06-07-2021, 08:15 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-07-2021, 08:25 AM by danbrotherston.)
There was a serious, violent, and tragic collision in London last night. Multiple pedestrians were killed (the police will not even say how many, only that some were sent to the children's hospital). This one hits close to home for me, I drive that stretch on a regular basis. My parents live on Hyde Park Rd. and I grew up near there.
I want to raise it because that road is very new, completely widened and reconstructed in the last 10 years or so (that section in the last 4 years). It was built to the highest modern standards the city has, great bike lanes, centre median with plantings. In many ways, this is the road London wants to build everywhere.
And it is absolute trash.
It is never safe for any users. The painted bike lanes have no value except to increase speeds on the road, they certainly do not protect anyone. The wide comfortable lanes, again increase speeds. The limit varies from 50 to 60, but if you drive less than 70 km/h on any section of that road, you will be aggressively tailgated, with drivers eventually forcing their way around you (only to see them at the next light).
I cannot comprehend how it is possible for engineers to be so bad at their jobs.
London passed a Vision Zero plan four years ago. While this road predates it, they have made ZERO progress on changing anything. I hope Kitchener's VZ plan is less pointless, but even if it was as ambitious as you want, until the region is willing to make the same changes, we will not see a safe road network in our city--because for many or even most in the region's engineering organization...this is also the ideal road for them. They get to pretend to create a complete street, while continuing to prioritize fast motor vehicle speeds over every and everything. And even better, they can just blame bad drivers for situations like these.
Edit: LFP has an update this morning. FOUR people killed, including one child. Another child is clinging to life. I mean, I'd like to think this will shock people to action, but last year a drunk driver from Kitchener blew up an entire block of homes and nobody cared then either.
I want to raise it because that road is very new, completely widened and reconstructed in the last 10 years or so (that section in the last 4 years). It was built to the highest modern standards the city has, great bike lanes, centre median with plantings. In many ways, this is the road London wants to build everywhere.
And it is absolute trash.
It is never safe for any users. The painted bike lanes have no value except to increase speeds on the road, they certainly do not protect anyone. The wide comfortable lanes, again increase speeds. The limit varies from 50 to 60, but if you drive less than 70 km/h on any section of that road, you will be aggressively tailgated, with drivers eventually forcing their way around you (only to see them at the next light).
I cannot comprehend how it is possible for engineers to be so bad at their jobs.
London passed a Vision Zero plan four years ago. While this road predates it, they have made ZERO progress on changing anything. I hope Kitchener's VZ plan is less pointless, but even if it was as ambitious as you want, until the region is willing to make the same changes, we will not see a safe road network in our city--because for many or even most in the region's engineering organization...this is also the ideal road for them. They get to pretend to create a complete street, while continuing to prioritize fast motor vehicle speeds over every and everything. And even better, they can just blame bad drivers for situations like these.
Edit: LFP has an update this morning. FOUR people killed, including one child. Another child is clinging to life. I mean, I'd like to think this will shock people to action, but last year a drunk driver from Kitchener blew up an entire block of homes and nobody cared then either.