After widespread complaints from pathway users last year about surprise closures and confusing detours, the City of Calgary unveiled a new system on Thursday to improve communication with pedestrians and cyclists.

"We learned a lot last summer," said Ian Tucker, the pathways lead with Calgary Parks.

"We realized that our pathway closure and detour processes haven't kept up with the growth in the pathway network, so we've been working through the winter ... so that we can better plan and communicate pathway closures with citizens."

As the construction season returns for 2019, he said the city has adopted new guidelines for how it closes pathways and designs detours.

The changes include:

Simplified, larger maps posted at both ends of a detour.

Signs pointing the way at every turn throughout a detour.

Digital signs posted five days prior to the closure of high-use pathways.

Real-time updates on the city's mobile app for pathways.

An interactive pathways map, also updated in real time, online at: Calgary.ca/ pathwayclosures

The ability for 311 operators to advise callers on detour routes.

Separation of cyclists and pedestrians on detours where possible.

Detour inspections to make sure signs remain properly installed and visible.

Tucker described the way the city handled closures and detours in the past as "challenging."

Some pathway users chose more colourful language last summer, when they realized walking and cycling paths they relied on daily would be closed for weeks, if not months, with little forewarning or explanation of how to get where they're going via an alternate route.

A frustrated commuter in Inglewood vandalized this sign to express concerns with the pathway detour. Profanities in the photo have been blurred out. (Anis Heydari/CBC)

In frustration at the lack of communication, one person printed and put up their own "instructions for use" (complete with a fake City of Calgary logo) on a detour sign in Inglewood last July:

Stare at concrete barriers. Wonder where ... the pathway detour map is. Realize that there is no map. Head towards 19th Street. Watch traffic in both directions on all four lanes. Bolt when you see an opportunity.

It went on with five more steps and a few more swear words, but you get the idea.

Pathway users out and and about on Thursday were pleased to hear about the city's plan for better communication this year.

Ramon Cliff says pathway detours were poorly communicated last year and he'd welcome improved signage during the 2019 construction season. (Colin Hall/CBC)

Ramon Cliff rides his bike weekly on the pathways and said a major closure last year caught him completely off-guard.

"I was surprised it was happening, and then getting around it was really confusing," he said, while out for a ride with his kids near the Peace Bridge on Thursday.

Cliff welcomed the improved signage and said he'd also like to see the city choose roads that are in good condition when it forces cyclists off of pathways.

"One of the detours [last year] was down a really rough road ... just full of potholes," he said.

Sunnyside pathway closures

The new detour policy will apply to a project that gets underway on April 1 in the central community of Sunnyside.

Flood-mitigation work will prompt the closure of the pathway on the north side of the Bow River along Memorial Drive.

The city says "rotating pathway closures" will be in effect until April 20 and there will be various detours in place between the Sunnyside C-Train bridge and the Centre Street Bridge.

The detours will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

More information can be found at the pathway closures website.