09-12-2016, 12:09 PM
(09-12-2016, 11:16 AM)zanate Wrote: If it's not a "crosswalk", so the rule about cyclists dismounting to cross shouldn't apply: depends on how it's painted, I guess. The "elephant's feet" crossing you see in places (Davenport, and along the Spur Line Trail) permit cyclists to ride across.
There's also the signalized, delineated crossride that's in place on Erb near Willow.
But, we're going to run into some potential cycling/walking coexistence problems with the upcoming level 2 pedestrian crossovers. On the plus side, we could start to see rollout of crossings where the motorist needs to allow pedestrians to cross, placed at roundabouts and likely at key crossing points. But, so far as I know (and based on my recollection of a discussion with regional staff) they're pure crosswalks and people on bikes will be obliged to dismount, and they can't be combined with crossrides.
So what do you do? Permit what people are going to do anyway (ride across), or provide a higher degree of pedestrian safety but criminalize behaviour that could have otherwise been permitted?
I don't like those choices.
I believe you're right on all points, but I don't think it matters. They will continue to mark them as crosswalks, cyclists will continue to ignore that, and they will continue to cross without the slightest legal protection. When someone is hit, the region, instead of fixing the problem, will put up "cyclist dismount" signs and then cyclists will continue to ignore them, and cross with no legal protection. But my point is, very little will actually change, behaviour won't, safety won't. The only slight change might be a slight decrease in the already limited legal protections cyclists had at crossing trails. To be honest, I don't think there have been a whole lot of accidents of this form, so I think it's fairly safe already.
Man, I'm feeling a little cynical this morning.
Actually, the only thing that might change is because of the PXOs giving priority to pedestrians cyclists may also start to get priority sometimes, which might help drivers become accustomed to the idea of yielding to cyclists. Given that I was cut off by a left turning drive while crossing three different side streets along the Weber St. bike path this is probably a good thing. But legal protections would be better.