Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

All the pylons blocking the Joseph St bike lanes have been removed, so I guess that means it's open now? The Queen St entrance is still blocked though, and there is clearly still some paint missing.

I'm confused by the Victoria St end. The only signs there are a bike lend "Ends" sign, and the old "cyclists dismount" sign that was always there. No bike signals. What's the expectation here, especially if you and a car are both waiting at the light?

Victoria St. will continue through straight across Victoria onto a MUT on the other side, that will go up to the IHT <-> Transit Terminal trail that is not yet built.

I am not certain what the situation will be signal wise, I hope they put in bike signals when that happens. I have the same question at Queen St.

[Acitta]

Bike lanes are a good place to store bricks.    

[Bytor]

Bike lanes are a good place to store bricks.

I've been annoyed at that, too, because it's been acouple months they've been there by now.

You should tweet that photo and tag Berry, Debbie Chapman, and other City council folks and ask why. I'd be more than happy to retweet.

[danbrotherston]

Bike lanes are a good place to store bricks.

I've been annoyed at that, too, because it's been acouple months they've been there by now.

You should tweet that photo and tag Berry, Debbie Chapman, and other City council folks and ask why. I'd be more than happy to retweet.

Yeah, I'll be very candid, I don't get the idea that city staffer in charge of this project is happy about the location of the bricks, but given that the lanes are not "officially" open, and the contractor is still doing work, they can't do much about it.

That being said, I agree, and given what I know of the staffers involved, they also agree, that this wouldn't be left like this if it was a car lane. But, we are making significant progress here.

For something like this, it's definitely worth tagging Berry or Debbie (or any city councillor really) with a "Can't we get these lanes open already"...this one looks like it would be pretty firmly on the "I support this, please get it open" side of things, with little opportunity for those in opposition to play it as a "even cyclists don't like this" argument.

[ac3r]

I'll be curious to see how they deal with snow in this particular bike lane downtown come wintertime. The road plows will no doubt push snow into three bike lanes, so I suspect there will be some days it's covered, unless they will have a dedicated mini-plow clear them up ASAP. I'm not sure if those things even spread salt, so they might end up fairly icy.

[tomh009]

I'll be curious to see how they deal with snow in this particular bike lane downtown come wintertime. The road plows will no doubt push snow into three bike lanes, so I suspect there will be some days it's covered, unless they will have a dedicated mini-plow clear them up ASAP. I'm not sure if those things even spread salt, so they might end up fairly icy.

I would expect that the downtown sidewalk plows can clear this one, at least ... but the question really applies to all the new bike lanes.

[danbrotherston]

I'll be curious to see how they deal with snow in this particular bike lane downtown come wintertime. The road plows will no doubt push snow into three bike lanes, so I suspect there will be some days it's covered, unless they will have a dedicated mini-plow clear them up ASAP. I'm not sure if those things even spread salt, so they might end up fairly icy.

I would expect that the downtown sidewalk plows can clear this one, at least ... but the question really applies to all the new bike lanes.

I believe they plan on using larger vehicles to clear snow, that's why they wanted them 3m wide with no bollards, that way they can use pickup trucks to clear snow, and do it in one pass.

As an FYI, all these vehicles can lay salt, pedestrians are well aware of this, it's part of why city cleared sidewalks are so much safer.

[dtkvictim]

The barriers appear to be in for all of Water street now (only checked the south end, but I think the north end was done a while ago).

As for Joseph, I'm really disappointed with the pedestrian crossing at Gaukel. I'm hoping something changes here, but I think the current setup is final aside from some paint? You're lucky if a car even slows down now, and there is a really bad blind corner right at the crossing... More people are going to get hit here.

[danbrotherston]

The barriers appear to be in for all of Water street now (only checked the south end, but I think the north end was done a while ago).

As for Joseph, I'm really disappointed with the pedestrian crossing at Gaukel. I'm hoping something changes here, but I think the current setup is final aside from some paint? You're lucky if a car even slows down now, and there is a really bad blind corner right at the crossing... More people are going to get hit here.

Water St. is getting an island. I'm not really sure why they didn't put it in when it was originally built, but either way, I can see the outline on the ground now.

I don't find the Gaukel crossing all that bad. Frankly, plenty of drivers didn't slow down for the stop sign either. I find more actually slow down because it is a blind corner than would slow down for any other type of crossing. The blind corner is a problem and I hope they move the drop curb to be in line with the Gaukel Roadway, but obviously that's new work, given that the bike lanes didn't involve moving that curb.

We'll see how it goes.  Right now I'm seeing an awful lot of cars drive in the bike lanes. Some of them are doing so very deliberately.

[ijmorlan]

Some of them are doing so very deliberately.

Do you understand why they are doing that? I mean are they being jerks or avoiding something or something else?

[danbrotherston]

Some of them are doing so very deliberately.

Do you understand why they are doing that? I mean are they being jerks or avoiding something or something else?

Two examples I observed that I know for certain are intentional are driving up the bike lane to access the old parking bay, and driving up the bike lane to turn right at Victoria (bypass a queue).

[tomh009]

Do you understand why they are doing that? I mean are they being jerks or avoiding something or something else?

Two examples I observed that I know for certain are intentional are driving up the bike lane to access the old parking bay, and driving up the bike lane to turn right at Victoria (bypass a queue).

There were a lot of cars parked in those spaces during Ribfest. I am still mystified as to why they were left as is, open for people to park their cars in.

[danbrotherston]

Two examples I observed that I know for certain are intentional are driving up the bike lane to access the old parking bay, and driving up the bike lane to turn right at Victoria (bypass a queue).

There were a lot of cars parked in those spaces during Ribfest. I am still mystified as to why they were left as is, open for people to park their cars in.

Yup. Well, it's a question of priorities.

[tomh009]

There were a lot of cars parked in those spaces during Ribfest. I am still mystified as to why they were left as is, open for people to park their cars in.

Yup. Well, it's a question of priorities.

They could have dropped some planters (or even concrete blocks) in those bays to prevent parking. That would not have cost much. Or just redone the curb (as straight) when they were doing curbs, also not a major cost.

[danbrotherston]

Yup. Well, it's a question of priorities.

They could have dropped some planters (or even concrete blocks) in those bays to prevent parking. That would not have cost much. Or just redone the curb (as straight) when they were doing curbs, also not a major cost.

Well yes, hence priorities (nit: redoing the curb would have been expensive), planters would have been easy, but it wasn't a top priority to prevent people parking there.

I'm not willing to complain too much, because this is the highest priority I've ever seen placed on cyclists in the city, so, it's hard to argue they didn't go far enough in this instance, but there will always be room for improvement.