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Cycling in Waterloo Region
Some nice photos of the current state of the Central Promenade:

https://twitter.com/uu_john/status/1009098095097856000
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Hopefully signage is clear about one side being a cycle path and the other a pedestrian path. In theory, Barrie has a similar setup on its waterfront, but it ended up being two mixed-use paths adjacent to each other, rather than having a separation of uses.
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Toronto’s waterfront trail consists of two for the most part, and in general people behave quite well... although joggers always seem to go on the cycle path. I get it... they have no “home” because they don’t like being held up by other people walking... but they’re obstacles (and unpredictable ones at that) on the cycle path. They drive me nuts.
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I have a positive biking story! I was waiting at the Ottawa/Homer Watson roundabout to cross as a pedestrian and there was a car and an OPP SUV in the roundabout. I was already rolling my eyes at the OPP officer who wasn't going to stop for pedestrians at the roundabout but instead the car went through and the officer put their lights on, waved at me and pulled the car over.
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(06-20-2018, 06:11 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: I have a positive biking story! I was waiting at the Ottawa/Homer Watson roundabout to cross as a pedestrian and there was a car and an OPP SUV in the roundabout. I was already rolling my eyes at the OPP officer who wasn't going to stop for pedestrians  at the roundabout but instead the car went through and the officer put their lights on, waved at me and pulled the car over.

OPP, that's very interesting.  I didn't think they could/would pull drivers over on regional roads.

Out of curiosity, how is it a biking story?  Were you biking through the roundabout?

In any case, positive story indeed!
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What are the top 5 "easy wins" our new municipal government(s) could do in their first year to improve cycling safety?

Here are my suggestions:
1)    Lower speed limits (i.e. 30kph on all residential streets).
2)    For all new and reconstructed road projects insist that they:
       a.    Have narrowed lanes (a reduced minimum and maximum lane widths).
       b.    Remove excessive lane capacity (road diet e.g. Belmont, Frederick/Benton, etc.)
       c.    Remove all on-street parking (replace with micro-off street spaces of appropriate scale e.g. Homewood).
3)    Like Calgary and Edmonton immediately create a minimum grid largely using existing infrastructure. Install protective measures on major cycling lanes to create a minimum grid (e.g. actual curbs, planter boxes, railing, etc.).
4)    Legitimize trail crossings; change the by-laws so that dismounting is not legally required to continue on a trail and paint some elephant feet markings.
5)    Narrow trail crossings (see John St example below to see crossing distance reduced nearly 50%).

   
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(06-20-2018, 06:47 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(06-20-2018, 06:11 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: I have a positive biking story! I was waiting at the Ottawa/Homer Watson roundabout to cross as a pedestrian and there was a car and an OPP SUV in the roundabout. I was already rolling my eyes at the OPP officer who wasn't going to stop for pedestrians  at the roundabout but instead the car went through and the officer put their lights on, waved at me and pulled the car over.

OPP, that's very interesting.  I didn't think they could/would pull drivers over on regional roads.

Out of curiosity, how is it a biking story?  Were you biking through the roundabout?

In any case, positive story indeed!

Yes, sorry. It was on my bike commute into work. I unintentionally edited out one of the more salient points. I was riding on the Ottawa St MUTs and walking through the pedestrian crossing.
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(06-20-2018, 06:47 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(06-20-2018, 06:11 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: I have a positive biking story! I was waiting at the Ottawa/Homer Watson roundabout to cross as a pedestrian and there was a car and an OPP SUV in the roundabout. I was already rolling my eyes at the OPP officer who wasn't going to stop for pedestrians  at the roundabout but instead the car went through and the officer put their lights on, waved at me and pulled the car over.

OPP, that's very interesting.  I didn't think they could/would pull drivers over on regional roads.

Out of curiosity, how is it a biking story?  Were you biking through the roundabout?

In any case, positive story indeed!

Different police agencies all have their niche, and they respect each other... but their legal authorities carry nationwide. (Provincewide for provincial legislation like HTA). 

WRPS is unlikely to set up radar on the Xway or 401, but if some d-bag is driving like an idiot, they will do a traffic stop and issue tickets.  OPP will do the same on our city/regional roads.  A visiting RCMP officer could do the same.

