Wednesday, May 27, 2009

toronto's jarvis street bike lane feud re: Kitchener and Waterloo




D: those are pics of Jarvis Street now, after, and before.
Note that the original green space and lovely trees were eaten up by cars.
Now, bikes are being artificially portrayed as a threat to increased pedestrian space.
If this is so, it is only cuz King Car gobbled up the rest of the space.
I have 4 observations about bike lanes in this situation:
1) placing a bike lane on a main way means a bus route, and that means leapfrog with buses
2) practical bicycling will encourage drivers to switch to cycles, thereby reducing traffic
3) parking is not OK in a bike lane, but stopping to drop off a passenger (like a Taxi) is OK
4) making a bike lane too wide- 1.5m in the case of Jarvis - may encourage the bike lane being treated as either a car turn lane or a parking spot.
D: as a compromise, I personally think bike lanes could be used to hold snow in the winter.
Piling it onto the sidewalk is retarded.
Funny thing about main roads.
For example, King St. in Kitchener.
There are 2 car lanes each way.
There is a sidewalk on each side, without any gap by the road.
Of course, the snow plow buries the sidewalk.
Mike, a bar owner on the street, was out there most of last winter doing heavy shovelling.
Here's a heretical idea: lose a car lane.
And I don't mean the 5th car lane in the middle like Jarvis.
I mean one of the 2-wide car lanes for traffic.
Put in a bike lane both ways.
Have only one lane for cars one way.
Obviously, you need an advanced turn green light.
Use the bike lanes for snow in the winter.
Uptown Waterloo, we have heaps of parking- there is a parking garage!
The sidewalks are narrow.
They compete with store signs, baby strollers and bicycles.
There is on street parking.
I suggest:
1) replace on street parking with drop off / pick up zones.
Unlike Toronto, DON'T sacrifice sidewalk in the process- that is just more "Car is King" thinking!
2) lose a car lane both ways. They are just used for cars trying to park anyway, so there is only effectively ONE lane each way not anyhow.
3) put in bike lanes.
Bikes instead go on the narrow sidewalk. There really isn't space.
But the alternative to getting car-doored is ... wait for it... to occupy a whole car lane.
That always goes over so well with drivers, who have no sense of just how deadly all that on-street parking is to a cyclist.
Plus nobody can parallel park. Meaning we have SUV sized vehicles over a foot out from the curb, physically IN the car lane.
I tried to stay in the car lane with a boss's van some years back.
I was even riding the centre line.
I still clipped my mirror on ill-parked cars!
Rant: whoever laid out the uptown Waterloo on-street parking and sidewalks should be fired.
No thought was put into where bike stands were placed. Some leave the bike half in flower garden.
Some are jammed on newspaper boxes.
There are very few along long stretches.
I'd like to see them coated in rubber or plastic.
I'll take a buncha pics and archive it.



Tuesday, May 19, 2009

bud's encounter with law on ICE motor assisted cycle

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/vehicle/emerging/#power

D: Will works at the local café.
He found this sweet ride at an auction.
Likely worth 1000 bux, I gave him an on sale then half-price siren cable lock for 10 bux.
Anyway, he said he wasn't sure if he could drive it legally.

I was sure a motor assist to 30kph was OK.
But when I looked up the laws, it differentiates between power sources.

A MOPED is

A motor-assisted bicycle is a bicycle that:
is fitted with pedals that are operable at all times to propel the bicycle;
weighs not more than 55 kilograms;
has no hand or foot operated clutch or gearbox driven by the motor and transferring power to the driven wheel;
has a piston displacement of not more that 50 cubic centimetres; and,
does not attain a speed greater than 50 km/hr on level ground within a distance of 2 km from a standing start.

An E-BIKE is

An e-bike is a bike that:
has steering handlebars and is equipped with pedals;
is designed to be propelled primarily by muscular power and to travel on not more than three wheels;
has a motor that has a power output rating of 500W or less. (Note: the motor is electric, and is incapable of propelling the cycle at speed of 32km/h or greater on level ground, without pedaling.) and
bears a permanently affixed label by the manufacturer stating in both official languages that the vehicle conforms to the federal definition of a power-assisted bicycle.

D: note "THE MOTOR IS ELECTRIC".

D: his ride has a cute lil' gas tank built into the top tube. It's combustion.
I did NOT know ICE engines are treated differently...

--------------
Aside: I drove on the highway on this Victoria Day weekend.
I cannot believe how bad some drivers are!
Ride a second of reaction time behind each other.
Alternately hit gas-brake-gas...
I ride bicycles. I try very hard to conserve energy approaching a stop. After all, it is hard earned by muscle energy. A red light ruins my day.
I am essentially a hypermiler 'lite' due to my biking background.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

a casual conversation with a Critical Mass participant

Today, I went to my fave café.

A fellow was sitting beside me.
We started up a conversation on various subjects.
We talked about the worker's very cool Harley-fusion bicycle with a motor assist.

I mentioned I have a bike blog.
He said he was involved with Critical Mass.
I said I read their Facebook group entry about mixing it up with cops, and wanted no part of it.
He then talked about one of the last rallies.
The cyclists not only rode double (side by side), but in both lanes and through red lights.
One cop tried to charge some people for it, only to find himself surrounded by a 100 cyclists.

This did nothing to change my opinion of CM.
They're hooligans, plain and simple.
The transit advocacy issue is a handy excuse for them to express their collective assholishness.

Do they really think any coverage is good coverage?
Drivers and walkers already think cyclists acts like the rules don't apply to them.

I saw a fellow cycling full tilt on the sidewalk on the left not right hand side.
He nearly got taken out by a car leaving Westmount mall.
At c. 30kph, the driver had about a second of reaction time to see a rapidly closing object from an unexpected direction. I would not have been too upset if something happened. That's the learning curve for the slow folks- pain is a great teacher.

Oscar Wilde famously quipped that the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about.
He was wrong.
The modern day confuses fame with infamy. Instead of grace and poise from Hollywood, we get lewd up-skirts. Look at me, look at me! ...

Critical Mass is the worst thing to ever happen to bicycle advocacy.
I will have NOTHING to do with them.

They are anathema.

I am applying to a local job as an alternative transit advocate.
I will not be associating CM with anything.

What a bunch of losers.
Get a life.

D>

Monday, May 4, 2009

full size grown-up folding bike


D: most of the folding bikes wouldn't cut it on a real road.
Those silly tiny wheels would be gruesome on pot holes and real cracked roads.
Not to mention gravel.
Keep in mind this would travel well on an airplane too. Take it with you!