Winter Walking and Cycling

[Canard]

That doesn’t mean that as a society we should ignore the problem.

Distracted pedestrians are at best annoying to them, so even at that level they should be polite and aware of their surroundings.

But we can’t even ever have that disucssion, because the instant anyone ever brings it up, they just go “blah blah blah, it doesn’t hurt anyone, cars are evil, blah.”

Like I said. Ride your bike down the MUT at the University beside the LRT tracks on a busy summer day.

It’s infuriating. And maybe it’s just me? I am hyper-aware if what’s going on around me, so it just seems so simple to notice “someone’s behind me, I’ll keep to the right”, but maybe it’s a daunting task for others. Shrug?

[jamincan]

While it's true that any road user can be distracted and that it's a problem whether you're walking or driving, it's important to consider what purpose the issue serves in the overall discussion about road safety. Distracted driving is a very real problem. We have statistics and numbers that show that it considerably increases the risk to all road users, more so than even drunk driving. We don't have evidence showing that distracted walking or cycling presents nearly the same public health risk and yet every time distracted driving is discussed it is inevitable that someone brings up distracted walking and shifts the conversation away from a far more important issue with far greater consequences.

It's not that people think that pedestrians should be distracted and that there's nothing wrong with burying your nose in your phone while navigating your environment. It's that we shouldn't be letting that particular issue take our attention from distracted driving.

[Bob_McBob]

Or in this case, uncleared sidewalks and the city's refusal to do anything meaningful about it.

[plam]

Today, Central Promenade and Laurel Trail through Waterloo Park were cleared to bare pavement. Kudos!

(Late last week Laurel Trail was cleared but Central Promenade was hazardous; reported to Pingstreet and cleared 1-2 days after.)

[danbrotherston]

Today, Central Promenade and Laurel Trail through Waterloo Park were cleared to bare pavement. Kudos!

(Late last week Laurel Trail was cleared but Central Promenade was hazardous; reported to Pingstreet and cleared 1-2 days after.)

Amazing!  How is this possible.  Everyone says city clearing cannot work, so what magic are they using?

</bitterness>

My bike ride home last night was probably the most enjoyable bike ride I've had all year.

[Spokes]

Great news they're cleared and so quickly

[Spokes]

Not everywhere though:

[ijmorlan]

[…]

But we can’t even ever have that disucssion, because the instant anyone ever brings it up, they just go “blah blah blah, it doesn’t hurt anyone, cars are evil, blah.”

[…]

For me, the objection is to constantly bringing up distracted pedestrians in the context of another discussion. You can have a TV news item on police blitzing drivers who are using their cellphones, and at some point they’ll bring up distracted pedestrians. But in that context, it’s an irrelevance — the discussion is about drivers being a menace to others, not pedestrians who are putting themselves in harm’s way. I thought there was some case of a bicyclist getting killed due to grossly negligent driving (by any reasonable person’s evaluation, not sure about what courts had to say about it), and the discussion was all about how their clothing was 1% less reflective than it ideally should have been.

For my part, I’m totally fine with you bringing up the subject, especially in the context of the park, where pedestrians not watching can be a hazard to people on bicycles especially at busy times. It helps that I know you bicycle, so you’re not one of these people who just thinks everybody should get out of the way of cars, but even without that, your observations would be valid.

[danbrotherston]

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/by-law-offi...sc=YqpOoaE

Well, that's an interesting claim, none of these numbers add up.

They've received 450 complaints, which seems reasonable, they inspect 8 sidewalks on either side, yet have only inspected 1,500 sidewalks (450 * 8 != 1,500).

Maybe the 1,500 is proactive inspections.

Regardless, 12 found in violation? I can see 12 in violation from my window!

Utter bullshit.

Also, I don't know why they claim to be out today, they cannot issue tickets, as the last snowfall was last night. This is what they have stated repeatedly.

[MidTowner]

The "less than one percent" threw me, too. On my ~1.5 kilometre walk to an appointment this morning, I noted eight properties where no removal had been done whatsoever from the significant snowfall Monday night. That doesn't include properties where the job done was poor (one swipe with a snowblower or shovel, for instance), or windrows that were not clear.

To be fair to them, of the 450 complaints, many could easily be duplicates of each other.

[danbrotherston]

The "less than one percent" threw me, too. On my ~1.5 kilometre walk to an appointment this morning, I noted eight properties where no removal had been done whatsoever from the significant snowfall Monday night. That doesn't include properties where the job done was poor (one swipe with a snowblower or shovel, for instance), or windrows that were not clear.

To be fair to them, of the 450 complaints, many could easily be duplicates of each other.

Fair enough, 

Still that would mean only 187 unique complaints.

Regardless, it's bullshit...and even extremely major intersections, Weber/Victoria has been buried in snow since the first snowfall...never been touched.

The claim is that bylaw is out today, which also seems strange, bylaw has always said they need 24 hours from the last snowfall, we got several cm last night.  And how does that differ from the situation on the weekend, where we had a clear day, that was 24 hours from a major snowfall, but with multiple intervening snowfalls.

The only thing more useless than the current situation would be a situation where bylaws are not enforced in an enforceable way, and WE (taxpayers) get billed for the cost of clearing each individual violating property because the city cannot prove the bylaw was not followed.  This is why the bylaw is such garbage to begin with.

We're really working towards achieving the maximum cost for the minimum benefit here.

[Canard]

Have you expressed your concerns directly to council, the Region, or the local media?

[ijmorlan]

The only thing more useless than the current situation would be a situation where bylaws are not enforced in an enforceable way, and WE (taxpayers) get billed for the cost of clearing each individual violating property because the city cannot prove the bylaw was not followed.  This is why the bylaw is such garbage to begin with.

We're really working towards achieving the maximum cost for the minimum benefit here.

And of course that individual property-by-property clearing is not at the low price that ubiquitous City clearing would be, but at a much higher price probably similar to what a property owner would have to pay if they hired a contractor separately.

[danbrotherston]

Have you expressed your concerns directly to council, the Region, or the local media?

Oh yes.  I spoke at Kitchener city council last year.  Its when Councillor Galloway Sealock dismissed the dozens of letters and the three people who all stayed till 1 AM to speak as "merely the mobilized membership of one group" (not sure whether she meant graac or tritag--i am not a member of either).

I am passionate about safe roads and bike infra.  I am straight up angry about sidewalk clearing.

Have not spoken to the media. Not sure how to or even if I want too.

[Canard]

You should, CTV is reporting it nearly daily now. Just tweet at them or DM Max Wark. You’ll get more reaction than posting here, since we all probably generally agree that there’s a problem to be solved.