Waterloo Region Connected
Cycling in Waterloo Region - Printable Version

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RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - jamincan - 06-24-2016

I wonder if it would be possible to build an overpass for the IHT at Victoria and West. I know Mississauga has them on Winston Churchill for much less used trails (although Winston Churchill is likely busier than Victoria), but the site here is much more constrained. That said, if they did some sort of architectural, light-weight suspension design, it might be an improvement to the streetscape there and significantly improve safety for trail users.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 06-30-2016

The MUT on the south side of Victoria St. from Fischer-Hallman Rd. to East Forest Trail appears to be basically complete at this point. I rode it today and its seems finished, final coat of asphalt, with just landscaping (grass) left.

I'm guessing the main purpose in the grand scheme of things is to connect the trails between Victoria and Highland that stretch to the IHT, and the neighbourhoods therein to the bike lanes on East Forest as well as the schools nearby.

This is probably a decently useful trail, even though it basically duplicates the bike lanes on the road...until we have good design of either bike lanes or MUTs the region will continue to need to build both in order to serve all types of cyclists.

It has all the same failings of every MUT we have in the region, intersections are a joke to a degree nearing entrapment, there are only crosswalks, and curbs in the way (and not smooth ones either, I actually broke a spoke riding over one).

There are other improvements too, Victoria St. now has a curb for the section in question, as well, there appears to be a new pedestrian crossing island. I wonder if these improvements were covered in another budget however. Still, very exciting to see the region building bike infrastructure when not rebuilding a road (entirely).


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-02-2016

(I couldn't find another thread on it, so I've added this post here.)

I had my first experience with Bicycle Sharing today!

My husband and I were in Hamilton and decided to go for a walk alone the waterfront.  We had parked in a big lot and as we headed down the trail, noticed a stall with bicycles to loan.  I only took a quick look at them, but noticed that they were shaft drive, not chain drive, and had hub brakes, blah blah blah and over the next 45 minutes, instead of taking in the scenery I was just turning over and over in my head all these clever design choices that the engineers must have made to build rock-solid bikes that require no maintenance and take a beating!

   

When we got to the lot at the other end of the trail, about 3 km away or so, I think my other half knew what I wanted to do Smile  So we figured out the App, made an account, punched in the number on the bikes and went for a ride!  So impressed with this system.
  • It's called SoBi, or Social Bicycles Hamilton.
  • You can borrow up to 3 bikes at a time with one account.
  • You go up to any bike and it has a little electronic, solar powered (!!) device on the back, which includes a robust LCD screen, some buttons, and a solenoid that releases a U-Bar shackle.
  • You're billed about $4/hour, which I think is very reasonable.
  • If you want to go shopping or something, you can "Hold" the bike and temporarily lock it somewhere.
  • You can have the bike for up to 24 hours before it's a problem.
  • You can return it to any SoBi stall.  If you don't, or can't find a spot, you can shackle it to any secure location within the Hamilton zone, and you're charged an extra $1.
  • Hardware:  Shimano INTER Hub Brakes, Shimano NEXUS hub gearing, 3 speeds, fully-enclosed shaft drive

Before we left, I was able to check that there were 10 stalls back at the car and 7 of them were open, so I knew we'd be fine.  At the end of our one-way ride back to the car, we parked the bikes, shackled them up, and were charged about a buck each.

   
The keypad on the back of the bike, at the end of the ride.

As we drove out of downtown Hamilton, back home, we kept noticing just how frequent the stalls are.  They're everywhere!  The App shows you where every single bike is - wether it's a stall, or one that has been tethered somewhere else.

   
Bicycle availability.  The green teardrops show racks; the blue bikes on their own are vagrants that are shackled to non-rack areas.

I am guessing that at some point, there's a truck that comes along and has 20 or 50 bike racks on it and a crew "re-shuffles" the bikes at the end of the night, in case they get all lumped up in one area.

I know I've ridden/driven/walked past a stall at KPL that has some kind of bike-sharing program (orange and white, IIRC?) but I don't think it's as elaborate as this.  I absolutely love this concept and am looking forward to doing this again, the next time we're in Hamilton!  After all, I have $8 left on the account I have to burn.  Wink


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - clasher - 07-02-2016

Cycling in Hamilton is really good! I rode through past the Waterfront last weekend, it's always a pleasure. The fries at Hutch's burgers are pretty good but they are insanely busy anytime on a weekend I've been through.

The sobi bikes are truly built to last, I think they are a stronger build than the bixi ones. I built my own commuter bike with drum brakes, though I use a stainless chain in lieu of a shaft drive. Chainless bikes are an idea almost as old as the safety bicycle itself. I think bikeshare is a perfect application for the technology.

