bike good. car bad. infographic.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/bike-to-work-infographic-benefits-health_n_1145815.html

K-W consider finishing trail in 3yrs for 3mil

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/626310--waterloo-considers-complete-network-of-trails

The first priority is to finish the Laurel Trail and the Trans-Canada Trail that run up Caroline Street, through Waterloo Park and the University of Waterloo. Large segments of this trail are heavily used now by students and recreational cyclists heading for St. Jacobs.

The second priority is what d’Ailly calls the Interior Loop Trail. This would form a large circle with City Hall on Regina Street at the bottom and the Manulife Financial office at King Street North and the Conestoga Parkway at the top.

D’Ailly says the trail is largely complete, but desperately needs good signs showing cyclists and pedestrians which way to go, on-road-bike lanes to close some gaps and safe ways to cross a few busy roads.

local cycling feedback

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/622769--cyclists-want-drivers-to-share-the-road

Verlegh and Shehata were among more than 80 people attending the public input session for Walk Cycle Waterloo Region. Planners want feedback on how the region can better support pedestrians and cyclists as they prepared a new master plan that combines separate ones.

The next public meeting is scheduled for Nov. 17 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 54 Queen St. North in Kitchener.

Regional planners use the input and other research to produce preliminary action plans.

Another round of public meetings will be held in the spring for feedback on those proposed plans covering roadway design, a cycling/walking network, infilling gaps, local projects of regional importance, a winter network, strategic signage and education programs.

Julia Canning, who rides a bicycle every day from her home in Kitchener to university classes in Waterloo, has scars on her body from when she was hit by a vehicle.

Canning was walking her bicycle in a crosswalk. She had the green light. The driver was turning right on a red and didn’t see her. The driver fled the scene.

“It is terrifying,” Canning said of the collision. “It is an incredibly frightening experience.”

Right turns on red lights should be banned, as they are in many American jurisdictions and in Quebec, she said.

“Drivers will look for other cars, but they don’t look for pedestrians,” Canning said.

George Roth said the off-road trails need better connections and better signs.

“It’s fine to have trails, but if you don’t have them connected they don’t work very well,” Roth said.

transit expert confirms my opinions on bike lanes

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1081938--cycling-safely-toward-a-better-city

Given this high fatality rate, Ontario’s chief coroner last month launched the first ever province-wide review of cycling deaths. The investigation will probe bike-related fatalities from 2006 to 2010, attempting to identify common denominators and recommend measures to prevent such tragedies in future.

One person passionately concerned about bike safety, both in Toronto and around the world, is Gil Penalosa, a strategic consultant for the Danish firm Gehl Architects and a world-renowned expert on sustainable transportation. I spoke with him last week about cycling deaths in Toronto.

Calling our current unseparated bike lines “kamikaze lanes,” Penalosa, the former commissioner of parks, sports and recreation in Bogota, Colombia, says there is one main question to ask before building a bike lane: Is it safe enough for my 8-year-old child and my 80-year-old grandparent? If not, then the general public will not embrace it.

...

For Penalosa, a critical factor in promoting cycling safety involves lowering the speed in neighbourhoods to 30 kilometres per hour or less. According to numerous studies, the probability of a cyclist dying when hit by a car going 30 km/h is 5 per cent; that jumps to 80 per cent when a car is travelling 50 km/h. That is why the World Health Organization recommends 30 km/h speed limits in urban neighbourhoods, as does the European Union.

A second crucial factor is the construction of protected bike lanes, separating sidewalks, bike lanes, and then parked cars, sometimes on different levels, arranging them so that the parked cars serve to protect the cyclists.

“In Toronto,” he quips, “we have it the other way around. We have the cyclists protecting the parked cars.”

But Toronto doesn’t need bike lanes, it needs a bike grid, Penalosa argues. Unless there is a network of connectivity, a united matrix of bike lanes, then bike use will be severely constrained.