I personally know of a local officer who was at a police funeral in Toronto area that observed someone blow a traffic light in front of them, did the stop, and wrote the ticket on him.  And since the presiding justice of the peace is Provincially appointed they could hear the case here.  If the person wanted a court date, it would be held at the courthouse here in town as that's where the PON (Provincial Offences Notice) was issued from.  Smile

Coke
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(06-22-2018, 11:54 AM)Coke6pk Wrote: I personally know of a local officer who was at a police funeral in Toronto area that observed someone blow a traffic light in front of them, did the stop, and wrote the ticket on him.  And since the presiding justice of the peace is Provincially appointed they could hear the case here.  If the person wanted a court date, it would be held at the courthouse here in town as that's where the PON (Provincial Offences Notice) was issued from.  Smile

Coke

That last bit is unfortunate. The hearing should be local to the location of the offence. If the officer can be in Toronto to write the ticket they can be in Toronto again to be at the hearing. In this particular case I doubt if any injustice was done but as a general rule people should not be forced to travel to distant locations by the justice system.
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I'm sure they could petition a change of venue... more likely they just paid the fine. Better yet, they could stop for the red light.... Smile

Coke
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(06-22-2018, 12:26 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(06-22-2018, 11:54 AM)Coke6pk Wrote: I personally know of a local officer who was at a police funeral in Toronto area that observed someone blow a traffic light in front of them, did the stop, and wrote the ticket on him.  And since the presiding justice of the peace is Provincially appointed they could hear the case here.  If the person wanted a court date, it would be held at the courthouse here in town as that's where the PON (Provincial Offences Notice) was issued from.  Smile

Coke

That last bit is unfortunate. The hearing should be local to the location of the offence. If the officer can be in Toronto to write the ticket they can be in Toronto again to be at the hearing. In this particular case I doubt if any injustice was done but as a general rule people should not be forced to travel to distant locations by the justice system.

I don't know. My only speeding ticket was in Quebec doing exactly 20 over the construction limit (construction was pylons, not one person or piece of equipment), while being passed by cars with Quebec plates. If I wanted to contest the ticket, I would have had to go almost to New Brunswick.
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(06-22-2018, 02:41 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote:
(06-22-2018, 12:26 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: That last bit is unfortunate. The hearing should be local to the location of the offence. If the officer can be in Toronto to write the ticket they can be in Toronto again to be at the hearing. In this particular case I doubt if any injustice was done but as a general rule people should not be forced to travel to distant locations by the justice system.

I don't know. My only speeding ticket was in Quebec doing exactly 20 over the construction limit (construction was pylons, not one person or piece of equipment), while being passed by cars with Quebec plates. If I wanted to contest the ticket, I would have had to go almost to New Brunswick.

Good point. My point was just that the Toronto red light runner who was caught in Toronto by a Waterloo officer should not have to go to Waterloo to contest the ticket, just because the officer was from Waterloo. I didn’t really mean to express an opinion on the opposite situation where somebody from afar is ticketed by a local officer.

I agree that your situation sounds questionable: maybe, just maybe, you were ticketed because unlikely to contest?

But really the whole way ticketing works should be different now. Given the ubiquity and lack of expense associated with video recording, I would expect most traffic tickets now to have documentary video evidence associated with them. A prosecution should pretty much consist of playing the appropriate video to the court; then the defendant can contest it by showing their own video revealing that, for example, they swerved to avoid the car in front of them or whatever. For speeding, being below the 90th percentile should be a defense — there is no justification for ignoring the worst offenders and only ticketing the out-of-province drivers. It should also be much easier for police and prosecutors to be disciplined for inappropriate prosecutions. I’m not sure exactly how this should work but the goal should be that ordinary people just going about their business don’t have to worry much about being dragged into court, while the real offenders who actually have a bad effect on safety get an appropriate response. As part of this it goes without saying that an officer who does something like break a taillight and then ticket for broken taillight should be fired and blacklisted, permanently banned from being employed in law enforcement or security. Some behaviour is so egregious that it shows the person to be fundamentally unsuited for the job.
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The uptown lanes look very close to being ready to open. The were planting the last of the trees and doing some site clean up work just now. The only unfinished parts are largely on the east side and only at the transition points between road and cycling lane (Dupont, Princess, Bridgeport). Only one over hanging parked car today and that is with very little fencing and safety cones remaining.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Are symbols painted on the lanes?
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Not as of 3pm Friday.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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