Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I’ve unfortunately not been riding this week either and I think my drivetrain needs some TLC before I can get back at it as things thaw. I can’t believe how rusty it’s been getting…to the point I’ve been carrying a small bottle of lube at all times! I think it just needs a really good degrease/derust treatment.
While I did promote Twitter as an option, I agree, it can sometimes be a challenging platform to handle. I’ve found people’s expressions of their views can be very polarized! Still, a useful way of finding out information.
Crivak, maybe you are talking about the pages that used to include information about and solicit feedback on various cycling infrastructure projects? If so, those were often ones that I’d kicked off when I had a more formal involvement with Bike Calgary.
Hey Rich. My observation is that there’s been a significant cohort that’s migrated to Twitter to share information about pathway and street conditions. This may be because it’s a quicker and easier way to do so, particularly if sharing images.
Raising awareness of the forums, ensuring it’s easy to comment on/create content (including adding images) and improving the visual structure might help reinvigorate.
For further reference, here’s the associated Move Commute Connect, BC’s Active Transportation Strategy document.
I noticed the additional barriers on 52nd Street. Back when I was still more involved with Bike Calgary (during the public engagement) I’d had quite an extensive dialogue with the City on the need for such. It always surprised me that the City originally neglected placing a barrier in the one place on the cycle track that really needed it. I didn’t actually think they’d ever do so, so I wonder what finally prompted them into doing it? Definitely appreciate it as I had seen the occasional car swing wide on that corner (probably new to the area and thinking the bike lane ended at the corner), which could have been devastating if timing was poor.
The change at 16th and Home Road was needed due to the distinct signal phasing governing what was (prior to the change) a shared lane. Glad to see the change, but I think they could also have solved the problem by simply synchronizing the bike and general-purpose travel lane phasing. I do believe they changed the timing somewhat to give cyclists more time, particularly in conjunction with when the pedestrian walk signal is active. I think the bollards are helpful, but I’m a bit concerned the area may be neglected in winter (not that bike lane clearing is always great in general).
I find it interesting that the cycle tracks downtown are bone dry, yet the pathways through downtown are substantially covered in ice. I wonder if there is still a disconnect with Parks looking at pathways as a recreational amenity, i.e. not essential for travel, whereas Transportation (Roads) treats cycle tracks as part of the transportation network, i.e. they recognize that they have the same importance for Calgarians travelling by bike as streets do for Calgarians travelling by car/truck or transit (wish I could extend that comment to painted bike lanes beyond downtown too!)?
Pathways up through Dalhousie and Varsity are mostly hard-packed snow to snowy-ice covered. Traction is okay right now, but may get worse as things get polished up. Be particularly careful on the hill dropping into the Varsity green space from 53rd Street NW.
53rd Street NW bike lanes were mostly slushy today, but definitely found caution was warranted. They had been plowed reasonably well before Sunday’s icy rain/snow, so hopefully some warm weather will clear them up.
Careful if going under the Hextall Bridge as the drop/climb on the north side is very icy in the steep section into the corner.
52nd Street cycle track was pretty decent. Snow covered with some ice, but the barrier protection helps for comfort.
Bow River pathway is a combo of dry sections, some icy sections and some snowy sections. There’s a few low spots that have puddles that have iced over, but they seemed to be short-distances.
Downtown streets are mostly bone dry and the cycle tracks downtown are in great condition, though pathways on the south side through Eau Claire are icy in contrast (echoing Kerryv’s comments above).
Studded tires were definitely appreciated for my ride today! Safe travels everyone!I don’t think it helps when the City actively encourages cyclists into pedestrian space as a common solution to facilitate cycling. This includes “retrofitting” bike infrastructure into established areas by painting yellow lines on pedestrian sidewalks (there’s a great example up along Country Hills Boulevard I keep meaning to grab a pic of) as well as as purpose building new infrastructure to encourage sidewalk riding (i.e. the planned new bridge into Inglewood was shown with cyclists riding on the sidewalk, 17th Ave SE International Avenue has cycling accommodated on pedestrian sidewalks). I think for many people it really muddies the waters in terms of where cycling is allowed and not allowed, not to mention pedestrian and cyclist safety suffers as much of this infrastructure is not designed for cycling or regulated in a way that promotes operational clarity.
