06-15-2020, 10:44 PM
(06-15-2020, 10:09 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I suspect the only thing that even makes it possible to build an island on Victoria is the bike lanes, the region counts they as part of the pavement width, which they insist on being at minimum 4 meters curb to curb so that snow plows don't need to slow down (yes, they can easily fit through a much narrower lane, but they may need to slow down and/or raise their blade, there are narrower curb to curb pavement widths in the region, see King at Allen). Of course using the bike lanes in this way makes them incredibly unsafe for cyclists, since drivers prefering not to slow down, will simply drive in the bike lane. I came within inches of being killed by a transport truck driver who chose to do this on Glasgow, the mirror went above my head. Of course, nobody at the region gives the slightest fuck about that, so long as no driver ever has to slow down, they're happy.
I think counting the bike lanes towards the minimum in this fashion constitutes reckless endangerment. Of course drivers in a wide lane will use the bike lane when they get to a narrow area, making it partially the road engineers’ fault when a bicyclist is killed. What should instead happen, assuming we have unprotected bike lanes in the first place, is that near the crossing bollards (big concrete ones that can stop a concrete truck, not the little plastic ones) should mark off the bicycle lanes and force motor vehicle traffic to stick to its lane.