Take the Lane

Are 30 km/h residential roads in our cycling future?

Are 30 km/h residential streets in our future?

I asked that question back in 2010 after listening to a British prof at Velo-City Global 2010 in Copenhagen.

At that time, I noted that more North American urban planners are turning to traffic calming to bring speeds down: chicanes, speed bumps, lowered speed limits in designated neighbourhoods.

Now have a look at this article by Ceri Woolsgrove in the recent issue of the European Cyclists' Federation newsletter on the growing interest in 30 km/h limits in Europe.

The benefits are obvious in suburban or densely urban settings: slower speeds mean a more diverse roadway metric. Cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders and others will mix with motorists. And lower speeds mean accidents, when they do occur, are less likely fatal for pedestrians and cyclists, and are of lower cost to the insurance industry when involving motor vehicles.

One of the big arguments in favour of the Block Line Road/Homer Watson Boulevard roundabout in Waterloo Region is that traffic would slow down (from 70 km/h to 50 km/h, or slower in the roundabout) such that, even if the number of accidents in the roundabout rose from the average in the previous signalized intersection, the overall injury rate would be lower and the overall cost (to the insurance industry) would be lower because the fender benders would come in below most motorists' deductible.

The point of the planners was that motorists like to keep moving, and will even accept speed limits much lower than what would be normally expected, as long as they could keep moving.

Check out the slalom course on Kingswood Drive in Kitchener, where chicanes and speed bumps make the street a moguls course. It doesn't seem to have reduced traffic, but it does seem to have slowed it down.

Is the street now safer for cyclists and pedestrians? Woolsgrove would argue that cyclists and peds are still seen as impedimetal by motorists. He suggests that getting speed limits lowered to encourage more variety of road users will have to be a top-down, rather than bottom-up, decision.

Police watchdog seeks help in cyclist death

A recent press release from Ontario's Special Investigations Unit suggests that we won't hear anytime soon what happened earlier this month when an 85-year-old David Nesbitt was struck by an unmarked police cruiser near Orillia.

Nesbitt was riding his bicycle on Tuesday, March 13 around 4:45 p.m. when he was struck by an umarked vehicle driven by a 46-year-old OPP officer based out of the OPP general HQ in Orillia. Nesbitt died later in hospital.

In this news release, the SIU asks for any witnesses to come forward, especially a silver-coloured vehicle containing a man, woman and child, which was behind the police vehicle when Nesbitt was struck.

The SIU investigates any time a provincial police officer is involved in an incident involving serious injury or death. The agency can lay charges. Disposition of SIU inquiries average about 30 days. That the agency is looking for help two weeks after the incident, suggests this one may take longer than the average.

 

Review of Ontario cycling deaths will take a little longer

Further to my impatient query Wednesday about the coroner's office review of Ontario cycling deaths, Toronto West regional coroner Dr. Dan Cass called to say that while the announcement of his report last year said it would be ready in the spring of 2012, and it is officially spring, the report will be "later in the spring rather than earlier in the spring."

He said that the expert panel has reviewed somewhere between 120 and 125 cycling deaths across the province and "has started to give some thought as to recommendations." They are not yet at a point where they are ready to make those recommendations, so "I don't have an exact release date yet."

As a previous poster has noted, spring ends June 21, so there is plenty of thinking space. But, as another poster noted, cyclists, used to expertly gliding through roadway congestion, are hoping for a speedy response.

It's spring: where is the Ontario cycling deaths study?

I know it's only the second day of spring and I should really leave the guy some breathing room, but I want to ask coroner Dan Cass: "Are we there yet?"

When the review of provincial cycling deaths was announced last October, Cass, the provincial coroner for the Toronto West region, was expected to have results by the spring.

OK, it's spring. Results, please.

 

Ontario set to compete with Route Verte

Further to last Sunday's post about the Ministry of Transportation study on road cycling to be unveiled June 17-19 at Trailhead Ontario, I've had a chance to look at the request for proposals (RFP) on the study for a provincial cycling route network, and the results will be good news for long-distance road cyclists and cycle tourism in Ontario.

Essentially, Ontario wants to catch up to Quebec, where the tourism-cycling network known as the Route Verte has been operating since 2007. The idea would be roughly to identify where cycling routes now exist in Ontario, where there are gaps that connect existing routes and how tourism agencies could develop or exploit these routes.

The group doing the study actually has a pretty broad mandate. After consulting with reps from Route Verte; the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (Ontario's Waterfront Trail); the U.K.'s National Cycle Network; the SwitzerlandMobility Foundation; a number of provincial ministries; at least 20 regional tourism organizations and an undetermined number of cycling support groups, the group is to recommend the critieria for the province to select routes to be included in a provincial cycling route network (both on-road and off-road); to determine which parts of Ontario would benefit from such a network; and give a short list of the areas that should be in the first phase of any development of such a network.

