point and continues Clover Point, sitting atop of the new sewage pipe that runs connects to the new Wastewater Treatment Plant in Esquimalt. Part of the trail is separated – a protected bike lane alongside a sidewalk, while some is a mixed use trail like the Galloping Goose.

Starting at the far western end at Ogden Point, you can see below that the trail abruptly ends and puts you back into traffic. With the city looking at an AAA bikeway along Michigan St, a connection to here should be part of that construction.

As you head east, the bike lane here is fairly narrow (sometimes as little as 2.7m wide) due to the angled parking alongside. There are new seats along here and with them, a gorgeous view across the water. With the narrow sidewalk, how this area works as more people flock to the waterfront to walk, bike and enjoy is a future challenge.

Just a bit further east, the bike lane and sidewalk merge to become a mixed-use trail, one of the widest in the region. Imagine if the Goose was this wide. Even on a relatively cold November day it was busy.

The trail is very wide as you pass the boat pond, then narrows a bit as you hit Fonyo Beach, before leaving Dallas Rd briefly to head through the bush. And look – lights! We’re happy to see this fantastic, pedestrian-scale lighting here and hope it can be rolled out across all our other unlit trails soon.

Travelling further east to just south of Beacon Hill Park, there is a new counter here and a trail to connect to Camas Circle and the southern end of the Vancouver bikeway corridor.

Coming out of the bush, the trail rejoins the road just west of Cook St. At Cook St itself, there is a connection to the intersection, but some better design (and protected bike lane on Cook St) is badly needed here.

Between Cook St and Clover Point, the trail closely follows the road, which brings up a new set of challenges. With this being a very busy dog park and the parking busy as a consequence, how this works in practice in the busy summer is unknown.

And finally, the connection to the Clover Point. Almost done in this picture, this is the end of the line for the foreseeable future.

Final Thoughts and next steps?

It is amazing to cruise along the waterfront at a human pace, not having to dodge cars. Adding 3.5km of new AAA bikeway in conjunction with the construction of the new sewer pipeline was a major win.

But now that we have the beginnings of a waterfront trail, we can’t stop there. The rest of the Seaside Touring Route and the Great Trail need a AAA bikeway – likely a protected bike lane along the major roads. We’ll keep asking and until that day, enjoy the part we have now.