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Cycling in Waterloo Region
6-8 weeks? How could they have missed their deadline last fall by so much? And, other than a 2-3 heavy rainfalls early in the season, it was a pretty good construction season. I guess there is a lot more to do than it looks; it literally looks like there is a weekend's worth of work for a modest sized crew (suck out the sand, pour the concrete, plant some trees in the cell holes, place some planters, and bolt some benches down)
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(05-03-2018, 09:48 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: 6-8 weeks? How could they have missed their deadline last fall by so much? And, other than a 2-3 heavy rainfalls early in the season, it was a pretty good construction season. I guess there is a lot more to do than it looks; it literally looks like there is a weekend's worth of work for a modest sized crew (suck out the sand, pour the concrete, plant some trees in the cell holes, place some planters, and bolt some benches down)

Lol, their deadline wasn't last fall, it was months before that.  They're triple at least, their original timeline.

And yeah, 6-8 weeks sound ridiculous, but I'm not even slightly surprised.

I'll say it again, this spring is a complete write off for cycling.

Yes, "Gold" indeed.
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(05-03-2018, 09:23 AM)creative Wrote: So because there was only one car parked there when the photo was taken a mean that nobody ever parks there. With that reasoning I can say that I travel the Ottawa roundabouts quite frequently and have never seen a cyclist going through there so therefore nothing needs to be done to improve it for cycling.

Maybe it means because there are so few bikes going through uptown that the bike lane should be parking
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Based on the original statement that would make total sense then!
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False equivalence (lane of traffic vs parking) . A more accurate one would be: maybe it means because there are so few bikes going through Uptown that the bike lane should be a car lane.

Speaking of parking, where are the bike racks? The businesses should be clamouring for them.
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(05-04-2018, 08:48 AM)chutten Wrote: False equivalence (lane of traffic vs parking) . A more accurate one would be: maybe it means because there are so few bikes going through Uptown that the bike lane should be a car lane.

Speaking of parking, where are the bike racks? The businesses should be clamouring for them.

I think darts may be referring tongue-in-cheek to the fact that the bike lane is impassible. Sort of like if somebody said, right now, that the LRT should be cancelled because nobody is riding it.
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(05-03-2018, 10:11 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Lol, their deadline wasn't last fall, it was months before that.  They're triple at least, their original timeline.

No, their deadline was 30-Oct-2017 (Reference 1, Reference 2) and they ended up working through November and maybe even in to December I think.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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It's easy to focus on the shortcomings we see here in Waterloo Region, but I have to say I was really encouraged today. I was out on my bike this morning in Columbia Forest and then was doing the Adopt-a-Road cleanup on Hessen Strasse with the Waterloo Cycling Club and finally was around town doing some errands this afternoon, including stopping at Ziggy's. All day I saw loads of people out on their bikes enjoying the weather. From club riders on road bikes to families out riding together on mountain bikes. Ziggy's was bursting at the seams with people looking at biking and testing them out. It was wonderful and uplifting to see. It was the first time I've felt that maybe, just maybe, this region has the potential to become a bicycling city the likes of what you see in northern Europe.
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It is a beautiful day for biking. But given the driver on King St who harassed us and the five vehicles parked in one section of Lexington I'm not sure whether we will get there.
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Sorry to hear that. Sad

I must have just missed you, jamincan - I was at Ziggy's today too! I dropped off my bike for a crank bearing cartridge ("bottom bracket" - hate that term) replacement!
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Cycling can be weird. You have a seat tube and seat stays, but you always ride on a saddle.
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I've heard the term hanger used for bottom bracket and seatpin used instead of seatpost. People often ask for new rims when they actually want a new wheel. I like term hoop for a rim. The newest one I've heard is someone calling a cassette a "stack" and it does kind of grate but I guess saying I have a 10-stack out back is understandable in the right context, but stack refers to something else in most bicycle contexts hence I don't encourage its use.

I too want to be optimistic about this region and cycling, there's a lot of people doing the commuting thing it seems. When I'm driving I also notice a lot of cars that park in traffic lanes and in front of no-parking signs... trucks often block traffic lanes and people are jerks to each other for no real reason. I think this region is full of terrible drivers that are just rude to anyone on the road. Just the other day I saw a big-rig wave a car through, then he looked at me and waved me through the intersection of Bridge and Woolwich during rush hour when it's pretty tough to cross, so it's not all shitheads out there behind the wheel.
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(05-06-2018, 11:19 AM)clasher Wrote: I think this region is full of terrible drivers that are just rude to anyone on the road. Just the other day I saw a big-rig wave a car through, then he looked at me and waved me through the intersection of Bridge and Woolwich during rush hour when it's pretty tough to cross, so it's not all shitheads out there behind the wheel.

Based on my personal experience, I really think the vast majority of drivers (and bicyclists) in the region are decent and courteous, but as always there are some bad apples mixed in, and of course those are the ones we remember.
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Absolutely - in about 7000 km of riding over the past 2 years in the Region, I can still count on one hand the number of unpleasant experiences I’ve had. I can’t even count how many positive ones there have been.

I think one thing that really helps me out, personally, is I’m both a motorist and a cyclist. So, I can see with the eyes of both what most annoys the other... and not do those things.

If you only drive or only bike, you don’t know what it’s like to be in the other situation. It gives some perspective and I think results in why I’m generally never annoyed (or annoying others) when out.
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(05-06-2018, 11:30 AM)tomh009 Wrote:
(05-06-2018, 11:19 AM)clasher Wrote: I think this region is full of terrible drivers that are just rude to anyone on the road. Just the other day I saw a big-rig wave a car through, then he looked at me and waved me through the intersection of Bridge and Woolwich during rush hour when it's pretty tough to cross, so it's not all shitheads out there behind the wheel.

Based on my personal experience, I really think the vast majority of drivers (and bicyclists) in the region are decent and courteous, but as always there are some bad apples mixed in, and of course those are the ones we remember.

You're absolutely right that the majority of drivers are courteous and helpful.  But even courteous drivers can create problems.

Some seriously large percentage of drivers (anywhere from 20-80% depending on the study) drive distracted.  They don't think they're doing anything dangerous, but they are, and they're still putting everyone's lives in danger.  Those are still "courteous helpful drivers".  The same goes for speeding (heck, I speed plenty when driving), not signaling, etc.

Some drivers are even helpful to a fault.  As a cyclist, it is extremely dangerous and frustraing when drivers stop in the middle of an intersection or road to try and let me turn left or to cross when I don't have the right of way...I don't know if they're slowing down for another reason, or if traffic will go around them (or just in the other lane), yet these drivers are doing their very best to be courteous and helpful yet in doing so are creating a more dangerous situation. 

Humans are never going to be perfect, which is why it's a bad idea to design a system which assumes we can be perfect.  

The second issue, is, as you pointed out, one of perception.  We're naturally inclined to place greater weight on bad interactions. It makes sense evolutionarily: you only get to die once.  On our ride the other day, my partner and I were bullied by a driver who felt that we shouldn't be turning left off of the road we were on.  This really spooked us, and we spent some time at the side of the road calming down.  While there, at least 5 different drivers pulled over and asked if we needed any help.  One even offered us a ride.  Yet, the story here is still that one driver who bullied us off the road.  And after all, it only takes one bad driver to end a life.

Which really just goes back to the first point.  Our transportation system should not be designed with humans being a single point of failure.

Certainly, as Canard points out, it does help when people use all modes of transportation, this, I think, is a small contributor to why cycling in the Netherlands is so safe, it would be nice if there were components of drivers ed which required vehicle drivers to use other modes.
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