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Walking in Waterloo Region
Oops, sorry- I should have known that, since we both had the same hope that the former Rogers in Bridgeport plaza would be made into a neighbourhood bar.
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(07-19-2017, 11:17 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Oops, sorry- I should have known that, since we both had the same hope that the former Rogers in Bridgeport plaza would be made into a neighbourhood bar.

No problem. And I still hold out hope (despite the bad karma that might be coming my way as a result) that the next business to move in after the gym will finally be a local. Smile
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(07-18-2017, 07:56 PM)Elmira Guy Wrote: Wish there was such an advocacy group for issues facing pedestrians. I would be only too happy to dedicate my time.

As mentioned there are lots of committees to become involved, but they are not the only way to become involved. Besides, even the most effective and passionate committees can often get wrapped up in bureaucracy and face huge engrained institutional bias and barriers that prevent them from being effective agents of change.
 
It will be a long a slow process, but it is the only way to change the default thinking (the norm) is to expose people to different ways of thinking. It is engrained in to us from a very young age, through the very built environment we are exposed to in our daily activities down to the toys we play with (how many grow up playing with toy bikes vs. toy cars?), that “normal” people drive cars and therefore everyone else “abnormal.” Great examples of changing social norms is the shift in public perception and attitudes toward smoking, or the use of seat belts; both took years (or even decades) of work and incremental change before society moved its thinking.
 
Perhaps the best way to affect change is to politely and passionately talk about your issues every chance you get and especially with people who may not be aware, or understand, or agree your point of view. Venting frustrations around here is kind of like preaching to the choir or at least at an audience very willing to entertain other points of view even if they don’t agree. It is a very narrow audience and isn’t going to change the broader social norms that prevent progress on these advocacy issues.
 
Mentioning to every business owner you use that you cycled or walked to their store/restaurant is a great way to bring to their attention how people are actually accessing their business and helps to break down the misconception that 99.9% of people drive everywhere and that reams of parking are always needed. Taking it a step further and mentioning that you would come more often and have lots of cycling friends that would also start coming more often if there was a convenient and safe place to lock a bike can go a long way in swaying them toward your point of view and breaking entrenched thinking and stereotypes.
 
For example, I know of a local business owner who, once aware that the lack of bike parking was an issue for her customers (there were only gas meters to lock to initially and then the bikes blocked pedestrian access) and getting nowhere with her landlord, went out and bought a bike rack on her own and essentially told the landlord that she was co-opting a couple of parking spaces (of which there were always surplus) to install it. Now the rack always has a couple her customer’s bikes in it and she and employees have started cycling more often too (and it is used by customers/employees of other stores too).
 
Even just having a polite conversation can go a long way. I had one very simple conversation with a landscaping company who was regularly blocking a bike lane every Tuesday morning and after that they have parked an extra 10m away on a side street I’ll probably need to remind them each spring or as they get new staff, but a few words can go a long way to finding common understanding and acceptance.
 
Even working in why “taking-the-lane” or being 1m out from the curb are safe choices/places-to-be in to conversations with co-workers or fellow dinner party guests goes a long way to building wider understanding.
 
I am also beginning to see that Twitter can be an effective advocacy tool as well when used properly. I’m not on Twitter, but I have seen how some users can publicly hold officials to account when things are not working well or need improvement. There does seem to be a point when it the deluge of Tweets gets overwhelming or when a Tweet slides from being informative to shaming that seems to turn some institutions or officials off though.
 
That’s not to say it will always be easy; there will always be some close minded diehards that cannot or do not want to see other points of view or the consequences of actions. For example, when hard-core drivers complain about the installation of speed-humps because it slows them down excessively when if they had just obeyed the speed limit initially the speed humps would not have need to have been installed in the first place. Or when a motorist complains about me cycling in front of them; I’m going to be in front of you on a bike, a car, or a bus so why does it matter that you are 5m further back from where think you “deserve” to be?
 