I think the City needs to really up their game in building *real* cycling accommodations or Complete Transportation networks that work well for all travel modes. Unfortunately, it seems that even when they propose them, there’s a lot of opposition that prevents building them. Then many of the complaints default back to how unpredictable and hazardous cyclists are.
Bit of a rant, but I’m glad Bike Calgary continues to work respectfully with various orders of government towards achieving balanced solutions.
I put in a request for the Hextall underpass on Thursday last week. Hope it helps.
Thanks for keeping us all posted on the pathway. I’m not inclined to ride busy street bike lanes (i.e. 10th) or mixed traffic (i.e. Northmount) in these conditions. I will chance 53rd to the river, so having pathway access back (not having to do the detour) will help!
Can I maybe try to fill in a bit more detail on this?
<Warning: any comments about how certain infrastructure is designated/regulated is only my recollection and should be confirmed with the City>
My recollection is that the City had technically designated a short portion of the pathway leading into and out of the west side of the intersection as “street”, which allowed them to set up the right-of-way as they did, i.e. with bikes not having to stop. That was a number of year’s ago and I believe the requirement for entering a street from a pathway was simply to yield. Of course, one could now say that, since the street designation obviously only extends a set distance from the intersection and beyond that it’s a pathway, a rider should technically stop at wherever the transition is. I know, even more confusing!
There’s also a whole bunch of issues around how pathways and cycle tracks are treated in road right-of-ways in terms of markings, number of lanes and variance of travel directions, etc. For example, every cycle track, except one that I’m aware of, on a one-way street in Calgary is on the left side of the road so that traffic (including bikes) only flows two directions.
I think both these situations illustrate that there’s still a long ways to go with local bylaws, but more specifically the Provincial Traffic Safety Act, to integrate bikes and bike facilities into the streets in a way that not only makes sense, but is supported by regulations and consistent so that all users, cyclists, as well as drivers and pedestrians, easily understand how it works. This is part of the reason completion of the Alberta Bicycle Facility Design Guide is so important.
Regardless of whether one is pro- or anti-bike, it should, through designs and recommended legislative/regulatory changes, help create a framework to make our streets more predictable.
I’m not sure it was posted anywhere else on bikecalgary.org yet, but the City is looking at changes to the Traffic Bylaw as it pertains to cycling.
Feedback and details https://engage.calgary.ca/transportationbylaw
Safe Passing Law – Requiring 1m space when passing. Definitely would appreciate this as it would hopefully raise awareness and improve safety, particularly if enforced. On multi-lane roads (many being bike routes) it would be even better if motorists were required to move into adjacent lane to pass.
Yield Instead of Stop at Pathway-Street Junctions – I think this would be good, but I think there’s a lot more that needs to be done to address right-of-way obligations at pathway-street intersections, including recognizing that any pathway crossing of a roadway is multi-use by function and should be regulated as such.
Allowing Right Arm Use to Signal Turns – Seems like an easy non-contentious change.
Legalizing other Non-Motorized Travel Modes on Bike Infrastructure – No issues with this provided people are respectful of one another and the rules. Pathways already allow other wheeled travel modes and I’ve rarely encountered any issues.
There’s a few others.
To RichieRich’s rant(s).
Rant 1: I’m not on the pathways much, so I haven’t had the lack of light experience. I think now that there’s some snow, it’ll at least help with the ambient light so that seeing people is easier.
