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As of this evening (Thurs) the new winding MUP just west of Eau Claire is still pretty dang nasty with lots of slick sections that haven’t been treated at all with anything it seems. Glad I have studded tires and even then I’m taking those a bit easy.
Thursday morning the north side MUP between Peace Bridge and the Skating Rink (ha ha… I mean the Princes’ Island bridge by the stairs) still had lots and lots of varying ice, slush, and ruts. The worst conditions I’ve seen on my travels have been this section this entire week and no further efforts to mitigate. The warmer weather had almost no effect and now we’re back to a deep freeze.
It’s turning into that winter period were at least front studded tire goes a long ways towards improving safety.
My “surprising” gear grinder… I’m still seeing cyclists with ZERO lights. Seriously. and all black gear, no reflecty anything. “But I can see just fine, I don’t need no lights”. Yeah ok tell that to the car/cyclist/runner that hit you that you saw them coming at you just fine even though you were the black hole. sigh… At least most of the ninja-runners wear clothing with something reflective plus move a lot slower so there’s a bit more hope there. sheeesh…
That said gotta admit its quite nice riding the paths with relatively few people compared to a few years back. That said there are more winter commuters now than when $120 oil had all the additional 1000’s of downtown workers. And with only the hardcores riding now at least most people move at a decent pace, hold their lines, and know to stick more to the right of their lanes.
Ron… nice capture of that rider in SHORTS in January. made me smile… truly an indication of our mild winter. And yes, the NIGHT time closures are very stealth and appreciated. Plus I have yet to notice any debris as the paths are reasonably clean/clear (except for the obvious snow).
Parkdale detour… half and half. Some fine and ok and some thick with mushy snow. Alternate is cross at the lights and take the sidewalks parallel with Memorial. Hardly ever see anyone along there except occasionally at one bus stop that has a bench. Better today than yesterday for sure.
The south of the Peace bridge area continues to be a challenge with lighting and inability of the snow clearing crews to actually understand how to clear pathways consistently and along the high traffic routes. For example the north end of the Peace bridge still has that squirrelly deep’ish snow to navigate.
Am concerned about frost and meltwater ice in the morning along the MUP.
Although the MUP towards Crowchild was looking promising for opening soon there hasn’t been any further activity in about a week. Who knows?? any bets… January??
I’m all for the safe passing law. Having had too many near-dooring-close-calls it doesn’t make sense to hug the parked cars AND also get close calls on your left. Just asking for that double whammy.
Yield instead of stop… oh this is a tough one. Especially since all user groups generally seem to fail miserably already it’s almost an attempt at making what’s already been done “ok” IMO.
Right arm to turn right… been doing that for years. So many people out there don’t have the shoulder rotation to effectively do a decent LEFT arm indication to turn right. Unless maybe one is sitting vertically but those roadies with the slammed stems it’s just not realistic. The right arm pointing right is easy for all to comprehend, use, and see.
Other modes… generally I don’t have an issue having seen it work fairly well, mostly. just some jerks doing 35km/hr plus (up to ~50-60’ish even) on the MUPs using noise smelly gas engines but I haven’t seen much of that this year. Let’s just keep the horses off please. 🙂
nope there it is. AFTER I posted about missing the post. weird. I had even reloaded the page several times.
Consider this another request to for BC to determine if we can see “un-read post” markers like the old web site.
mystery of missing posts… where are they? are others missing too?
I posted a bit of a rant a couple days ago and it’s not here…Part rant and part update
Rant: grrrrrr… seen too many running and cycling ninja’s out there sans lights and reflectors. The bikers all seem to have the same attitude problem of “hey I can see you and other stuff” not realizing that nobody can see them to avoid them when it comes to corners, passing, etc…
Rant 2: Crowchild detour. OMG it almost makes me want to ride the south side. I still see riding lights that side so gotta wonder how bad is it? Anyone know?
Rant 3: Bike Calgary forum participation… all time low?
Update: Crowchild bridge and MUP heading west. Still closed but clearly preparing to open soon’ish, whatever that means. They’ve extended the black asphalt on the south side to align the paths. On the north side they’ve been doing some trail cleaning and started taking down some barriers (but leaving some of the critical ones). At the bridge itself there’s still the high fencing, tape, signage etc… Anyone know the ETA on opening?
