Cycling in the National Capital Region

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by SkeggsEggs

But how would we calm traffic!

Using effective methods. LOL

• Video Link

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by PHrenetic

Good Day.

To Mr. Leiper, et al.

Cyclists in this case (and in the video of a cyclist creating the situation above) are creating their own problem and danger.
The solution is simple - STAY on the yellow spots, and WAIT for the GREEN light !!!!! DUH !!!!!

Sorry, but quit pandering to a 'problem' that has its' own cause - cyclists who simply do not obey the instruction, ignore the cause and solution, and then complain about the danger.

This is worse than those who ignore or actively contravene the rules of the road and the traffic act.

If they want the rights and privileges of being 'vehicles', then take the responsibilities !

Same goes for those who complain of service vehicles parked - with flashers - in cycle lanes. The service vehicle is protecting the personnel who have a job to do that has to be done.
As 'vehicles', get used to it. Cars and Pedestrians have had to deal with service vehicles occupying their respective traffic space for a loooonnnnng time - it ain't nuthin' new, folks.
You do not get special treatment for a consistent and everyday thing.

End Of Rant !

P.S. to Mr. Leiper..... I am still waiting to see more bus transit priority traffic lights. Since last we discussed, I have seen yet more and more cyclist priority lights but few transit priority lights.
As a side bar - I have seen bus transit priority lights on Albert/Slater - the former downtown Transitway - appear to have appeared in time for STO to use them. OC-T never had any (what was there was never used). Verrryyyy Interrrestinnnnng!
Harumph !

If all road users are responsible for themselves, then we should eliminate the all-red phase in traffic signals. After all, the light is red, vehicles should be stopped - there's no reason for an all-red phase if everyone perfectly follows the rules.

In reality, we know that people aren't perfect, so we've added a moment of pause into the traffic signal cycle to allow for that and prevent greater harms. Think of the fuel savings if we removed that pause! In a 60 second light cycle, 2-4 seconds of it might be all-red, that's 6%!

As to the bus signals, busses had their own continuous lanes on Albert and Slater. What benefit would a transit signal have given them? There was no need to queue jump before, there is now.

Originally Posted by PHrenetic

Good Day.

I have to disagree with your scenario premises.

As to bike loops and car loops - the placement is either capricious, ill-defined, or full-on non-functional for both bikes and cars.
And many car loops are positioned back from the light to allow one or two cars to enter the wait zone and not trigger the light to change , both for straight-thru, right-turns, and left-turn lanes. I have indeed seen cars think they have triggered the light, begin to proceed in anticipation of the sequence, and have to sharp brake when they don't get it. Same for cars who think they triggered the light loop, and then drift out into the crosswalk beyond the loop/detector, pushing the progression of the light. Same thing - they have to sharp brake. Dumb ! They learn. And yes, sometimes it's 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 dangerous - I have seen many near collisions or pedestrian take-outs from it.
It is not funny, and I do not minimize the danger nor the stupidity of it.

As to your railway crossing example - invalid !
The train triggers the crossarms, not the car. and multi-track crossings are cross-linked and inter-linked to keep the arms down to prevent cars from beginning to cross after one train only to be confronted by another.
99.9 % of those videos you see of near misses and actual crashes at level crossings are just about totally the fault of the idiots ignoring the arms-down and attempting to cross the tracks IN SPITE OF the barriers and protections.
Yes, there are the 0.1 % of incidents where the vehicle has stalled ON the tracks - that is a disaster, and to be regretted and attempted to be designed better for, but nothing is perfect on an imperfect world.
Note that I put the crashes wherein the vehicle has disobeyed the stricture of [do not enter the tracks area when the traffic light on the other side is red] into the class of idiots - but in this specific case the idiocy is to be allocated to the idiots who designed this situational, in greater measure.

To the final comment - "Advancing a foot when all reasonable indications are that it's safe is a minor transgression." - Bridges fall when the bolts are too small (to save metal, to save cost). Space shuttles blow up when (a) the O-rings in the solid-fuel boosters are thermally over-stressed and (b) the double-U joint protected by the O-ring is reduced to first a single-U and then to a half-U (to save time and cost) and it pops. Minor transgressions in-and-of themselves all over the place, and mostly don't cost lives. (Later analysis of previous shuttle launches showed they had gotten away with it in more than six previous missions.) But sometimes the planets align and lives are lost.
Capital punishment ?
A) self inflicted. or
B) Canada eliminated imposed capital punishment for a good reason, but prison time still stands for some situations such as I have noted above.

Final answer - take responsibility for your own actions.

