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+--- Thread: Cycling in Waterloo Region (/showthread.php?tid=186)
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RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 07-10-2018
(07-10-2018, 06:59 PM)Canard Wrote: Speed Bumps are awful for everyone.
- Drivers will slow down for them... which wastes enormous amounts of fuel when they accelerate again after them, because nobody will drive at a continuous 30 km/h between them (ie, they just don’t psycologically work).
- Residents near them get to endure the constant noise of cars accelerating rapidly to get to the next one.
- They are jarring for cyclists.
- They are a nightmare for busses and snowploughs.
I would argue they are one of the worst ways to calm traffic.
Speed bumps are terrible. They are also different from speed humps or speed cushions, which are also different from speed tables or raised intersections/crossings.
You are right that one of the biggest problems with speed humps (I assume you mean, when you suggest drivers traverse them at 30 km/h...which is...ahh...quite damaging on a speed bump as I once found out), is that drivers move along at 50-60 km/h, brake hard to get to 20-30, then accelerate hard to get back to 50-60. Meaning, the speed hump fails to have the desired effect of slowing traffic and also cause increased wear and fuel usage.
This problem occurs, I believe, because speed humps are deployed on roads which are designed for 60km/h traffic, as "calming". If the road is already designed to limit drivers to around 30-40 km/h, then the speed hump could be used to smooth over a section of the road where other calming measures might not be as effective (i.e., a straight section that is widened to enable parking, for example). In this case, drivers are already traveling at the right speed, and the speed hump only encourages them to keep doing that.
As for cyclists, you're absolutely right, the CoK has been frustratingly stupid when implementing them on Glasgow, the literally put them in the bike lane, instead of the road. Insanity! Fortunately, that is not a necessary feature of speed humps. Here is my alternate design https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yWcYJZYt6Taseu8g9_7oCdXJ14fMX00T&usp=sharing
I did see a lot of speed humps and raised crossings in the Netherlands, and while I'm not sure how they feel about them there, I rarely rode over them on a bike when I wasn't approaching an intersection already, and they seemed to be effective, I didn't hear a lot of hard braking or acceleration around them. Here's a great photo of a raised crossing in the Netherlands: https://twitter.com/MattPinder1/status/1014844979351511045
They are somewhat annoying for bus passengers, and can be a problem for snowplows if built poorly, which is why they should be used only when it is really necessary and valuable...which brings us to raised crossings or raised intersections, the best place for speed humps, where they have the most benefit and the least cost (since drivers should already be slowing down). Sadly, rarely is that where they are placed.
I think we have a very negative view of speed cushions here because they're usually deployed in the wrong places, and for the wrong reasons, and as a result are usually ineffective. But I think they have their place if used in the right places to be effective and useful.
My 2 cents.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-10-2018
I say this as a driver: I honestly hope to god one day someone wakes up and mandates the equivalent of ATP into cars - the car just physically will not let you go faster than what the speed limit is in a given area.
I cannot fathom the pushback from this, but I'm so effing tired of being bullied off the road by virtually every other driver out there for simply trying to drive safely and efficiently.
Wait a minute - isn't this the cycling thread? (
)
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - clasher - 07-10-2018
I think a segregated bike lane on Glasgow street would have a calming effect, at least it would narrow the road. It's also ridiculous that it's signed 40km/h when it's pretty much a main street.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 07-10-2018
(07-10-2018, 09:08 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: You are right that one of the biggest problems with speed humps (I assume you mean, when you suggest drivers traverse them at 30 km/h...which is...ahh...quite damaging on a speed bump as I once found out), is that drivers move along at 50-60 km/h, brake hard to get to 20-30, then accelerate hard to get back to 50-60. Meaning, the speed hump fails to have the desired effect of slowing traffic and also cause increased wear and fuel usage.
Not everyone. Some people, yes. Possibly even majority (though we don't know).
But I would typically drive 40ish between humps, and then take my foot off the gas before each hump to go down to 30ish. Not much fierce acceleration or braking going on. But without somebody doing speed measurements on such roads, we don't really know how many people drive in what manner.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-10-2018
We don't really know anything then, do we.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Rainrider22 - 07-10-2018
(07-10-2018, 09:24 PM)Canard Wrote: I say this as a driver: I honestly hope to god one day someone wakes up and mandates the equivalent of ATP into cars - the car just physically will not let you go faster than what the speed limit is in a given area.
I cannot fathom the pushback from this, but I'm so effing tired of being bullied off the road by virtually every other driver out there for simply trying to drive safely and efficiently.
Wait a minute - isn't this the cycling thread? (
That's a bit extreme....
