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General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours
(04-19-2019, 02:07 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(04-19-2019, 10:57 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: Left turns on red are permitted there, because it is a one way road to another one way road.  Many drivers do not know, and worse, many drivers honk and harass people who wait (which by the way is legal, unlike making a nuisance by honking--which all the people who live in the nearby buildings get to listen too).

Now with the bike box, it is even less clear that left turns are legal on red, but I believe under the letter of the law they are.

I have an idea that the bike box implicitly cancels the left-turn-on-red. If there was a bike box at a right turn, it would cancel right-turn-on-red, if I’m right.

Having said that, if that’s true, it should be explicitly signed.

Also, the bike box at the left turn is useless, so left turn on red definitely should be allowed. Bike boxes are intended to collect bicycle traffic halfway through making a left turn, and as such are not needed in left turn lanes. Given the poor knowledge of drivers, there probably ought to be a sign telling people that left turn on red is allowed. Except that would seem to imply it’s not allowed elsewhere. But where else in the Region do we have legal left turn on red? We don’t have an extensive network of one-way streets so there are few locations where it is a possibility.

It is the opinion of the City of Kitchener staff that right turn on red is permitted even when there is a bike box installed. I haven't read the OTM Book on the topic, but I suspect it doesn't contradict this belief.

I suspect there isn't another legal left turn on red in the region, but the point is, I don't like right turn on red anyway since it's dangerous to pedestrians, left would be even worse, because it's not practiced for drivers in the area, and there isn't a need for left turn on red capacity wise here, or even delay wise, it's a short light, in a pedestrian area, if a sign was to be put up, disallowing it would make more sense.

As for the bike box, as timc pointed out, you're confusing a bike box with a two stage left turn, the point here is that cyclists can come down the ridiculous 10 meter bike lane, and move to the left in front of cars to proceed left.  I've actually done this a number of times, it works as well as they ever do.

The region as part of their bike lane pilot project gives an example of each kind of box in their presentation:

   


(04-19-2019, 02:07 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
Quote:As for the train barrier, I've noticed that the train signals and traffic lights make almost no sense at all when the train is going through, entirely non-conflicting movements are blocked for no reason.  I've even seen the ped signals turn off for the straight direction.  Of course in a world where we have a no-walk signal at a retaining wall, this isn't totally shocking.

In particular, when it is the southbound track that is in use, Caroline should get a green (no northbound left turn, obviously, but that is supposed to be bus-triggered in any case). There is no conflict between Caroline St. traffic and the southbound track.

Even with the northbound track, the pedestrian crossings across Erb on the east side and across Caroline on the north side should be allowed to go. I’ve actually been known to bicycle straight across the intersection parallel to the tracks when the crossing protection is activated — there is absolutely no conflicting motor vehicle traffic.

This isn’t the only location with issues. At University, the multi-use trail crossing could get a proceed signal when the crossing protection activates, but doesn’t.

Yeah, there are a bunch of others, King at Francis has issues. I really fail to understand the thought processes that go into these decisions.
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RE: General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours - by danbrotherston - 04-19-2019, 04:07 PM

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