This is some hand-waving 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 if I've ever seen it. If you don't understand the issue at hand, claiming that you do understand isn't going to change anything. Our entire system of roads and highways is built with buffers and safety systems to accommodate users who make mistakes, and prevent them from unaliving themselves. By your standard of self-responsibility, we don't need crash cushions protecting barriers - after all if you hit them it's your own fault.

On the broader issue, there are two distinct issues and I feel that they might be conflated here, to the detriment of there being a solution to the actual problem. The first issue is when a cross-street sensor is tripped, the pedestrian countdown starts and then the sensor is cleared before the end of the countdown - either because the vehicle turned right or drifted off the sensor. This is annoying on a bike, but not dangerous, and serves a valid purpose to keep traffic moving. Many people are also accustomed to it, as it isn't uncommon. It should not be the focus of this discussion.

The bigger issue is the actual "Revert Red". This is when the cross-street sensor is tripped, the pedestrian countdown starts and then the primary street gets a red light. Finally, the controller checks the detector again and it has cleared - either because the vehicle turned right or drifted off the sensor - and the primary street immediately reverts back to a green indication. This is a much less common situation, and a dangerous one as people do not anticipate it. The solution is that the signal cycle should lock and the green should display for the cross street regardless of the presence of a vehicle on the detector once the primary street has begun the yellow phase. As this is a fairly uncommon occurrence, eliminating it would have a minor impact on overall traffic operations.

My concern is that these two situations are being lumped together. Situation 1 is annoying for people on the cross street, but it's not dangerous, and eliminating it might impact traffic operations. Situation 1 is annoying and dangerous for people on the cross-street, and eliminating it won't significantly impact operations. Fighting to eliminate both is going to much more difficult than eliminating only one, but the responses to Councillor Leiper's letter don't seem to recognize the difference between situations.

[zzptichka]

I suppose revert red for bikes wouldn't have been an issue if you could've moved 3 meters beyond the stop line and still trigger the green light.

[rocketphish]

Committee decides against ditching 'red revert' traffic signal feature that strikes fear into some cyclists

Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 01, 2021 • 11 hours ago • 4 minute read

After a lengthy discussion on cyclist safety, traffic technology and obeying the rules of the road, a majority of transportation committee members decided to side with staff and voted down a recommendation from Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper to do away with a longstanding traffic signal feature known as “red revert” that he says is endangering cyclists.

Leiper’s proposal was opposed by several city departments. They raised the prospect of serious impacts if implemented, including to bus operations, emergency response times, traffic congestion and safety at intersections.

To address cyclist concerns about red revert — oncoming traffic receives a green light after five seconds if cyclists or other vehicles on the secondary street move off the sensor that triggered the light change before they actually get a green light — the city has been rolling out a feature called called an “amber lock.”

Leiper said this didn’t equate to eliminating red revert, in the eyes of residents, “and an explicit policy is required.”

His recommendation sought to have cyclists and mobility device users given a full green light after being detected by the sensor, regardless of whether they left the sensor before their traffic signal actually turned green.

“You’re usually just trying to maximize your time to get across the intersection,” Bike Ottawa’s Erinn Cunningham told the committee regarding why someone might depart early from the sensor. “Bikes aren’t Porsches. They don’t go from zero to 60 in, you know, four seconds.”

Cunningham argued other road safety systems are designed to reflect the reality that users don’t always obey traffic laws.

“What we are looking to change is the design of our traffic signals so that, if somebody does, through misjudgment … or just bad judgement, proceed, it doesn’t become a life-threatening situation.”

Staff said the sensors weren’t able to differentiate between a bicycle and any other kind of vehicle and ditching red revert would mean a “significant impact to the operation” of approximately 80 per cent of Ottawa’s traffic-signalled intersections.

Their case for keeping red revert was bolstered by public delegate Brett Delmage, a traffic cycling skills instructor and first chair of the cycling advisory committee to city council.

Delmage told the committee he would instantly fail on a road test any cyclist who advanced beyond a stop bar before receiving a green signal to proceed, and he fundamentally believed anything that encouraged such behaviour was wrong: including the amber lock, which secures a green light for cyclists if they remain on the sensor until the end of the yellow light for the other street, even if they move off the sensor during the red.

Phil Landry, director of traffic services, explained at a post-committee media conference that staff came up with the amber lock after hearing concerns from the cycling community that “they want to sort of get a little jump in terms of during the all-red period … and that sometimes they lose detection.”

It’s this behaviour that staff who responded to Leiper’s report in favour of removing red revert say they can’t condone.

The city is in the midst of programming the amber lock at close to 200 locations frequented by cyclists, scheduled for completion by the end of March 2022. They were tasked Wednesday by Coun. Laura Dudas with reviewing the amber lock over the next two years and reporting back.

