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.
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.
