Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Cycling in Waterloo Region
#91
Many cyclists still use King between Union and Victoria, and while there are segments where they can try to be on the road, most I've encountered are on the eastern sidewalk. When passing each other or pedestrians, it is a very scary situation to watch.
Reply


#92
(06-23-2015, 08:15 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Cyclists are generally not law-abiding, just as motorists are not generally law-abiding. I've rarely heard the claim that the latter, when ticketed for practices that are illegal but common practice (rolling stops, failure to yield right-of-way, speeding, distracted driving, so on and on), are suffering harassment.

Surely you have heard of the phrase "driving while black". Selective enforcement of the letter of the law can certainly be harassment.

In the case of cycling, it varies widely between jurisdictions. Some, like Guelph, have been known to do "crackdowns" on cycling infractions at a scale that is rarely, if ever, applied to common (and dangerous) driving infractions.
Reply
#93
I've read about crackdowns in Guelph and Hamilton and elsewhere, but they are in fact at a much smaller scale than "crackdowns" on certain driving offences at certain times.

I'm not sure this is a civil rights issue around here. I have no doubt that police in southern Ontario occasionally harass certain types of people for minor offences that are generally socially acceptable- but those people can be driving, riding a bicycle, or on foot. The question was whether, around here, cyclists are subjected to "harassment" on any kind of a basis that could be called routine, and the answer is "no." The law is barely ever enforced; it is a straw man argument.
Reply
#94
A classic case was the tragic death of an architect rode through a stop sign and got killed:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/transportati...n-du-toit/

Do you enforce laws? Do you get blamed for enforcing laws?
Reply
#95
(05-27-2015, 09:57 AM)zanate Wrote: I sat out at Lexington overpass today performing a bike count, and saw what I've seen along this stretch having cycled and driven it a couple of thousand times: very light, very sparse automotive traffic with lots of speeders.

So that was you? I knew it wasn't a Region-sponsered initiative. I was wondering if maybe it was the Waterloons guy, as he was making some noise about the consultation... wait, I have my dates wrong. Did you perform additional counts the following week?
Reply
#96
(06-25-2015, 11:25 AM)chutten Wrote:
(05-27-2015, 09:57 AM)zanate Wrote: I sat out at Lexington overpass today performing a bike count, and saw what I've seen along this stretch having cycled and driven it a couple of thousand times: very light, very sparse automotive traffic with lots of speeders.

So that was you? I knew it wasn't a Region-sponsered initiative. I was wondering if maybe it was the Waterloons guy, as he was making some noise about the consultation... wait, I have my dates wrong. Did you perform additional counts the following week?

Zanate and Waterloons are the same person.
Reply
#97
(06-25-2015, 12:32 PM)taylortbb Wrote: Zanate and Waterloons are the same person.

Ah, thank you. That context will certainly be helpful.
Reply


#98
(06-25-2015, 12:32 PM)taylortbb Wrote:
(06-25-2015, 11:25 AM)chutten Wrote: So that was you? I knew it wasn't a Region-sponsered initiative. I was wondering if maybe it was the Waterloons guy, as he was making some noise about the consultation... wait, I have my dates wrong. Did you perform additional counts the following week?

Zanate and Waterloons are the same person.

Curses! I have been unmasked! I must skulk away to my hidden lair and concoct a new identity!
Reply
#99
I was going to go with the joke that I'd seen the two of them in a room together and that they never get along.
Reply
(06-24-2015, 07:37 AM)numberguy Wrote: A classic case was the tragic death of an architect rode through a stop sign and got killed:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/transportati...n-du-toit/

Do you enforce laws?   Do you get blamed for enforcing laws?

What point in particular is making you raise this case?

This sounds like a person riding a bike rode through a stop sign into traffic. If I were a supporter of Idaho stops for cyclists (which I am) I'd still say that the this person made a mistake and should have come to a complete stop if there was traffic on Roxborough. But even if they did, the sight lines are terrible and if you're at the stop line, you're not in a position to tell if the intersection is clear.

(We've got a situation like this in town, at Roger & Bowman. Clearly, traffic on Roger has the right of way. But stopping at the stop line is pretty pointless and it's a 3-4m careful roll to see around the $#&*ing hedges. The difference is that at least traffic from the right is on the far side of the street, unlike the situation in Toronto where someone coming from the left is really close. Caution required.)