Coun. Allan Hubley also directed staff to develop an awareness campaign, “including signage at key intersections,” to educate road users on how red revert works and “how to safely and legally enter an intersection.”

Leiper had said previously that, even if he didn’t receive the committee’s support for his recommendation, he’d ask the majority of council to back him. He said Wednesday he expected significant support for his proposal around the council table, but there could be a compromise struck in the coming days.

Councillors Diane Deans, Mathieu Fleury, Shawn Menard and Leiper voted in favour of eliminating red revert, while George Darouze, Eli El-Chantiry, Matthew Luloff, Catherine Kitts, Tim Tierney, Hubley and Dudas voted against.

Earlier in the meeting, transportation committee members voted to approve their portion of the 2022 draft budget, with Leiper and Fleury dissenting on the capital section.

Fleury objected to the limited scope of a plan to renew a section of the Mackenzie King Bridge and had concerns over cycling connectivity through the area.

Council will consider the 2022 draft budget on Dec. 8.

Transportation committee members also backed a motion to have the mayor write to the premier to support a private member’s bill introduced by Orléans MPP Stephen Blais seeking to have the province take back jurisdiction over the portion of Highway 174 that Ottawa has been responsible for since the late ’90s, stretching from Highway 417 to Canaan Road in Cumberland. The caveat in the mayor’s letter, if backed by council, would be that this waits until the Stage 2 LRT extension to Trim Road is completed.

Kitts, from Cumberland ward, brought the motion to committee. She said the jurisdiction change made total sense and would save taxpayer money for local projects.

With files from Jon Willing

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ure-that-strikes-fear-into-some-cyclists

[silvergate]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]Committee decides against ditching 'red revert' traffic signal feature that strikes fear into some cyclists

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ure-that-strikes-fear-into-some-cyclists

City council continues to completely fail to understand user behavior. So now we get more road signs...

They need to ask Ontario to beef up the driving test standards on dealing with cyclists instead of treating these vulnerable road users as miscreants.

[rocketphish]

City of Ottawa wants feedback on missing cycling and pedestrian links
Future transportation policies to consider everything from climate change to truck traffic

Kate Porter · CBC News
Posted: Dec 18, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: December 18

The City of Ottawa has laid out dozens, if not hundreds, of potential cycling and pedestrian projects it could undertake in years to come, and wants the public to weigh in on the most important missing links.

The city recently released the first half of what will become Ottawa's next master plan for transportation, which will ultimately be approved by a new city council in the next term.

Staff laid out 70 goals for the transportation network, such as assessing the risk of increased flooding from climate change, expanding the winter cycling network, and updating truck route planning because of concerns over interprovincial traffic downtown or near new warehouses.

Staff members also created maps with candidate projects for cycling and walking.

As part of the online consultation, residents can see suggestions very specific to their neighbourhoods, and choose whether such a project is important to them.

For instance, is it important for Brian Coburn Boulevard in Orléans to have a multi-use pathway, or for Clyde Avenue to have segregated bike lanes? Perhaps a sidewalk is needed on Moodie Drive near Crystal Bay Centre for Special Education.

The city is looking for feedback until Feb. 7, 2022 so draft policies can go to committee and council next spring for approval.

The transportation master plan is an important document that guides many city decisions — past versions set out priorities that led to construction of the first and second stages of the light rail system.

An update has been a long time coming. The current master plan being followed dates back to 2013.

City staff had to delay gathering critical data when the pandemic hit because it transformed residents' day-to-day travel patterns.

The survey will help staff come up with a new list of road, transit, cycling and pedestrian projects the city should prioritize. Staff will also set out the cost of the work, what the city can afford, as well as suggested timelines.

The second important infrastructure plan for the transportation network is due in 2024, to be dealt with by a new city council.

Councillors tend to take great interest in what makes that short list. Residents have been frustrated when projects such as realigning Greenbank Road in Barrhaven or taking bus rapid transit to south Orléans, for instance, are only on the books for the far future.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ot...aster-plan-policy-consultation-1.6288703

[rocketphish]

10 years later, success of Laurier bike lanes drives city's cycling agenda

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jan 06, 2022 • 4 minutes ago • 5 minute read

Tim Hore biked through a snowstorm in the dead of an Ottawa winter so city councillors could hear his support for a controversial idea to separate cyclists from regular traffic on a major downtown throughway.

Seventeen centimetres of snow fell and wind speeds hit nearly 60 km/h on Feb. 2, 2011. As the snow fell on city hall, councillors on the transportation committee were in the Champlain Room, slogging through a marathon meeting, which included a decision to launch a pilot project creating bike lanes on Laurier Avenue West.