“Toronto is an ideal place for such a bike grid,” Penalosa observes. We are relatively flat, and have an urban rectangle of about 20 kilometres by 40 kilometres.”

For Penalosa, however, bike lanes are not an end in themselves, but a means to sustainable, vibrant cities. He observes that since protected bike lanes were installed in Copenhagen, the “rock star” of the bike lane world, 40 per cent of the population uses bikes as a principal means of transportation. In Toronto, by contrast, it is 2 per cent.

This results not only in less air pollution, fewer traffic jams and safer streets — it also leads to a more intimate, concentrated, livable and less alienating city centre.

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D - I have lamented about 'bike lane islands' being of no use.

Sad that K-W will spend huge money on light rail, but a decent network of bike trails - with the health care savings that come with that- seem to elude them.

What we have is a failure of imagination. And leadership...

more 'faux bike lane' traps in town

I was driving behind King near GR Hospital.

The road, like Westmount Road, had a paint line like the ones used for bike lanes. There could not have been more than a foot of asphalt left of the line. Even better, the cement in the curb was sharply raised at least an inch above the asphalt. Cyclists are very wary of such features- it is a good way to suddenly wipe out when it catches the front tire. A non-recumbent bike must also consider the risk of the right pedal clipping the curb also causing an accident.

So the cyclist on such a road must ride left of the line - or right on it - be cycle safely.

Meanwhile, car drivers assume the painted line indicates a bike lane, and automatically centre their cars in 'their' lane based on that assumption.

The result is that a car centred in their lane may very well still hit a cyclist who is hugging the side of the road as best they can.

The city designers are an embarrassment to their profession. By simply removing the painted line, the cyclists and car drivers automatically will centre and space themselves properly. (I've cited those studies before.) So by painting that line on the road, the designers have actually paid MORE in order to make LESS safe roads.

Just unbelievable.

I'm ashamed for them.

more 'faux bike lane' traps in town

I was driving behind King near GR Hospital.

The road, like Westmount Road, had a paint line like the ones used for bike lanes. There could not have been more than a foot of asphalt left of the line. Even better, the cement in the curb was sharply raised at least an inch above the asphalt. Cyclists are very wary of such features- it is a good way to suddenly wipe out when it catches the front tire. A non-recumbent bike must also consider the risk of the right pedal clipping the curb also causing an accident.

So the cyclist on such a road must right left of the line - or right on it - be cycle safely.

Meanwhiler, car drivers assume the painted line indicates a bike lane, and automatically centre their cars in 'their' lane based on that assumption.

The result is that a car centred in their lane may very well still hit a cyclist who is hugging the side of the road as best they can.

The city designers are an embarrassment to their profession. By simply removing the painted line, the cyclists and car drivers automatically will centre and space themselves properly. (I've cited those studies before.) So by painted that line on the road, the designers have actually paid MORE in order to make LESS safe roads.

Just unbelievable.

I'm ashamed for them.

bike for short trips worth billions- USA study

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111102082804.htm

The biggest health benefit was due to replacing half of the short trips with bicycle trips during the warmest six months of the year, saving about $3.8 billion per year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for conditions like obesity and heart disease.

The report calculated that these measures would save an estimated $7 billion, including 1,100 lives each year from improved air quality and increased physical fitness.

--------------------

So Waterloo can find money for an ambitious 'light rail' plan.

Toronto still wants to expand the subway.

But nobody can seem to manage a decent bike lane/ multi-use trail system that can get you from one end of town to the other - that 5mile sweet spot for 1/2 to 3/4 of the year - for bicycles.

This is a failure of the will and imagination - not of funding.

D - I am quite intrigued by elevated bike paths.

It somewhat resembled Chinese plans for extra-wide commuter light rail over roads.

I saw something like that in Detroit.

placing bike lanes by sidewalk, not outside of parking

No fun at all, being uptown Waterloo. Endless car-dooring chances. Traffic.

The sidewalks are choked with signage, if not pedestrians.