The bikeshare here is more basic of a system, CAB I think it's called. It's a working centre project so they didn't have a lot of money to start it up but it has expanded a fair bit over the years. I see people using them too but I've never looked at the membership numbers. The original system was set up four years(or more?!) with some really basic white bikes as a kind of pilot to get a grant or beta-test the concept.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-06-2016



I've been to 's-Hertogenbosch! This is so cool. Something to aim for here, someday?


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 07-06-2016

(07-06-2016, 08:31 PM)Canard Wrote:

I've been to 's-Hertogenbosch! This is so cool.  Something to aim for here, someday?

I posted that blog post...somewhere...a while back.  It bugs me that in addition to better bike and transit infrastructure, many parts of the Netherlands also seemed to also have better private automobile infrastructure.  Its sad we're being beaten at our own game it seems.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - mpd618 - 07-06-2016

(07-06-2016, 10:20 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: It bugs me that in addition to better bike and transit infrastructure, many parts of the Netherlands also seemed to also have better private automobile infrastructure.

It doesn't bug me at all! It means that win-win solutions are possible.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - panamaniac - 07-11-2016

Interesting piece in the Record on Kitchener's experiment with valet parking for bicycles at local events. Seems like a good idea, although I question whether it should be a free service. One hopes, if it's successful, that an appropriate fee will be charged in coming years.

http://www.therecord.com/waterlooregion-news/local


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 07-11-2016

(07-11-2016, 03:22 PM)panamaniac Wrote: Interesting piece in the Record on Kitchener's experiment with valet parking for bicycles at local events.  Seems like a good idea, although I question whether it should be a free service.  One hopes, if it's successful, that an appropriate fee will be charged in coming years.

http://www.therecord.com/waterlooregion-news/local

When car parking is free, its particularly hard to justify charging for bicycle parking.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - panamaniac - 07-11-2016

I'm not sure it's a good comparison, since you're pretty much at your own risk with free parking, as opposed to the protection and convenience offered by a valet service. It would be interesting to compare interest in paid valet bicycle parking by charging a fee for an event that saw heavy use for free the previous year.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 07-11-2016

(07-11-2016, 05:44 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I'm not sure it's a good comparison, since you're pretty much at your own risk with free parking, as opposed to the protection and convenience offered by a valet service.  It would be interesting to compare interest in paid valet bicycle parking by charging a fee for an event that saw heavy use for free the previous year.

I disagree.  People are accustomed to parking cars in public, they come equipped with door locks, etc.  This is just what we do.  But the type of people the city is trying to attract to bike are ones who may not even have a bike lock, and may not be entirely comfortable using it, or leaving their bikes unattended.  Bikes are quite a lot more frequently stolen, or at least, that's the impression people have.

I'd argue the effective service provided to people is identical, the ability to bring a vehicle of a certain type and leave it unattended in comfort that it will be there when you return.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 07-11-2016

The headline is misleading: it's not "valet" parking. You don't hand your bike to someone at the entrance to the venue, who rides it to the parking lot. You check it at the entrance to a secure area, and are given a claim chit. It does require labour, but it's two people manning the desk to the secure area, not a number of attendants who cycle the bikes to a separate parking lot.

It seems like a great idea to me. A secure area where people are assured that there is no risk of theft. If we want more people to leave their cars at home, particularly for certain events, it's a good way to help them to do that.


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - chutten - 07-12-2016

So, less "valet bike parking" and more of a "coatbike check"


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - panamaniac - 07-12-2016

(06-09-2016, 09:05 AM)MidTowner Wrote: “Total to date” was the wrong term for them to use (there isn’t even an ‘as at’ date on the sign). They just mean “Total.”

But very interesting! Three hundred users a day is nothing to sneeze at, and if we assume that some people only bike or walk to their jobs (or elsewhere) some days of the week, that’s a lot of people that trail is serving. It would be really neat to see daily and hourly breakdowns of the counts, to better see how many are commuters and other types of users there are.

(07-12-2016, 08:46 AM)chutten Wrote: So, less "valet bike parking" and more of a "coatbike check"

Exactly.  But the "valet" bit makes for better marketing, don't you think?


RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 07-12-2016

I initially viewed the headline as the Record’s way of insinuating that this is something fancy and expensive for cyclists. That might be reading too much into it…

I saw this set-up a few weeks ago, and the signage explained it exactly the way chutten did, as a coat check for bikes. I’m not sure which is better marketing, but that’s readily understandable.