It would lead to council’s approval of a $1.3-million, two-year pilot project and the city in July of that year installing the first segregated bike lanes in an Ontario downtown.

With more than 10 years as part of the downtown transportation network, the Laurier Avenue bike lanes have been a catalyst for other safe-cycling initiatives in Ottawa.

Hore, who bikes year-round, said the existence of cycling infrastructure might not make a big difference to seasoned cyclists who aren’t afraid to fight for their lanes, but many people who don’t have the same nerve feel more safe in dedicated bike lanes.

“Having a segregated bike lane is helpful because it gives people who are maybe a little worried about cycling downtown the confidence to do it,” Hore said.

“I think cycling offers so many great benefits that are not just about reducing the number of cars on the cars on the road. I think there are also health benefits that the population enjoys. The more people we have cycling, the fitter the population is.”

It went down in post-amalgamation Ottawa history as one of the most contentious transportation debates on record, with the transportation committee sitting until the evening hours, listening to public delegates and wrangling over a decision.

But there’s little doubt that the bike lanes, though not perfect, have offered a safe cycling route through the core as the city works to expand the crosstown bike network.

In 2011, some of the loudest opposition to the bike-lane proposal came from residents of condo towers at the west end of Laurier Avenue.

SuzAnne Dore lives in the Queen Elizabeth Towers on Laurier Street, between Percy and Bay streets. She addressed the transportation committee in 2011, warning councillors about increased traffic congestion if bike lanes took up road space and the likely conflicts with drop-offs, parking entrances, garbage trucks and loading bays. She joined other residents in voicing concerns about a loss of street parking.

Dore credited city hall with making room for some street parking spaces after council approved the bike lanes. She lauded the city for connecting the bike lanes using the technical school lands east of Bronson Avenue, though there’s still a precarious crossing at Laurier Avenue to access the eastbound bike lane.

“I still watch those bike lanes everyday,” Dore said recently, adding she’s still worried about road safety for all users.

“We have to remember that people need to be educated,” she said. “There was not enough education of the drivers, of the pedestrians and the cyclists to operate on a busy downtown street.”

Dore, who’s in her mid-70s, has friends who won’t visit her because of the “hectic” road activity, making them anxious about driving on Laurier Avenue.

In 2019, the last year with statistics available through the city’s open data catalogue, there were 13 collisions involving cyclists on Laurier Avenue between Bronson Avenue and Elgin Street.

David Smythe, general manager of the Lord Elgin Hotel, who raised concerns at the 2011 transportation committee meeting about safety for cyclists, still isn’t convinced that Laurier Avenue is the right street for segregated bike lanes, considering the volume of traffic. He believes Somerset Street and Cooper Street, connecting with the Corktown Bridge, would have been better candidates.

“I remain hopeful someday someone will recognize this obvious deadly mistake,” Smythe said.

There have been two deadly tragedies on or near the bike lanes on Laurier Avenue.

On Sept. 1, 2016, a woman cycling on the bike lane was struck by a man driving a construction truck that was turning right from Laurier Avenue onto Lyon Street.

The city commissioned Mobycon to do a safety study of the bike lanes in 2017 and the organization discovered “right hooks” — right turns by motorists across the bike lanes when cyclists are approaching the intersection — were a problem.

Safety improvements included painted stop bars for cyclists located ahead of stop bars for vehicles, new bike signals and signage and green thermoplastic on the bike lanes at building vehicle entrances.

There was another fatality on May 16, 2019, when a motorist operating a van struck a cyclist, though the crash happened east of Elgin Street in front of city hall, beyond the boundary of the segregated bike facility. The cyclist’s death prompted another discussion about eliminating dangerous road designs.

Cycling advocates say the success of the Laurier Avenue bike lanes has forced the city to consider cycling facilities more often in transportation planning.

When it comes to the downtown around Laurier Avenue, O’Connor Street now has segregated bike lanes and Bay Street north of Laurier Avenue has a new cycle track. The city has also eyed Albert, Slater and Wellington streets for separated cycling facilities.

Érinn Cunningham, president of Bike Ottawa, said the Laurier Avenue bike lanes have contributed to a huge increase in ridership by cyclists through the downtown and have decreased the number of collisions involving cyclists on the street.

“More people feel comfortable on this kind of infrastructure and it is demonstrably more safe,” Cunningham said, noting he started riding a bike to work and other places around 2014-2015. The Laurier bike lanes were a factor in his decision.