Bikes- the unwanted bastard child of walker and driver.

Not really though- they were the car version 1. Caused quite a stir in their day.

I don't consider cycling practical- not without supporting infrastructure.

Aside- studies say women prefer trails and other bike venues away from traffic.

waterloo to put cycling on equal footing

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/531511--waterloo-adopts-groundbreaking-transportation-plan

When city councillors adopted the new plan they enshrined the doctrine of “Complete Streets” as official-municipal policy.

“Plan, design, operate and maintain streets to enable all users of all ages and abilities — pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists — to safely move along and across city streets,” the Transportation Master Plan, says

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D - winter is nearly here. Hey I've done my share of winter cycling.

But maybe bike lanes are an easier pitch when portrayed as somewhere to put all that snow.

Otherwise, without proper clearance, it ends up thrown onto the sidewalk.

new traffic idea 'bike boxes'

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/bike-boxes-come-to-toronto-in-last-gasp-of-bike-infrastructure-investment.html

From Toronto. And yep, they're still going on about the only (freakish) bike-on-pedestrian accident resulting in death in the last 3 years...

100 buck fine for dooring cyclist to death

http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2011/10/driver-in-fatal-dooring-will-likely-pay-110.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Driver+faces+fine+after+cyclist+dies/5606689/story.html

The crash happened on Oct. 11 just before 9 a.m. Nacu had been cycling when she was struck by a door being opened by the driver of a parked car as she passed. Nacu was thrown off her bike into oncoming traffic and struck by a Volkswagen.

Nacu was pronounced dead at the scene.

So that is why cyclists dislike on-street parking so much.

But uptown Waterloo, if you try to occupy a whole lane to stay a yard away from an endless row of car doors, well expect honking despite the presence of a pass lane.

coroner to study bicycle deaths

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1075267--coroner-to-review-ontario-cycling-deaths

The first ever province-wide review of cycling deaths will examine fatalities from 2006 to 2010, try to identify common factors and make recommendations to prevent future deaths. Coroner’s inquests do not assign blame or make any judicial findings.

D - the pic is of a "ghost bike".

Recycle cycles made on for that fellow on University Ave. last year. But

1) they assumed everybody knows what a ghost bike is, and

2) they locked it to a sign. The bike was simply lifted over the top of the sign, and ended up by a dumpster on the residential property I live at.

D - a large laminated "what is a ghost bike" would have actually increased awareness, as opposed to just eliciting curiosity and puzzlement from the public.

------------------------------

http://www.maplandia.com/canada/ontario/waterloo-regional-municipality/kitchener/

Grr, Bulent is not saving the file pic.

Ok, look up Caroline and Erb in Waterloo.

I've seen so many cyclists blow through the pedestrian cross walks once the walk sign has expired. And nearly get splattered.

On Thanksgiving weekend, I saw a truck pulling a ?! plane with no wings on a trailer.

A cyclist cut in front of him as he tried to turn right onto Erb from the one way.

He hauled on the brakes and got within a meter of the cyclist.

I've been cut off in my car by a cyclist heading off the trail to Caroline as I turned left onto Erb.

I'm not sure what about this corner makes cyclists so nonchalant, but they are their own worst enemies.

I dismount and walk my bike across when I use the pedestrian crosswalk.

Playing chicken on a bike against a ton of steel is not a wise career choice.

rental bikes. cities of the world.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110909-travelwise-bike-sharing-around-the-world

D - locally, this is the chicken before the egg.
The egg being a working network of bike lanes, and a trail between Guelph and Kitchener.
Build it and they will come.
But build it in the right order.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-police-considering-charges-for-cyclist-who-fatally-struck-pedestrian/article2158467/

D - I detect a double standard. Last year, a car hit a bike in a bike lane and killed the cyclist. There were no angry editorials.
But if a cyclist- also in the wrong lane ( a sidewalk), and for considerably better reasons, hits a pedestrian? Off with his head!
This is BS.
It's the war on the cyclist.
Ford is full of it - there is no war on the car.
There IS a war on the unquestioned supremacy of the car.
The car basically has a Monroe Doctrine and no other means of transportation is allowed to questions its empire-like status.

