11042 replies to this topic

[DustMagnet]

A growing percentage of cars are electric, and thus zero or near-zero emission.

 

That's where the infrastructure investment ought to be going, into charging stations and hook-ups everywhere for these vehicles so as to encourage uptake.

 

Wait, wait, I know this one: "Increased electrical demand causes increased environmental impact - more coal/gas burned, dammed rivers, dead birds (wind power), land cleared for solar, etc. -  so EVs are EVil too."

[Ismo07]

Here it would likely be a CRD endeavour that municipalities could choose to administer themselves, like water bills.

 

Maybe like dog licenses?

[Rob Randall]

I think if a cop were to stop and ask where my license was I could just say I don't have one because I'm not from around here and if the cop asked me to prove it by showing my ID that would make for an interesting thing for the Supreme Court to take up.

[DustMagnet]

I think if a cop were to stop and ask where my license was I could just say I don't have one because I'm not from around here and if the cop asked me to prove it by showing my ID that would make for an interesting thing for the Supreme Court to take up.

 

There may be a precedent for asking for proof of address

 

http://svan.ca/police-rights/
 

 

If you are riding a bicycle, and the police see you commit an offence (such as failing to stop at a red light), they can stop you.6 If asked, you must provide your name and address to the police in these circumstances. They can arrest you if you refuse to do so.

 

Now the "committing an offence" part at first seems like a showstopper but since no cyclist ever stops they just have to wait.

[Ismo07]

i thought Johnson was bad until I drove up Fort recently.  What's with all the craters up the right hand lane?

 

The right lane on 700 Fort has been repaved have you had a chance to drive it?

[sebberry]

The right lane on 700 Fort has been repaved have you had a chance to drive it?

 

I'll have to check it out.

 

i see some line painting is being done too around town.  Have we improved the paint type and application method to better deal with rain?

[Mike K.]

Wouldn’t that be nice, hey?

[FogPub]

I'll have to check it out.

 

i see some line painting is being done too around town.  Have we improved the paint type and application method to better deal with rain?

Looks like the same non-reflective paint as before.  It showed up fine in the rain today in daylight, haven't checked it in the dark-and-rain yet which is when those lines tend to disappear.

[LJ]

Those autonomous cars are going to be a nightmare with our lane markings.

[DustMagnet]

Those autonomous cars are going to be a nightmare with our lane markings.

 

Maybe and maybe not.  Computer vision has the opportunity* to consider wavelengths that we can't.

 

* No idea if the current crop of sensors can or do, just that it's possible.

[Victoria Watcher]

when i was a kid they repaved a ~700 yard strip of a local fairly quiet road.  it was roller-skating bliss down that road for years afterwards.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 September 2019 - 02:54 PM.

[Kungsberg]

When on a bike and going north on Government St and approaching the new intersection at Humboldt, what is the correct and safe way to continue straight (north), staying on Government St.?

 

Here are some photos of what the lead-up to the intersection now looks like, approaching it from the south.

 

In front of the Empress, there are posts now, shifting all cars to the left lane, with the right laneway now clearly marked for bikes. So, you would expect any reasonable cyclist to follow that clear indication, and put themselves in that bike lane.

 

When you get to the actual intersection in that bike lane, it is not at all clear how you would continue straight on, up Government Street.  The bike lane comes to a T-junction, where you yield to go either left to Wharf or right on Humboldt. But how do you keep going straight up Government?

 

Are you supposed to angle in through that gap (just to the right of the red double decker bus in the photo), and merge in with the northbound vehicles? (dangerous...they're not expecting it).

If you go forward into the bike lanes and turn left to get into the westbound bike lane, you then quickly come to that solid white line, and some people waited there to turn right and go up Government. It is not only awkward but you are not in sync with the lights…….when your traffic ‘cyclist’ light is green to go west, it is not the right time to travel north through that intersection. So that does not seem the right way either.  

 

On a different day, I stood for a while on the sidewalk, to see how other cyclists travelling north were interpreting it. 