So, yeah. Stop sign. Whether you're in Ontario or Idaho, a person on a bike shouldn't proceed through the intersection until they see it's clear.
Reply
(06-26-2015, 12:01 PM)zanate Wrote:
(06-24-2015, 07:37 AM)numberguy Wrote: A classic case was the tragic death of an architect rode through a stop sign and got killed:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/transportati...n-du-toit/

Do you enforce laws?   Do you get blamed for enforcing laws?

What point in particular is making you raise this case?

This sounds like a person riding a bike rode through a stop sign into traffic. If I were a supporter of Idaho stops for cyclists (which I am) I'd still say that the this person made a mistake and should have come to a complete stop if there was traffic on Roxborough. But even if they did, the sight lines are terrible and if you're at the stop line, you're not in a position to tell if the intersection is clear.

(We've got a situation like this in town, at Roger & Bowman. Clearly, traffic on Roger has the right of way. But stopping at the stop line is pretty pointless and it's a 3-4m careful roll to see around the $#&*ing hedges. The difference is that at least traffic from the right is on the far side of the street, unlike the situation in Toronto where someone coming from the left is really close. Caution required.)

So, yeah. Stop sign. Whether you're in Ontario or Idaho, a person on a bike shouldn't proceed through the intersection until they see it's clear.

I agree. Read the comments and the Now article itself. Many of the comments blame the driver.

So I am curious, how do you better enforce the law to reduce incidents such that? Law enforcement of HTA vis a vis cyclists seems spotty. This is admittedly anecdotal and based on /r/Toronto with the daily pedestrian/cyclist/driver hate posts.
Reply
(06-26-2015, 07:45 PM)numberguy Wrote: I agree.   Read the comments and the Now article itself.   Many of the comments blame the driver.

So I am curious, how do you better enforce the law to reduce incidents such that?    Law enforcement of HTA vis a vis cyclists seems spotty.   This is admittedly anecdotal and based on /r/Toronto with the daily pedestrian/cyclist/driver hate posts.

At what point is it sufficient to say "OK, you win a Darwin Award"? I don't know the answer to that question. Seatbelt enforcement, I think, helps public safety in general. For a number of reasons, I'm not convinced that mandatory helmets would (hmm, maybe we shouldn't get into that). I also favour Oregon stops. Should they be enforced (i.e. in an ideal world, should you have cops pulling people over for not looking both ways/yielding before proceeding)? It's hard to imagine such enfocement moving the needle.

We should get rid of obvious hazards. But that way lies e.g. wide, fast streets like Mississauga arteries. They don't have hazards. They also don't have life.
Reply
(06-26-2015, 10:26 PM)plam Wrote: We should get rid of obvious hazards. But that way lies e.g. wide, fast streets like Mississauga arteries. They don't have hazards. They also don't have life.

(And if you get rid of obvious hazards, drivers compensate for it by driving faster and less carefully, as you allude to. The "hazard-free" street becomes its own hazard.)
Reply


Looking at the work going on around Conestoga Mall, it seems that there will be multi-use trails on both the west and east of King St. While biking to work has meant avoiding King and instead taking my chances on Lexington to cross 85, with the trail able to spit me out at Manulife, and this multi-use path able to get me at least to the Conestoga Mall parking lot, perhaps I'll find that it's a great new way to go north. Or the experience of biking through the parking lot to get to Kraus Drive will leave too much to be desired.
Reply
(07-06-2015, 08:53 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Looking at the work going on around Conestoga Mall, it seems that there will be multi-use trails on both the west and east of King St. While biking to work has meant avoiding King and instead taking my chances on Lexington to cross 85, with the trail able to spit me out at Manulife, and this multi-use path able to get me at least to the Conestoga Mall parking lot, perhaps I'll find that it's a great new way to go north. Or the experience of biking through the parking lot to get to Kraus Drive will leave too much to be desired.

That MUT will be a welcome addition, but it doesn't really connect with much unless you're willing to ford the mall parking lot.

If I recall correctly, Kraus ends at Northfield and there's parking lot access through the Williams/Pho Ben Thanh plaza back to Frobisher. Also, if you don't mind the extra detour, the south end of the mall is usually quieter (at least in the morning) and there may still be access to Kingscourt and then to Davenport.

There's also the counter-intuitive path: go up the left side of King, take the pathway cut to Conestogo Road, then up Colby to Northland. But that's a lot of industrial plaza road. Wide and fairly quiet but not exactly pleasant.
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 5 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links