Dagnabbit the weird online ‘bots have attacked the BC forums!! eeeek.
Hopefully this can be defended against cos Mr.ZZZZ..456 is a real PIA.Along Memorial Dr it can be hard to see oncoming riders prior to sunrise or after sunset. The reason being there are a lot of moving VEHICLE lights right next to the MUP that somewhat meanders along. For this reason an oncoming rider having more than 1 light, or even a decent blinky/flash, can be beneficial to help them stand out. Of course for those riders/runners/users without any light source or reflector that’s a whole different level of… er… frustration.
For those riders who like to run with 700lumen plus (or plus plus plus), please be aware of your high/low aim. Regardless of steady or flash mode. And if you come up behind someone and sit on their @$$ it’s quite rude. I *HATE* when “that guy” has such a strong light behind me that my own shadow makes it hard to see my own light. In those cases please pass ASAP, don’t sit there, and when I slow down or even stop peddling it means GTFO my back wheel. Seriously people… be considerate. It’s the equivalent to having a tall SUV with mega lights flooding the inside of your little sedan and rearview mirror.
As for the Crowchild trail crossing… sigh… this is painful. I swear it’s a 5min wait. I was there earlier this week with about FIFTEEN riders. I haven’t seen any workers or equipment on the section of MUP immediately west of the Crowchild Bridge so am struggling to note progress or foresee them opening soon. Anyone have a better idea of their supposed timing for completion? The route through the neighborhood (or along Memorial Dr sidewalks) is rather hit and miss with conditions. Once ridden a time or two it’s easy and not busy with traffic however all those stop signs make for inefficiency.
I tried the south side a couple times this week after following the trails around the closed gates and yeah… that glacier is slowly growing and getting wider and slicker.
Bike lights – not optional really. But apparently to some. Problem is the people who don’t have lights say they don’t need them to see, not realizing they’re causing danger to all oncomers not just themselves. Not so mention if on the roads they’re virtually invisible. Do yourselves a favor and pack 2-3 lights for each of front and back. They don’t all need to be on, but backups are very useful when batteries die.
Tires – yeah, studded in front helps A LOT. That said I commuted for ~5years on a 2.2″ MTB just with lower pressure and that worked pretty good actually. Some of the newer compounds and tires treads are much better.
Paths – sigh…. (‘nuf said!!). That danged Crowchild closure is a real beeeeeatch. As is the south side water trickle that freezes every night. A work collegue took a good tumble there recently on their road bike.
I have been riding there for a few weeks along the extra-wide part that now includes both bike lanes and the pedestrian part. Unfortunately the construction graded that path (to the MIDDLE of the pedestrian part) so it’s highest closer to the river and lower closer to the road. It was not apparant to me that it was crowned like it should have been. So when they plowed most of the snow to the high area it slowly melted and drained across the bike path. With the sub-zero temps this resulted in lots of icy rivlets/crossings.
Otherwise the fresh smooth tarmac for those few 100 meters has been quite pleasant and nice.
now if only they’d do the south side for the ~2km east of Edworthy where its narrow, broken, wet, etc…I still cannot believe there are people riding around in the dark (ie well before sun rise, or even a hint of light) without anything… no lights, no reflectors, nothing reflective, wearing all black. And they ain’t ninjas. I think…
How is it that there are still bugs out there!!??
I’ve eaten too many this past Wed-Friday.Gotta say that the sunrises looking towards the east have been spectacular. Ditto for when approaching downtown from the East side… that morning glow plus buildings still with lights is actually awesome. Going home I’ve seen lots of people watching the sunset from the benches up on Nosehill too. Gotta just slow down and appreciate nature sometimes. Doesn’t always have to be a rat-race!
Best to look them up on the mighty Google.
First… white in front, red in back. It’s the law.
Realistically you don’t need to complicate things… Bow, MEC, BikeBike, etc… all carry fully competent lighting. My advice however is that you want something that is BRIGHT (ie minimum 50lumen, preferably more), something that does different light modes (ie slow flash, fast, alternating, etc.), has a decent battery life, and actually have more than 1 light. Light batteries die, lights fall off, lights get dirty, lights get put in bad places and get covered or blocked, etc… so, as someone who rides all seasons and has done so for 10+ years… have fun with lights and remember they’re all that lets those around you know you’re ahead of that big fast moving truck.