I’m not saying every situation calls for polite discussion or even engagement. For instance, very early on Sunday mornings I often take my almost 6 year old, with >3.5 years’ experience on a two-wheeler without training wheels, out on the residential streets around our neighbourhood to give him practice riding on the roads and using the occasional cycling lane. We choose low volume, familiar residential roads, at the lowest volume time of daylight hours, on the lowest volume day of the week. I ride behind him and we both have all the appropriate safety equipment, front and rear lights, reflectors, reflective tape on our forks, helmets, mirrors, etc., and both know and use all our hand signals all the time. It is an extremely controlled risk I let him take because I believe it is the only way he is going to learn to defend himself in our cycling hostile built environment. Of course that didn’t stop a motorist from coming up behind us, swearing a blue-streak at me (every other word started with F), telling me how horrible a parent I was for endangering my child before driving off (without signalling at excessive speed or course). Then there was the time another driver threatened to call child services on me because I choose to turn left from West on to Victoria from the traffic lane while pulling a bike trailer instead of crossing illegally at the trail crossing itself or riding illegally on the sidewalk before walking across two sides of the intersection in double the amount of time. I could go on and on, as I am sure we all have our stories, with all the ridiculous things people have said over the years (“why are you letting your child ride his bike, it’s cold out!”). I’ve found this year the most challenging so far though; motorists seem extra angry/inattentive in 2017 so far.
 
Ignoring an irate motorist and not elevating a situation further when they are armed with a 1000 kg weapon on wheels or removing yourself from harm’s way altogether is often a safe choice.
 
All that said, I am also not afraid to be more Dan-styled vigilante and yell or put my hand on a car hood if I need to do so to be seen, heard, and safe.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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That was very well said, Pheidippides, thanks. I'm with you on most of that. We all have different roles to play in the shift that is (slowly) happening. I've long felt that the most important thing I do is getting around by bus or on foot, and showing others how easy that is by not being heard complaining about it. Forums like this can be good to vent frustrations so I don't need to do so to car-commuting coworkers or others.

Good on you for teaching your son to ride well. My kids are not much younger than yours, and I'm very proud that, most trips they take are not by car, and getting in the car to go somewhere is abnormal for them. Someone at church the other day asked us if we just walk in the summertime, and I was very pleased when my toddler informed her that "no, you can walk in winter, too."
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(07-19-2017, 01:22 PM)MidTowner Wrote: That was very well said, Pheidippides, thanks. I'm with you on most of that. We all have different roles to play in the shift that is (slowly) happening. I've long felt that the most important thing I do is getting around by bus or on foot, and showing others how easy that is by not being heard complaining about it.

Yes ... a great post by Pheidippides.  I, too, try to positively promote car-free travel in town. I can often let friends, colleagues and business owners know that I'm reaching them by foot (or occasionally by bike) without being preachy, and that my car (yes, I still have one) is sitting in the garage six days out of seven.  And, yes, that I walked to work every day of the winter, too, even when the wind made it somewhat unpleasant.

Edit: Math problems ... sigh.
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We were talking about beg buttons last week, and coincidentally Raise the Hammer had a post the other day celebrating the removal of beg buttons from several fairly urban intersections in Kirkendall and Beasley.

Some of the links were quite informative. This one explains a death in Ottawa at an intersection along a street whose beg buttons operate in myriad different ways. This one explains the many different ways beg buttons can operate (including not doing anything at all).

I'm a proponent of no-right-turn-on-red in urban areas. I think it should be a low threshold of foot traffic that results in walk signals defaulting to coming on for every green cycle. Some of the intersections we've talked about in this thread are very urban and only getting more foot traffic as the years go by: beg buttons do not make sense in those cases at all.
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I do hope the signage on buttons along the LRT line get updated - in my experience the vast majority are not required to see a signal, they just produce the audible tones. In that case the 'instructional' stuff is incorrect, and should be replaced with the white-on-blue 'person with cane'.
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Traffic signals are one of the things that drive me absolutely nutty in our region, mostly because they're pretty close to as bad as possible.