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 07-10-2018
(07-10-2018, 09:50 PM)Canard Wrote: We don't really know anything then, do we.
"If you can not measure it, you can not improve it." -- Lord Kelvin
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-11-2018
![[Image: giphy-downsized.gif]](https://media1.giphy.com/media/3og0IMJcSI8p6hYQXS/giphy-downsized.gif)
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-11-2018
I biked to work last week. Part of my commute (one of two possible ways to get from Kitchener to Cambridge) is along Old Mill Road bear Conestoga College.
The bridge there is under reconstruction, and has been closed to motor traffic but open to pedestrians and cyclists. Last week, an orange sign appeared indicating it would be closed to pedestrians and cyclists from 7am-5pm during the week. I arrived at 6:58am, so just made it!
Yesterday morning, the sign had been altered to give another week to the closure. No big deal, it still said only closed between 7am-5pm. I passed at 6:54am, which was fine, and planned to be back across after 5pm.
When I arrived at about 5:02pm... the section with the times had been removed, and the access to the bridge completely blocked!
https://twitter.com/canardiain/status/1016789531847249920?s=21
How is this even remotely fair? The detour options (none of which are posted) are absolutely suicidal. A pedestrian came by and she and I contemplated what to do for a few minutes...
This is a stark contrast to what Brantford did for one of their closures:
https://twitter.com/canardiain/status/1015789188103458817?s=21
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Canard - 07-11-2018
Two of my coworkers were hit by cars yesterday!
One was clipped by a work truck+trailer at Ottawa and Courtland. The second got hit by a car in a roundabout in Cambridge (Can-Amera and Conestoga). Both wiped out and are really cut up. Neither reported to police; I encouraged them both to do so, if only to at least add to the statatistics so these things get captured for future upgrades etc.
I work at a small company (~20 people) so when 10% of your staff are involved in bike/car crashes that’s pretty scary.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Viewfromthe42 - 07-11-2018
On my commute to work this morning, two separate cars seemingly tried to hit cyclists with the right of way. In both cases, the cyclist was in the intersection (one a four way stop, the other a set of lights), and a car could be heard accelerating towards the cyclist, before slamming on the brakes, as though to say "get out of here". The common thread: both were on sharrowed roads.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 07-11-2018
(07-11-2018, 08:38 AM)Canard Wrote: Two of my coworkers were hit by cars yesterday!
One was clipped by a work truck+trailer at Ottawa and Courtland. The second got hit by a car in a roundabout in Cambridge (Can-Amera and Conestoga). Both wiped out and are really cut up. Neither reported to police; I encouraged them both to do so, if only to at least add to the statatistics so these things get captured for future upgrades etc.
I work at a small company (~20 people) so when 10% of your staff are involved in bike/car crashes that’s pretty scary.
That's terrible!
Sorry to hear about that. That's incredibly demoralizing.
Reporting to police is really important (and I think a legal requirement) if one needs to make any insurance claims.
Do you know if the drivers stopped?
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - KevinL - 07-11-2018
Wow, that's a terrible state of affairs. Really condemning of our municipalites' attitude to cycling in general.
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - panamaniac - 07-11-2018
(07-11-2018, 08:57 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:(07-11-2018, 08:38 AM)Canard Wrote: Two of my coworkers were hit by cars yesterday!
One was clipped by a work truck+trailer at Ottawa and Courtland. The second got hit by a car in a roundabout in Cambridge (Can-Amera and Conestoga). Both wiped out and are really cut up. Neither reported to police; I encouraged them both to do so, if only to at least add to the statatistics so these things get captured for future upgrades etc.
I work at a small company (~20 people) so when 10% of your staff are involved in bike/car crashes that’s pretty scary.
That's terrible!
Sorry to hear about that. That's incredibly demoralizing.
Reporting to police is really important (and I think a legal requirement) if one needs to make any insurance claims.
Do you know if the drivers stopped?
That's my understanding as well. Failing to report a collision that resulted in injuries would amount to leaving the scene of an accident (although how the police would know about it to be able to lay charges is another matter ...).
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Rainrider22 - 07-11-2018
(07-11-2018, 09:42 AM)panamaniac Wrote:(07-11-2018, 08:57 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: That's terrible!
Sorry to hear about that. That's incredibly demoralizing.
Reporting to police is really important (and I think a legal requirement) if one needs to make any insurance claims.
Do you know if the drivers stopped?
That's my understanding as well. Failing to report a collision that resulted in injuries would amount to leaving the scene of an accident (although how the police would know about it to be able to lay charges is another matter ...).
Any collision involving a motor vehicle, anywhere, involving personal injury must reported by law, to the police.