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General Road and Highway Discussion
It was in my mind because I came across it the other day.  A driver stopped in the inner lane of a divided city road for a stopped opposing school bus and I passed her on the right.  It just didn't seem sensible to stop but then I started to second guess myself.  Here in Ottawa, I've also seen people pulling over for opposing emergency vehicles on divided city streets and that, for me, is a head-scratcher.
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The habit is engrained and sometimes it's hard to do the logic when we've been taught that flashing lights = stop. I'd rather someone stop unnecessarily than fly through when kids are coming off a bus.
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(11-05-2019, 10:41 PM)timio Wrote: The habit is engrained and sometimes it's hard to do the logic when we've been taught that flashing lights = stop. I'd rather someone stop unnecessarily than fly through when kids are coming off a bus.

The problem is that consistency is more important than conservativeness.  If you stop, you might cause a rear-end collision, or worse, you might make a child think that all the cars will stop on both sides....

This is why our current crossing situation is so terrible, drivers stop incorrectly for me, but I cannot cross, because I cannot tell if they are stopping or just distracted, and someone coming from behind might go around....I've nearly been hit multiple times because of this.

Follow the rules.
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(11-06-2019, 12:08 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(11-05-2019, 10:41 PM)timio Wrote: The habit is engrained and sometimes it's hard to do the logic when we've been taught that flashing lights = stop. I'd rather someone stop unnecessarily than fly through when kids are coming off a bus.

The problem is that consistency is more important than conservativeness.  If you stop, you might cause a rear-end collision, or worse, you might make a child think that all the cars will stop on both sides....

This is why our current crossing situation is so terrible, drivers stop incorrectly for me, but I cannot cross, because I cannot tell if they are stopping or just distracted, and someone coming from behind might go around....I've nearly been hit multiple times because of this.

Follow the rules.

Indeed, as I passed the woman the other day, trying to understand why she had stopped then seeing the stopped oncoming bus at the far curb across the median, my first thought was that she was at serious risk of being rear-ended on that 60kph stretch of city street.  There was also an instant's feeling of dread at the thought that a child might be crossing in front of her car (and there was no way for me to stop in time).  I could have done without that!
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I have long thought that expecting the flashing lights of a single vehicle to stop a 4 lane or wider road is bad design.

Now, to be clear, drivers should be alert enough to see the flashing lights of a schoolbus, and knowledgeable enough to know what it means, and caring enough to do it; and I have no objection to stopping for less than a minute once in a while to let kids cross. But it’s still unusual for some drivers (ones who don’t regularly drive at school bus dropoff time), on a wide road there is a lot to look at, and usually what is happening in the right lane of the opposing direction is irrelevant. So I don’t think it’s very good design; every so often a driver will mess up. This is very similar to some of our discussions about UI.

Additionally, the assumption is effectively that the road can only be safely crossed if the school bus is stopping traffic. Shouldn’t any pedestrian be able to cross at any time (possibly subject to a short delay for signal timing)? And shouldn’t kids be used to crossing the street safely without the bus stopping traffic specially?

On a narrow street it is a different story. But wouldn’t it be better for the bus to stop right in the middle of the road so that it is blocking the entire road? And if the road isn’t narrow enough for that, see the previous discussion.
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Victoria North past the parkway is finally getting sidewalks!... er, MUTs. But It's much better than what's there now.

Feedback here: https://www.engagewr.ca/kitchener-victoria-st-mut
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(11-13-2019, 11:51 PM)KevinL Wrote: Victoria North past the parkway is finally getting sidewalks!... er, MUTs. But It's much better than what's there now.

Feedback here: https://www.engagewr.ca/kitchener-victoria-st-mut

That is fantastic news!
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Op-ed in the Record by Kurtis McBride, the chief executive officer of Miovision

Vehicle-centric planning won’t lead to more efficient travel

I don't know if there is a more general forum appropriate for this post.
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New Arizona neighbourhood will have no driveways, traffic signs, or cars
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(11-27-2019, 07:43 PM)Acitta Wrote: New Arizona neighbourhood will have no driveways, traffic signs, or cars

I read their medium post:  https://medium.com/culdesac/introducing-culdesac-3fbfe7c4219c

I
t's exciting to see a concept like this pushed forward, but it is hard to tell from the medium post how successful it will be. This type of thing obviously can work (it does in thousands of cities all over the world, just few to none here, we aren't special though, just have made bad choices), but it can also be done badly. There are plenty of 'tech bros' who eschew expertise from those in the field and implement their own beliefs as a result fail, because the field is more complex than they understand. The name "cul-de-sac" is already concerning, because that's the antithesis to a healthy non-car oriented community. That being said, there's plenty to like in their proposal as well, and some indications it could do well. There's also a reality that in many cases laws make it very hard to do this well as well.
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The New Paradigm For Safe City Streets just got signed by ten cities in Europe, I sure wish we'd adopt something like this locally. It's really just a more specific statement of VisionZero principles and a few other things thrown in.

https://www.polisnetwork.eu/document/cit...ad-safety/

https://www.polisnetwork.eu/wp-content/u...9-19-1.pdf
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The first part of the Strasburg extension from Rush Meadow to Rockcliffe is now open.
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(01-08-2020, 10:20 PM)timio Wrote: The first part of the Strasburg extension from Rush Meadow to Rockcliffe is now open.

From Rockcliffe to Robert Ferrie will be game changing for my morning commute out of Doon South, can't wait for that piece.
...K
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its funny, I remember looking at a house out at Fischer-Hallman and Huron and driving out there, I thought it was nuts, who would ever want a house so far away from everything. But now I see with the Strasburg extension, things are going to be developed all the way down to New Dundee Rd.

People who whine about KW turning into Toronto because of a few towers in downtown are, frankly, blind to the reality we are facing, our city is rapidly turning into the GTA, and that's a FAR worse result.

And to think, our city is relatively progressive with our (weakened) countryside line and development plans, places like London are just out of control, and have been since I was a child.
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Weakened countryside line?
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