Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

The tactile plates should only be used at pedestrian crossings. It seems to me that putting them in a bicycle crossing sends the wrong message to pedestrians.

Those plates on Lexington are baffling.

The ones near the bus stops along Columbia aren't much better.

In both of those cases, they are placed across the line where a blind person could step into motor vehicle traffic without stepping down a curb.

So I think I understand why they are there, but at the same time I agree they’re weird. In the Lexington Rd. case there is also a weird bit of concrete joining the sidewalk to the area near the transition from on-road lanes to off-road trail. I don’t know why there is any concrete there — couldn’t the asphalt bicycle lane just separate from the rest of the road in much the same way that a freeway ramp separates from the main roadway?

I agree putting the tactile strips in a bicycle crossing sends the wrong message to pedestrians in general, but I think the theory of their installation is that no one can enter a motor vehicle roadway without either stepping down a curb or crossing a tactile strip. Unless we’re going to build bicycle routes as roads (i.e., no one can enter them without either stepping down a curb or crossing a tactile strip) or have exceptions, there will have to be oddities of this nature.

Of course I think it would be great if bicycle routes were given the same respect as motor vehicle routes.

OK, I just took another look at the Columbia St. example, and there is a huge driveway entrance where the sidewalk goes across the driving route into the Sobey’s mall. By my theory, there should be tactile strips across the sidewalk at either side of the driveway. But I guess the idea is that the driveway is a driveway, not a place where people have to cross the road.

I don’t know. I agree it’s a mess. I’m not convinced the problem is specifically with the placement of tactile strips in these locations.

On Lexington the concrete is there because cyclists are expected to dismount and walk to the sidewalk.  Basically it's the traffic engineering equivalent of "I have no fucking clue"

But yeah, you point out the driveway example, blind peds could walk off the sidewalk there, and there is no tactile strip. 

On Columbia the tactile plates are in the path of cyclists, walking off them would not put you on the road, nor is it where someone SHOULD cross, which is the other thing they are supposed to indicate....

Like I said, nothing demonstrates the complete lack of understanding of bike and ped infra as tactile plates. Its literally just flailing about...