The Cochrane Bridge [Whitby, Ontario, Canada]

The Town of Whitby recently reconstructed the bridge on Cochrane Street over the CP Railway.

This has always been a very wide 2 lane bridge that was actually very easy to cycle.

They managed to fix that, though, with a solution that seems confusing and generally bad for... everyone?

Ummm... what?

The bike lane abruptly sends you up onto the sidewalk (which is in fact labeled as a "Shared Pathway").

A well meaning pedestrian coming the other way will suddenly have a cyclist coming right at them? This seems terrible for everyone actually... who is supposed to be on the left vs right?

Meanwhile there is an entirely functional shoulder right there... which I'm definitely using BTW!

 

If you do decide to hang right, then there's this rumble strip in the middle of the sidewalk directing you to continue right - but at this point, you're meant to actually cross it and go back on to the road.

I fully understand the desire to have a wider sidewalk, but it seems like they indexed very hard on the sidewalk and forgot about the bike lane until the concrete was already being poured...

On the Terrible Scale: 3/5