told you so. bad design, private onramp to road

D: there is the liquor store mall at the corner of Northfield 'n King in Waterloo.
I arned about the onramp onto Northfield towards King.
I saw 2 cyclists get mashed by a car there in recent months.
The cars treat it like a highway on ramp.
The ogive encourages this.
The other side of the road lacks a sidewalk and is useless farther down, where there are turnoffs to a highway feed.
Cars don't look either way.
The onramp from the mall if both too wide, and with too generous an ogive.
It encourages pre-acceleration.

On a related note, there are any number of turns where the visual barriers, typically foliae, block useful line of site on both cars and pedestrian walks.

I'm just saying that non-public road design features require regulation too for safe public road use.

D>

ghost bike for dead cyclsit on University Avenue

http://news.therecord.com/article/781858

September 25, 2010

By Melissa Tait, Record staff

WATERLOO — Standing silently together, bikes held above their heads in the middle of University Avenue, more than 100 cyclists commemorated the death of cyclist Tiberiu Alexandru David.

The solemn moment on Friday evening was capitalized by a few hollers from the cyclists as they climbed back onto their bikes and continued their ride.

The group participated in a critical mass ride, a grassroots event held on the last Friday of every month, where cyclists ride together through city streets to bring awareness to cyclist issues.

The event held special meaning for the cyclists this month.

D: Like I said, I don't mind the bicycle advocacy.

But I am unimpressed with the arbitrary linkage with global trade and the peace movement.

I happen to agree in part with those positions. But the grab-bag of issues no business in an issue-specific movement. It drives out all the moderate supporters.

Ends up being a sort of 'Apostles' Creed' you must agree with.

first cycling death of 2010 locally

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/771767

D: my roomie was afraid that was me.
It was within a block of our home.

This is the 11th traffic fatality this year, and the third of the summer, on roads patrolled by Waterloo Regional Police. At this time last year, there had also been 11 fatalities. It is the first cycling fatality in Waterloo Region in 2010.

Debris littered the roadside, and the car’s windshield was smashed on the passenger side.

That stretch of University Avenue has a marked bicycle lane. Investigators believe the cyclist was riding in the marked lane.

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D: not sure, but might explain why I got yelled at on road today.
Somebody informed me that "I am not a car"....
yeah I knew that.
Sometimes a bicyclist is safer breaking road rules than obeying them.
I'd rather be wrong and alive.
As the saying goes, better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

3 dead cyclists. thoughts

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/three-quebec-cyclists-die-in-accident-involving-pickup/article1568952/

“It's very dangerous. The cars drive too fast,” said Bruno Marcil, an avid cyclist who travels often along the road.

“It doesn't surprise me they got hit, the cars drive so fast here.”

Police said there was a bike path nearby but the cyclists weren't found on it. The path had paved and gravel parts, and the bicycles had thin tires.

D: notice anything from earlier pics?

A foot of paved edge would have made all the difference.

D: that's why I consider mountain bike or cruiser tires the default for transit.

My bud S scoffed at my heavy awkward bike. How could I go fast training?

Well, the rolling resistance makes great training.

Am up to 30kph for an hour on 60 lb steel bike. Serious wattage!

Thin tires are also good for slipping into rain covers.

Frankly, even full suspension mountain bike tires bottom out.

On Regina toward Columbia, 2 sewer grates are so far below ground level that I'd bottom out.

And the park with the zoo has a long gravel stretch. Rollerblading is a stone bitch.

bike lanes remain uncleaned

The time is nearly May.

The snow has been melted for months now.

I take a 40km bike ride from

1) UW

2) up Westmount

3) to Northfield

4) left on Weber out of town

5) hop onto side highway to Heidelberg.

The entire bike lane system has NOT been cleaned.

The gravel and broken glass is prodigious.

Not to mention the hoses, belts, rebar, et al.

We should rename bike lanes GCLs.

Gravel (and glass) Collection Lanes.

It only takes on flat tire to make bike riding a serious pain in the ass.

Waterloo remains an example of how NOT to set up bike lanes.

1) build SOME - though not necessarily many

2) build them WELL

3) MAINtain them.

I'm so frustrated.

Invest in Mr. Tough inner tube urethane liners. Not cheap...

I'll grab pics of the charming stuff in the lane today.

espn host jokes about running over cyclists... lance armstrong takes exception

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/espn-tony-kornheiser-audio-youtube-run-em-down-cyclists-bikes-lance-armstrong.php

"What a complete F*****NG idiot" ... yup.

But there is give and take. I remain horrified by cyclists on the road after dark without lights.

Cars don't do that  - for a reason.

And a cyclist has no shell of metal around them.

Believe me when I say cyclists very much don't like to be in pinch points on the road with cars.

Uptown Waterloo, poor parking on King - and a complete lack of painted parking guides- all but ensures this.

Maybe folks buying SUVs should need to pass a skill -testing question- parallel parking.

In that situation, with 2 lanes each way available, I do in fact hog the whole lane.

That, or I can swerve suddenly as the lane narrows. 

Also,  the only reason I will very slowly cycle on the sidewalk uptown is because I occupy so much width if I walk it. I personally dislike cyclists that gun it fast past store entrances. Most folks don't have the good sense to look first when stepping out of stores.

Of course, I can still *pretend* not to see the cyclist- forcing him to swerve.

Serves them right.

Below is a typical sentiment.

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Natasha  is irritated by bicyclists. Why can't they go on the sidewalk? It is safer to run into a pedestrian than a car going 50 no? And don't gimme the bullshit that "they're a vehicle too" - whatever, you can't go the speed limit (which again, is 50km/hr, not 10) then don't ride in the middle of the fucking lane!!!!!!

16 March at 17:42 · Comment · 

google maps now has bike lanes

http://gizmodo.com/5490018/google-maps-gets-bike-lanesdirections-just-in-time-for-spring

Not for K-W yet. But give it time.

Of course, there is no reason the city couldn't do this...

I tried to peel the layers of the GRT transit map apart, but it's hard to just put it in the parts that I want.

derelict bikes

D: I read recently that Toronto will remove junker bikes that have been chained there forever if you call '333'.

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Around UW campus, there are bikes that have been there for a year.

You can tell since the tires are flat and the chain is rusted solid.

Not only are they unsightly.

They are also in the way for other cyclists.

They cause resentment towards cyclists on both counts.

Here is what I propose: use some ribbon or tape or string.

At the start of each term, mark every bike in a week.

Any bike with the tag still on it at term's end gets removed.

This way, there is no chance for a misunderstanding.

D: those bike stands on campus are mostly not sized to fit mountain bikes.

And/or won't hold a bike without a kickstand upright.