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08-27-2019, 07:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-27-2019, 07:08 PM by danbrotherston.)
(08-27-2019, 06:12 PM)clasher Wrote: What the actual fuck. Most people on Young Street have driveways. Unbelievable, really.
I assume this means that the stoplight at young and weber won't be useful to anyone heading toward downtown now? That seemed like the best part of the contraflow lane... it's been easy to cross Weber this summer on account of the construction but it's normally a pain in the ass. I'm writing Debbie Chapman a scathing letter.
The route will follow Young St. at Weber.
Here is the original routing:
Here is the new routing:
Not a huge difference, but definitely harder to follow, and less intuitive, plus Ahrens is a much busier road and will have no infrastructure beyond signs...
All because after month and months of public consultation, discussion, and concern about this cheap easy win no brainer infra, one single person came to council and demanded parking 30 meters closer to their house (there is parking on Maynard across the park).
If that's all it takes to derail bike infra, nothing is ever going to change. This has happened before, I thought we might past it, I was wrong.
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What a bunch of idiots. I might have to make a point of going to downtown Kitchener specifically to ride the “wrong” way down that block of Young. I’ll bet the parking is free, too.
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(08-28-2019, 07:16 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: What a bunch of idiots. I might have to make a point of going to downtown Kitchener specifically to ride the “wrong” way down that block of Young. I’ll bet the parking is free, too.
Yes, in fact of the 17 spaces that were proposed to be removed, the 10 that will be removed are paid, and the 7 that will be retained are free.
And I suspect you'll have lots of company going the wrong way down that road...
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08-28-2019, 07:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-28-2019, 07:56 PM by danbrotherston.)
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Even the Netherlands has problems with motor vehicles encroaching on cycleways. Cycling in Utrecht
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The contraflow bike lanes on Erb from Caroline to East of King were painted last night or early this morning! There are cones up to prevent entry (probably to let the paint cure and the reflective dust adhere), but it's actually happening!
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If you check out the construction on Ottawa between Hoffman and Kehl, you can see the new separated bike lanes on the finished side - roll curb next to the road, concrete bike lane, then full curb.
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(09-05-2019, 12:19 PM)KevinL Wrote: If you check out the construction on Ottawa between Hoffman and Kehl, you can see the new separated bike lanes on the finished side - roll curb next to the road, concrete bike lane, then full curb.
The continued use of the roll curb isn't awesome, but I do think it is a major infrastructure improvement through the area for all modes of transportation. They're adding sidewalks, too. There wasn't street parking there before the transition so I am hopeful there'll be less need for "these are bike lanes not fancily paved parking spots" education as was needed for Uptown.
Encroachment seems inevitable though, especially on the bend after the expressway overpass, while travelling from Ottawa towards Mill.
I'm also mildly concerned with regards to how people will treat cyclists on the other side of Mill. There is no bike path but there are LRT tracks, with their roll curb and a generally similar appearance. I definitely expect to be yelled at for being in the motor vehicle lane instead of the (non-existent) bike lane.
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(09-05-2019, 12:31 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: (09-05-2019, 12:19 PM)KevinL Wrote: If you check out the construction on Ottawa between Hoffman and Kehl, you can see the new separated bike lanes on the finished side - roll curb next to the road, concrete bike lane, then full curb.
The continued use of the roll curb isn't awesome, but I do think it is a major infrastructure improvement through the area for all modes of transportation. They're adding sidewalks, too. There wasn't street parking there before the transition so I am hopeful there'll be less need for "these are bike lanes not fancily paved parking spots" education as was needed for Uptown.
Encroachment seems inevitable though, especially on the bend after the expressway overpass, while travelling from Ottawa towards Mill.
I'm also mildly concerned with regards to how people will treat cyclists on the other side of Mill. There is no bike path but there are LRT tracks, with their roll curb and a generally similar appearance. I definitely expect to be yelled at for being in the motor vehicle lane instead of the (non-existent) bike lane.
It's not education, it's certainly not fake enforcement, it's physical protection which is needed, drivers need to see their cars damaged if they attempt to park there, that is the ONLY way they will stop. Nobody cares if they park illegally in a bike lane.
As for the rest, yeah, I think parking will be less of an issue (but not a non-issue here, probably no different from a standard painted bike lane). Encroachment will be better, but certainly not zero as it would be if our transportation planners were not obsessed with allowing cars to hit vulnerable road users.
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(09-05-2019, 01:23 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: As for the rest, yeah, I think parking will be less of an issue (but not a non-issue here, probably no different from a standard painted bike lane). Encroachment will be better, but certainly not zero as it would be if our transportation planners were not obsessed with allowing cars to hit vulnerable road users.
That is excellent framing. An entirely accurate way of describing current policy, although I’m sure they would use different words to describe it. But that is the point of re-framing — to try to get people to see an aspect of something that they are having trouble seeing.
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Don't think anyone has posted yet but the dedicated bike lanes on Belmont are starting to get painted. They go from Glasgow to Gage and they had one direction painted south of Gage yesterday. No bollards or anything yet but it looks like it will be quite nice. Definitely feels less like an expressway.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/b...-1.5272602
Not Waterloo Region, but I could most certainly see this happening here. What really irked me about this article was the following statement:
Quote:Const. Scott Mills with the Toronto Police Service says there hasn't been a sharp rise in bike thefts in the city in the last two years but it's still a huge problem.
Police data shows the number of bike thefts has increased every year from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, there were 3,937 thefts reported. Police could not immediately provide data from 2019 to CBC Toronto.
Only a small percentage are recovered. Mills insists that a lot of time and resources are dedicated to recovering stolen bikes.
As an avid cyclist, I find this sort of BS offensive. It's pretty clear the police services have more or less given up, it seems the only time bikes are recovered is when they are come across as part of another investigation. Disappointing.
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It is hard to think of anything WRPS care about less than stolen bikes. They won't even help people recover them when they find the thief and have proof of ownership, let alone actually investigate in any meaningful way.
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A cyclist was struck by a vehicle at the IHT crossing on Victoria this morning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.5276205
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This is what happens when you make good trail connections up to a road, but don't clearly mark a crossing on the road. We really need to get the Region coordinating this stuff with the cities when it involves regional roads; it's one of the biggest failings of two-tier municipal government.
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