Cunningham said the bike lanes fuelled new discussions about providing safe cycling infrastructure in Ottawa. Streets that would have never been considered for segregated bike lanes or cycle tracks 10 years ago are now part of the conversation to improve cyclist safety, he said.

But it doesn’t mean the city has completely changed its philosophy about how people move around the city, Cunningham said. He pointed to the remake of Queen Street as a missed opportunity to include cycling facilities.

“I would describe Ottawa as being in a place where we’re still a very car-centric city, but we also build better infrastructure for people on bikes now,” Cunningham said.

“If we do want to become a city that relies much more on biking and other forms of active transportation or sustainable transportation, like the new official plan contemplates, then we probably need to start challenging the car-centric nature of the city.”

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...r-bike-lanes-drives-citys-cycling-agenda

[roger1818]

The city commissioned Mobycon to do a safety study of the bike lanes in 2017 and the organization discovered “right hooks” — right turns by motorists across the bike lanes when cyclists are approaching the intersection — were a problem.

It took a study in 2017 for the city to realize that right hooks can be a problem with bike lanes? John Forester said that in his book Effective Cycling back in 1984. Now people may disagree with his idea of vehicular cycling, but the studies and statistics he used remain unchanged. To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is the definition of insanity.

Now bike lanes can be designed in a way to reduce the risk of right hooks, but for the city planners to claim that they had no idea prior to 2017 that they could even be a problem is insane.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by roger1818

It took a study in 2017 for the city to realize that right hooks can be a problem with bike lanes? John Forester said that in his book Effective Cycling back in 1984. Now people may disagree with his idea of vehicular cycling, but the studies and statistics he used remain unchanged. To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is the definition of insanity.

Now bike lanes can be designed in a way to reduce the risk of right hooks, but for the city planners to claim that they had no idea prior to 2017 that they could even be a problem is insane.

The "bend-out" in protected intersections are specifically designed to avoid right hooks, but some on this forum (as recently as this summer when the Bay Street cycle tracks were completed) have complained that they would rather just keep going straight.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by TransitZilla

The "bend-out" in protected intersections are specifically designed to avoid right hooks, but some on this forum (as recently as this summer when the Bay Street cycle tracks were completed) have complained that they would rather just keep going straight.

Sounds about right. They would rather be hit by a car than slow down.

[Aylmer]

I think that comment is in poor taste.

[roger1818]

Speaking of intersections designed to avoid right hooks, I saw this video a while back, which does a decent job of describing them.

• Video Link

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by TransitZilla

The "bend-out" in protected intersections are specifically designed to avoid right hooks, but some on this forum (as recently as this summer when the Bay Street cycle tracks were completed) have complained that they would rather just keep going straight.

I rode the Bay Street cycle tracks a couple times last summer. I had no issues with the slight bends or bumps. Not quite sure what the big deal is.

Another solution to right hooks would be to give everyone their own signal priority (like Quebec City). Sure we'll all be waiting a bit longer at lights, but it would make our roads far safer.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I rode the Bay Street cycle tracks a couple times last summer. I had no issues with the slight bends or bumps. Not quite sure what the big deal is.

Another solution to right hooks would be to give everyone their own signal priority (like Quebec City). Sure we'll all be waiting a bit longer at lights, but it would make our roads far safer.

There's some of that too at Albert & Bay (seen in the above video at 6:41).

[waterloowarrior]

Donald Street Resurfacing and Cycling Lanes Functional Design
https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-en...cing-and-cycling-lanes-functional-design

[UrbOttawa]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but there is a renewal project starting this year for Mackenzie King Bridge. They're adding raised cycle paths, trees, planters, benches and increasing the sidewalk width. Really happy to see this one as the view from this bridge is one of the more iconic in the city, but its a dismal place to be as a pedestrian.



https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/projects/mackenzie-king-bridge-renewal

[SL123]

Originally Posted by UrbOttawa

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but there is a renewal project starting this year for Mackenzie King Bridge. They're adding raised cycle paths, trees, planters, benches and increasing the sidewalk width. Really happy to see this one as the view from this bridge is one of the more iconic in the city, but its a dismal place to be as a pedestrian.

https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/projects/mackenzie-king-bridge-renewal

Excellent new! I like the much wider sidewalk and planters on the bridge portion facing the chateau Laurier and parliament

[J.OT13]

And Waller. This year as well according to a Rail Fans Discord user.

[LRTeverywhere]

The Waller project also includes a reconstruction of Laurier-Nicholas aswell as cycle tracks on Laurier to Waller.

[J.OT13]

Posted on Rail Fans Canada Discord, the cycling/ped networks around Iris and Algonquin.