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12-11-2017, 12:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 12:42 PM by danbrotherston.)
(12-11-2017, 12:37 PM)tomh009 Wrote: (12-11-2017, 12:18 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I certainly agree, but staff often don't. Staff have a strong resistance to installing safe ped/cyclist crossings at the regional level.
I think the way to do this is to get support for this concept (alternate parallel routes, signage, signaled crossings) at the council level, and have them provide direction to the staff.
Lol, good luck  .
Frankly, this at some point this boils down to structural issues, the city want's a crossing, the region doesn't. Regional rd. meet city rd.
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If you think it's better to just give up, I'll take your advice on that.
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12-11-2017, 01:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 02:00 PM by danbrotherston.)
(12-11-2017, 01:02 PM)tomh009 Wrote: If you think it's better to just give up, I'll take your advice on that.
This year has been demoralizing. Don't give up on my account, but I'm personally very tired of seeing easy wins being impossible to fix. It is most demoralizing to see brand new infrastructure being built that's completely inadequate.
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12-12-2017, 02:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2017, 02:19 PM by danbrotherston.)
For the record, I've heard from city staff that the King St. bike lanes won't be open until they are finished sometime next year. As of now, they are not being maintained either.
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Just promise me that they won't be maintained as "temporary" parallel parking. They should be blocked off to all users.
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The fact that they have not been in any rush to put up no parking signs or choosing to enforce no parking would lead me to believe that this is a gift to area retailers for the holiday shopping season. No proof just an opinion.
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Just observed no parking signs on the uptown not-bike lanes, just barely visible between parked cars.
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This *does* mean that bylaw can now ticket. But if no one can park *or* bike there, the more useful thing would be to put at least traffic cones or the A-frame blockers that they use to keep parallel parking clear before they setup for a festival.
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Today I had the luxury of going for a bike ride mid-day, and noticed that a lot of the Bike Lanes weren't ploughed. I posed the question:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hi <a href="https://twitter.com/CityKitchener?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CityKitchener</a>, what is the official policy for ploughing (or not ploughing) bike lanes? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BikeWR?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BikeWR</a> <a href="https://t.co/fC8QuUdcaX">pic.twitter.com/fC8QuUdcaX</a></p>— ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/941375481596792832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
Here is the official reply:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hi Ian, priorities for our plows are mains and arterials, collectors, GRT routes and then residential streets. On roads with bike lanes, we try to clear the road, however, sometimes lane has to be used for storage of plowed snow.</p>— City of Kitchener (@CityKitchener) <a href="https://twitter.com/CityKitchener/status/941407729511317504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
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(12-14-2017, 07:45 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: This *does* mean that bylaw can now ticket. But if no one can park *or* bike there, the more useful thing would be to put at least traffic cones or the A-frame blockers that they use to keep parallel parking clear before they setup for a festival.
Yes, that would be useful. I do wonder if bylaw will ticket, I'm going to guess the policy will be not, but we will see.
As for snow removal in bike lanes, the short answer is "no" but the city claims yes (as possible) at every turn (as the tweet shows).
The long answer is frequently cars and buses drive in the bike lanes meaning that it occasionally gets cleared for short segments, which means cars will harass you if you don't ride in them, even though they're intermittent, which means on road bike lanes make cycling worse in the winter, I avoid them at all costs in the winter.
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12-15-2017, 10:45 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-15-2017, 10:46 AM by Canard.)
Thinking about getting studded tires. Any recommendations or things to watch out for? My bike uses 700x35c tires. I bought some knobbier tires last winter which made a huge difference, but I want more.
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(12-15-2017, 10:45 AM)Canard Wrote: Thinking about getting studded tires. Any recommendations or things to watch out for? My bike uses 700x35c tires. I bought some knobbier tires last winter which made a huge difference, but I want more.
Studded tires only help on ice. On bare pavement they are worse than studless tires. Is ice your main concern?
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No, unploughed packed snow is my concern. So when there’s 1cm of packed snow that is as slick as ice in want the studs to dig into that. Will that not work? What is your experience with studded winter tires?
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Lower tire pressure and/or wider tires are probably best for that situation.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the bicycle signals at Manitou and Wabanaki have been removed.
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