Even on intersections where a beg button is justified, even when considering only automobile traffic, they are still so far away from optimum.

Why, on a street with almost no pedestrians crossing ever does the walk light come on for 10-15 seconds? If your modelling suggests there will be no other pedestrians in that timeframe, you've just wasted 8-13 seconds of driver's time. You could have higher throughput on that intersection. More importantly to me, when the next pedestrian arrives in 30 seconds, he'll have to wait 8-13 seconds less for a walk as well.

I honestly do not understand why our lights are so badly designed.
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The lights right in front of the main WLU entrance on University are beg buttons, which seems absolutely ridiculous. When the light went green for me on University on a Sunday evening, I had pedestrians in both crosswalks who had gotten frustrated that the car triggering the light change didn't trigger a walk signal for them. Considering drivers easily hit 60 in that stretch, a bit of a recipe for disaster.
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There probably isn't one. It would be very rare (I'm not saying it definitely doesn't exist anywhere) to have a signal for automobiles that is activated by a button.
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(07-24-2017, 10:44 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: The lights right in front of the main WLU entrance on University are beg buttons, which seems absolutely ridiculous. When the light went green for me on University on a Sunday evening, I had pedestrians in both crosswalks who had gotten frustrated that the car triggering the light change didn't trigger a walk signal for them. Considering drivers easily hit 60 in that stretch, a bit of a recipe for disaster.

I saw the same thing this morning. Not really early in the morning, not late at night. 9 am on a Monday morning at the main entrance to a university and you have to push a button to cross University Avenue. Ludicrous. Of course, no one thought to push the button (why would you?), and one guy ran across as the light was turning yellow. And while it annoys me when pedestrians cross against signals, I couldn't even blame him.
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(07-24-2017, 10:51 AM)MidTowner Wrote: There probably isn't one. It would be very rare (I'm not saying it definitely doesn't exist anywhere) to have a signal for automobiles that is activated by a button.

Ah, but there is! It's an inductive loop. A presence detector.

The button is a presence detector for humans.

So, I guess we can call inductive loops for cars Beg Buttons, too, since the car has to "beg" for the light to change!

(what I'm getting at: I think the term is ridiculous)
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There are pedestrian presence sensors that are a closer analog to inductive loops than a manually activated button (I only know of video based systems, though, and I don't think they're very common).

I think the issue with these buttons is that they aren't necessarily a reliable indicator of pedestrian presence. Some (all of the new ones being installed?) have a status light that indicates whether it has been pressed that cycle, so at least people don't assume those already waiting before they arrive have pressed it.
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The inductive loop is a detector of cars, in that it's virtually guaranteed to detect any and every car.

The inductive loop is an imperfect detector of bikes, in that you need to know where to go to be detected. Sometimes it's easy to find (painted spots), hard to find (plastic edges of detector), or impossible to find (neither), and sometimes the detection location being designed for cars could put a cyclist in an uncomfortable spot to try and activate it.

The "beg" button is begging because you always need to press it. If a car is in a left turn lane for a cross-street that has a left turn signal, the light doesn't go only left turn signal (red to straight for the same direction, red to all for the opposite direction) when it changes, it accommodates the driver who activated it as well as any other drivers who also arrive at the light before the change and during their phase. A beg button means that even the changing of the signal to accommodate crossing by vehicles won't trigger it for pedestrians, or worse that you have to press it for both (!) sides. Foolishly assume that the cluster of people around the button have pressed it, and you wind up not being able to cross.
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(07-24-2017, 10:52 AM)timc Wrote: Of course, no one thought to push the button (why would you?)

Because there's a big yellow button with a sign on it? I realize this is Laurier, but still. Tongue
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