- Some did a weird and dangerous (because unexpected by vehicle drivers) swerve into the northbound traffic, in that 'gap' right where the Humboldt bike lane meets where the vehicles go.

- Some (maybe those who had tried it before and didn’t want to get caught in that T-junction for bikes which doesn't make going north very easy) ignored the bike lane indications leading up to the intersection, and stayed in the left lane, squeezed up against the cars/buses (even tighter than conditions were before the changes were made), and were then in a position to keep going straight up Government. No warning leading up to the intersection, though, that you should be in that lane if you wish to keep going north.

- Quite a few ended up doing the move depicted in the last photo….genuinely wondering what to do, craning their heads looking at the markings, the signage and the lights, hesitating, and ended up on the pedestrian island.  That couple doesn’t look like your typical scofflaws….they look like they’d like to do the right thing.

Just wondering what that might be?

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[Rob Randall]

You move off the bike lane into traffic as shown in photo two. That's why the line is dotted. 

[Kungsberg]

But you don't know until you get to the end of the bike lane (at the yield/junction), that you can't go straight, and that perhaps you should have stayed in the left lane.  And, there's the signage on the island (same photo), pointing cyclists to go to the right.

[Mike K.]

Oh gosh, totally. I would have kept going straight then jutting out at the last second where that opening is.

[FogPub]

Yeah, nothing intuitive there.

 

Where the dotted bit of the bike lane is shown in photo 2, the bike lane should instead split there; with a sign indicating bikes keep left for Government St and keep right for everything else.

 

I wonder if the designers simply assumed that anyone wanting to bike north from there would use the Wharf St lanes instead of Government St, and thus didn't make provision for those who want to continue straight?

[Victoria Watcher]

Taking the brave first step of pulling both feet off the ground when you’re learning to cycle is never easy, but a Langford shop is helping to make the coming-of-age experience as easy as possible.

 

The Re-Buy-Cycle Shop at 1112 Goldstream Ave. in Langford offers a free kids’ bike exchange program, as well as free bike lessons for young learners.

 

It all started in 2015 when the shop received a donation of 50 bikes which were bound for the scrapyard.

 

https://www.saanichn...-victoria-kids/

[LJ]

I'm in Madrid right now and there are lots of bike lanes but the majority of them are just painted lines.

 

There are lots of sharrow lanes and the buses get reduced to 10-20kph waiting for a chance to pass the bike.

 

In some areas they do have protected bike lanes and the bikes do seem to follow the rules although there are not a lot of bikes using the lanes. Maybe more at rush hour IDK.

 

Here is an interesting thing, (don't tell Lisa) there is 2k by 3k section of old town Madrid that is taxi's buses, hybrid and electric vehicle only, none other permitted. There is a double red line painted on the roadway delineating the area.

 

Spain produces the majority of it's energy from nuclear and fossil fuels.

[Coreyburger]

I'm in Madrid right now and there are lots of bike lanes but the majority of them are just painted lines.

 

Madrid vs Sevilla is the fight of Vehicular Cyclists vs those who want Dutch-style separation/protection. Sevilla has done into what we have, but on a much grander scale, Madrid has what you mention. From what I've been able to tell, Sevilla is beating Madrid hands down when it comes to number of bike riders and injuries

[rjag]

https://peopleforbik...ch-hardly-bike/

 

Quote

THE BEST-KEPT SECRET OF DUTCH BIKING: THE DUTCH HARDLY BIKE AT ALL

 

 

 

Summary: Dutch biking rates are highest for trips of about 1 mile, and when trips get longer than three miles, bike trips start to fall sharply while car trips rise.

The Dutch are not so different from you and me. Most of them don’t much like to bike more than three miles at a time, either.

This leads to our final question. What, then, is different in the Netherlands, aside from the low-stress bike infrastructure that makes biking so attractive for short trips?

The answer is that Dutch cities are different.

 

Edited by rjag, 30 September 2019 - 06:49 PM.