Rant 2: I was stuck at Crow/Kensington the other day and it seemed everyone either assumed the people already there had pressed the walk button or figured it was an automatic walk signal. We almost had to wait an extra full light signal! Everyone eventually just chanced it, which led to some honking. Such poor planning and execution by the City for such a popular route detour.
Rant 3: Participation? Seems to be similar to levels in the past few months or year. Not that that’s a good thing. Definitely is good to see more dialogue than less.
A while back I said I’d switched to running solid on the back as well as front. I found that I was running through battery power really fast on the back lights so I’m probably going to run flashing mode again…maybe…
My rants:
Motorists on Northmount. Some are great, but there’s way too many that seem to think passing into opposing traffic or squeezing by as I’m riding past a line of parked cars is a good idea. I’ve seen more than a few near head-on collisions, particularly at intersections when someone is turning onto Northmount opposite direction to the driver passing me. I’m not going to ride in the door zone when passing parked cars, so there’s not enough room to pass in the same lane and moving over to pass in the opposing lane, while nice to have the space, isn’t very safe when part of the pass occurs in an intersection. I will move into the parking lane when it’s empty for a ways, so lots of opportunity for people to pass then.
Snow Clearing. None of the pathways in my neighbourhood had been cleared as of mid-afternoon, even though there’s huge foot traffic. Closer to downtown, I noticed the pathways were cleared along the river and on the north side of Crowchild detour, but the overpass near 19th Street NW had not been touched. Can anyone point to a roadway that’s cleared up to a bridge on either side, but the bridge left covered in snow?
I’ve been fortunate in that I been able to go mostly on-street from Dalhousie to Downtown via Northland, Northmount and 10th Street, so avoiding the river pathway detours. On the positive, it’s shorter. On the negative, there’s more interaction with traffic and, particularly, Northmount can be a pain due to lack of bike accommodation and some of the resulting very questionable passing that occurs. When I do take the pathway though, I find the biggest frustration is crossing Crowchild, due to the wait, then joining back to the pathway via 29th Street as it’s definitely not bike-equitable.
I do wonder, now that the City is proposing improvements to 2nd Street SW, related to paving, for the summer of 2019, if they will also follow-through the Northmount project, particularly given that the supposed reason for breaking it into two phases was that they had insufficient funding? 2nd Street would seem to indicate funding is available for these types of projects.
I’m running two Planet Bike superflash (I think they are superflash anyway) on the back. They are pretty bright and I noticed a fair bit of bike traffic this year, so didn’t want to overwhelm anyone behind me, particularly on the pathways, but also at stops on the cycle tracks and bike lanes. I think the solid still gives pretty good light with the both combined.
On the front I’ve got matching Niterider Lumina lights and they don’t have a really low setting, so I think flash mode would be really annoying, both to oncoming traffic, but also for me (might remind me of an ’80’s dance!).
We’ll see how it goes on the back. It seems the flash mode does give a bit more battery life, so may switch back, or just recharge the batteries more often.
Managed to get the studded tires on Sunday evening. Always a bit of an odd sensation on the first few minutes of a ride, particularly given the front one is a new one! Hoping the roads aren’t too bad tomorrow, particularly the side roads, as they are my alternative during the pathway closures.
On the LimeBike topic, I wasn’t aware they don’t have lights?! For anyone interested that doesn’t follow Tom Babin’s Shifter Site, Tom did a bit of a blurb on some of the challenges they might face (it also contains some useful info on how to use the system).
I’ve decided that, from now on, I’m going to run all my lights on solid mode. I’ve been doing this for a few years now with the front, but I think I’ll stick to it for the back lights too.
Stopped by the 16th Avenue Widening open house (project area Crowchild Trail to 19th Street NW). Definitely encourage people to check out the info boards and provide comments.
https://engage.calgary.ca/16avenuewidening
If you ever travel via Capitol Hill Crescent and use the pedestrian (and bike) overpass across 16th Avenue to Briar Hill and vis-a-vis, you’ll probably want to make some comments as to the fate of the overpass.
