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Where is the best place to park to start such a ride? I’m thinking of taking my kid or a friend out on that route. Would be nice to have some options like 40km, 60km, 80km versions. Am coming from far NW Calgary.
agreed.
I tend to look about every 3-4 months on a whim, but little to report.
Not sure where everyone went. The “upgrade” really caused a mass exodus. Somehow I think Covid did as well due to people not riding the paths quite so much.Some folks might have headed to CalgaryPuck.
Yesterday I had my first-of-2020 annual spotting of the naive backwards-helmet wearer. I even stopped them and told them but they said “I know” and then kept going. Pretty funny. wow.
So so many “new” or “newbie” or novice riders out there. Kids and adults alike. Rather chaotic. People need to just calm down. It’s not reasonable for that many walkers to all have spatial awareness nor move as a coordinated group when some cyclist comes roaring down the path. So on that note… consider riding outside of the core and central path areas. Oddly enough Google Maps allows you to select a layer that shows Calgary bike paths – so use that to explore other areas including neighborhoods and such.
As a keen roadie, there are also a lot of decent and safe roads outside of Calgary. I’ve been re-exploring a bunch in the north and west of Calgary as well as around Springbank areas.
Also riding earlier in the day makes a huge difference in conflict avoidance.
Thanks 2Wheeler.
To be clear, yes I agree with you… it’s amazingly different from when I started year-round bike commuting early 2000’s. Many a day with lots of snow, ice, and nastiness. Somehow seemed easier for me then, but that was before a lot of wipeouts plus I was racing bikes so super super fit.These days our bar certainly is higher. I certainly do appreciate the extra efforts. In the past a single pass down the paths was a treat and great. Now we have grown to expect double-wide plow and sweeping. This often causes center-line ridges or drifts on each side of the path that melt into the center. sigh. Or when the plow/sweep gets to a pathway intersection and “twirls” in place and leaves some teepee in the middle. Not perfect but still pretty darn good really. over 10 years ago I found it mandatory to have super studded tires front and back. These days, not so much even when “icy”. Of course my personal fear/pucker factor is a lot more sensitive which doesn’t help at all.
Going into spring yes there are many additional hazards, of which snow/ice are some. I’m honestly a lot more concerned about the yearly spring influx of unfit unaware entitled almost-new noobie slow head-phone wearing riders wobbling around maybe with their equally or moreso family unit(s) and pet pooch(es) on a leash (or not). These folks are the real risks.
oh wait… I think that was a rant… Rant Over!
Stay fit healthy and upright folks!
Honestly if you are using the paths you do so at your own discretion, risk, consideration for your own safety, and using the “facilities” (including pathways) in a manner appropriate for conditions. You cannot assume other users are more/less/equally vigilant and considerate, nor is it reasonable to assume that conditions remain consistent hour to hour or day to to. For example melt water freezing, puddles to ice, gravel/sands, perfect grading, perfect topography, or kids moving chunks of snow, or river banks overflowing, rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc… Now if a city-owned truck or plow/sweep drove down the path and damaged you/bike/whatever then that’s a different issue arising from negligence. So yeah, obviously I’m not agreeing entirely, however there are always specific exceptions.
Riding from Downtown to Home Road area yesterday (16 Mar) after work…. after being told that I would be working from home… after most others had already been told this end of prior week… SO so so many people out walking on the paths. Kids, parents, etc… all happy to be outside, away from people and hopefully CoVid19. Nice to see… but too bad so many are clueless about other path users. So keep your head up, anticipate random moves (ie cover your brakes), and watch for varying path conditions as we start the spring thaw/freeze cycles.
Also have figure out that my work commuting is what keeps me fit and motivated… hardly motivated to work out at home despite having treadmill, trainer, and a big screen TV in the basement rec-room.
Crivak – perhaps there’s some “recency effect” going on there!!? I recall a not-so-rosy start to winter with some poor clearing that turned to ice. Then a few other delays and not clearing to bare pavement that also left some icyness about. Then for a while there they didn’t clear wide enough but thankfully they came back and pushed snow further away from the path and that was about a month back I think. The last couple weeks of freeze/thaw was pretty aggressive resulting in many sketchy mornings but that’s not the fault of the plowing IMHO. So to your 90% I’m going to vote a solid 70% which is about average’ish. Yes the pathway hills have sure been evil for many.