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/531368--is-paid-parking-coming-to-uptown-waterloo
Biz is abuzz about this. A car occupies an area of about 7x15'. It is public land. Not everybody has cars. What is wrong with charging a fee? Plus this actually INCREASES business for them. Folks will show up, buy and go. Instead of parking all day, or move the car every 2 hours.
D

region bike lanes, now and to-be then

so... right now, we still have bike lane 'islands'.
Disconnected stretches that don't interlink.
In other words, build it and they will come.

At 40, I just suddenly stopped wanting to compete with traffic anymore.

to kill a cyclist - new westmount design

Well, I hope you appreciate this.
I just spent an hour locating the salient passage in Vanderbilt's "Traffic" book.

Page 198.
This follows a passage on the virtues of unmarked pedestrian crosswalks.
"What white lines do is enable drivers to drive faster and, intentionally or not, closer together. Similarly, several studies in different countries in different countries have found that drivers tend to give cyclists more space as they pass when they are on a street WITHOUT a bike lane. The white marking seems to work as a subliminal signal to drivers that they need to act less cautiously - that it's the edge of the lane, and not the cyclist, they need to worry about. THIS SUGGESTS THAT NO BIKE LANES ARE BETTER FOR CYCLISTS THAN INSUFFICIENTLY WIDE BIKE LANES."

'D - the obvious counter is that this thin right-side strip is not really a bike lane.
Do you suppose that drivers, looking at car-specific driving cues realize this? Consciously or unconsciously? Really? Really!?

Just a year after a cyclist was killed no more than 2 blocks from here- with a whole winter to ponder this- road designers made this stretch.
If the designer harboured a secret hatred of cyclists, then it would make sense.
But this is not intentional. Worse, in some ways - it is simple negligence.
So what are the qualifications of the road designer for Waterloo city?
And what are they worth? Cuz this 'professional' - and I use the term loosely - just designed a .... kill zone for cyclists.
Incredible.
I don't have the words.

toronto gets separated bike lanes

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/07/10/laurier-bike-lane-opens.html

Notice in the pic that the driver cannot use the bike lane to park in.

U BC makes a bikability index

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bike-friendliness-of-vancouver-neighbourhoods-mapped-by-ubc/article2077929/

-surveyed 2,100 people about factors that influence their cycling behaviour, Ms. Winters said. Most answered they are concerned about biking next to cars, biking up and down hills, the availability of racks to lock up their bikes, and the connectivity of bike-friendly streets.

The maps can be viewed at www.cher.ubc/ca/cyclingincities/tools.html. Cyclists can also search for routes based on preferred distances, air pollution levels and elevation gain. Future renderings will also allow users to click and zoom on the maps.

D: I don't consider cycling very practical without a good infrastructure.
Given the potential of bike tourism, you'd think city halls would recognize the opportunity it presents.

bikes to solve gridlock

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-life/road-sage/motorcycles-the-cure-for-bad-driving-and-grid-lock/article2072993/

“When was the last time you saw a guy speed by you on a Harley texting?” Motorcyclists are careful drivers because they have to be.

from Clark’s autobiography, You’re Welcome: “I watched that biker snake through the gridlock and the solution appeared in a flash. As a columnist, the bulk of my time was spent looking for bad driving; looking for stupidity and laziness. It was never hard to find. There was only one group that seemed to be above the usual flaws – motorcyclists. They often seemed to obey the law. They did shoulder checks. They signalled. When it came to accelerating, braking, and cornering, motorcyclists were solid. Once in a while, you’d see some yahoo speeding through highway traffic pretending he was Miguel Duhamel, but that was it.”

local bike lanes

k-w, carmbridge and guelph bike lanes

local bike trail maps