That's a lot of power in one study. Of course, it could be tossed aside with the next round of budget cuts. That the Ministry of Transportation plans to unveil it, first in Ingersoll and then in Vancouver at Velo-city Global 2012, suggests there might actually be some muscle behind it.

The RFP does not say what the cycle network would be called or who gets to name it. Your suggestions are invited.

 

 

No one nibbling at cycling/walking treks with War of 1812 theme

It could be that there are too many War of 1812 events this year to mark the war's bicentennial, or it could be that the convergence of pedestrian/cycling treks and War of 1812 historic sites wasn't a good mix: whatever the reason, the Ontario Trails Council's "Trails of 1812" hasn't progressed beyond its website.

No organized cycling or walking tours, no meetups, no flash mobs.

Lionel Gadoury, creative director of Context Creative, the firm doing the Trails of 1812 project for the trails council, says approaches were made to various stakeholder groups (which would usually mean municipal governments, provincial ministries, tourism associations and so on) and no one nibbled at the idea of organizing such a thing.

Frankly, I think the trails along the Niagara River would be perfect for an 1812 cycling event linking various historic sites: Fort Erie, Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Queenston Heights and Fort George. Make sure there is "something" going on at each site on a Saturday and Sunday in June, alert the many patios, cafes and B&B's along the way to offer special War of 1812 menus, discounts or bunting, and promote the weekend as a cycling getaway.

Perhaps this is just to easy to organize on your own.

U.S. bike summit could see blood in the streets

Those spurs you hear a-jingling are from two hungry desperados, facing themselves down on the mean streets of Washington today.

At one end, the League of American Bicyclists and other bicycle advocacy groups, gathering in cherry-blossom land, to argue for bicycle infrastructure spending at the annual National Bike Summit.

At the other end, Capitol Hill, congress and all the bureaucrats who are trying to figure out how to save a buck.

According to this Washington Post article, there could be blood on the streets before the week is done.

Well, maybe not too much blood. With the fedeal authorities passing the reponsibility for transportation spending to state and municipal governments, there's wiggle room for cycling advocacy groups that are on friendly relations with state or local politicians. If your mayor favours bike infrastructure, there might just be money for that overpass or underpass to complete a commuting bicycle route.

The downside is that instead of a national approach, bicycle advocates will have to shake, rinse and repeat for 50 states. Good luck with that.

Just how easy is it to steal a bike?

It's been done before (and perhaps not while Rene Johnston was filming it), but the Toronto Star's Josh Tapper has fun with the "let's see how long it takes to 'steal' a bike and does anyone try to stop me" routine in this video on the Star's website.

I like especially how the armoured car guys (with guns, even) watched while he used bolt cutters to "steal" his bike. I thought anyone with a black shirt and a badge in Toronto knew what to do with young guys in T-shirts. Have you never heard of Geee-20?

 

R.I.P. for car-free Sundays?

If you read between the lines in today's Record story about turning the Iron Horse Trail into a festival location in May, and just read the lines in this post from Mike Boos, you might think that Waterloo is taking one step forward and two steps back about Car-Free Sundays.

Last year's Square2Square events sputtered for a variety of reasons -- everything from lack of co-operation from Kitchener to some unfortunate blistering heat -- but I was certainly excited about the possibility of trying something like it again this year. Close King Street to cars and open it to pedestrian/skateboard/cycling-focused events. What a simple idea -- turn the area's main street back to ALL the people who pay for it.

Instead, Waterloo appears to be focusing a "car-free"-themed festival that will be staged along the Iron Horse Trail (where cars are not allowed anyway!), in conjunction with the Congress 2012 of the Humanities and Social Sciences, to be co-hosted by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

The Congress is running Saturday, May 26 to Saturday, June 2. The Record story has the Iron Horse Trail event happening on Sunday, May 25, which appears to be a date from a parallel universe. Once the actual date is settled, I'll post something.

Waterloo Coun. Melissa Durrell and Kitchener Coun. Daniel Glenn-Graham are probably the right people to pepper with questions about the apparently oh-too-short life of car-free Sundays.

Ready for Bike Hour?

Given up on Earth Hour? Ready to try Bike Hour?

According to the Aussie blog cycle-space, Bike Hour is this Tuesday, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., whatever time zone you are in.

So far, I've found just one mainstream media story about it, if you call The Malta Independent mainstream (yeah, Malta, the island in the Med). There's also a Facebook event page (use the link, it's darn hard to find o'wise).

But the point of the suggestion from our down-under cycling advocates, of course, is not to read about it, but to do it. So for an hour, go for a bike ride -- the weather will surely co-operate.