My other annoyance is how eagerly and quickly people have removed their bike lights. Too many saying they can still see well enough yet can’t be seen. And now with the time change here we go again. This milder afternoon weather has certainly brought out quite a few riders.
With the meltwaters it’s also made commuting via neighborhood roads a bit sketchy like Crivak says especially when one has to own the lane to avoid ice patches. Fortunately no drivers have been meenies to me.
Lets hope this weekends snowfall becomes a letdown… ie not much and it melts fast.
Hey Crivak… yah I’m skipping this cold snap too thanks to some lower lumbar spasm issues which won’t play nice with this amount of cold. I managed to ride all of last Febs nastyness every work day (ok it was from Homeroad parking lot to/from DT). Hope to get back on the bike next week again.
Sadly when BC migrated from the old forum to the new one a couple years ago we lost a LOT of history and reference material. seem some folks got traumatized and didn’t continue.
As for Twitter… I’m still avoid that social platform. It’s too much already for me with Facebook and LinkedIn and FacedIn and Linkbook and however they mix each other.
I’m still waiting for Canadian Tires next sale on their snowmobile lobster gloves… hope I didn’t leave it too late. My old pair is all packed out and imminently failing and now is cold below -15 whereas they used to be good riding down to -25’ish. some finger liners kinda helphttps://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/men-s-kombi-two-finger-snowmobile-gloves-0872127p.0872130.html#Clearance
I think the unspoken question should be more around what can be done to reinvigorate these message boards? Since the new Bike Calgary message format started it seems we’ve lost many regulars.
The snow squads have definitely done a MUCH better job this week…. phew!! That said there’s still room for improvement to get to end of last years standards which include:
– where the path ends at a road… don’t leave a pile of snow there. Move it to the side.
– where paths join, don’t plow in a “Y” shape where that little “v” at the top gets a pile of snow.
– please clear full width of path.
– once snow stops falling… go back and PLOW approx 18″-24″ from the edges of the path. This allows meltwater to stay off the path. It always melts, and nothing worse or more dangerous than ice that slowly builds on the edges complete with a bit of a melt-ramp.
– Peace Bridge… sigh…where do I start… both ends still need a LOT of work to clear it so one can ramp effectively on and off realizing that bikes don’t turn at hard 90° angles. We cut corners. Also on the south side… we need that short ~75m stretch between the Bridge and the actual bike path cleared as it gets real nasty real quick. Bikes are now starting to ride on the pedestrian area (where we used to ride all the time before that dedicated lane came) in order to ride safely.All that being said… after a rough first outing last week… this snowfall is a significant improvement. I try to give a friendly wave to the folks in their little vehicles as I do actually appreciate their efforts.
Hey Gyro… today WAS actually better than Wednesdays commute!! both going into downtown this morning and coming home this eve. Plus they emptied a full truck load of gravel I’m sure spread out between downtown and Edworthy.
By FAR the worst path areas are from around Prince’s Island (south side) until past Peace bridge. Highest number of crap areas, squirrelly, rutted and nasty. and that’s with two studded tires. AFTER I dropped their pressure from ~60psi down to about 35-40psig.So gotta complain about the MUP between Edworthy and downtown today…. I realize that the recent snow was a “surprise” but a worse surprise was the crap job that was done attempting to clear it. There were huge chunks (ie basketball size), there were windrows in the middle of one lane, huge sections of glaze ice/hardpack, lots of stutter bumps, moguls, some air time, tracks from the machine doing 360°’s (no joke), and generally they made life hard for a few days. So ride your studded tires, at low pressure. It was the most sketchy for this season, and close to the worst from last year. At least we have a few warm days ahead but Thursday morning is not gonna be fun.
Thanks for the awesome link Gyro. I watched the video… comments:
1. I don’t think they coulda used more land if they tried on the new West expansion area
2. Hope they take care of the pathways around the new interchanges at Nosehill, Bowmont, 16th Ave, some new climbs up to OldBanff, and of course the new bridge area on Old Banff which is a HIGHLY used cycling corridor for us roadies.
3. To answer your question… they’ve been putting in a LOT of piles the last few months near Stoney and 16th Ave, and more recently on the embankments of the Bow, plus doing huge widening activities. Can see this from both driving the bridge and also cycling in that area.
