[Mr.Wonderful]

Another few cars parked in the semi-complete 15 ave bike lane lol. The busybody in me also wishes we had a crowdsourced system to report and have vehicles ticketed for these violations. I can't find it for the life of me, but I remember seeing Reddit post from a guy in London UK who shared a list of confirmed tickets the Metropolitan police had issued to vehicles he reported for parking in bike lanes, passing too close, etc, based on his helmet cam footage. Again, the busybody in me...

These long sections with no physical barriers are just asking for impromptu loading or parking. We can only hope that the Calgary Parking Authority and Citywide towing see it for the quota goldmine it will be because I doubt the police will.

 

[lemongrab]

Ooph. IMO these couplets would have been much better as bike boulevards. What they've delivered here is not close to 5A at all. So much time and public blowback for a mediocre result.

There are only two 'protected' ways to access this (5th and 11th, both from the north only). 2nd St SW has mostly crappy lanes to access from the south. So if you use 15th you are almost certainly having to ride in mixed traffic (or use the sidewalk) at some point on your trip anyways. They could easily extend the boulevard west to 16 St SW or beyond (they should still do that anyways, but this would have been the perfect centralized opportunity to introduce the concept).

 

[trtcttc]

Another few cars parked in the semi-complete 15 ave bike lane lol. The busybody in me also wishes we had a crowdsourced system to report and have vehicles ticketed for these violations. I can't find it for the life of me, but I remember seeing Reddit post from a guy in London UK who shared a list of confirmed tickets the Metropolitan police had issued to vehicles he reported for parking in bike lanes, passing too close, etc, based on his helmet cam footage. Again, the busybody in me...

These long sections with no physical barriers are just asking for impromptu loading or parking. We can only hope that the Calgary Parking Authority and Citywide towing see it for the quota goldmine it will be because I doubt the police will.
View attachment 698177

I'm not sure if it's behind this photo but doesn't look like the city's put up no parking signs? I guess they technically aren't in the wrong if there's no signage.

 

[lemongrab]

I'm not sure if it's behind this photo but doesn't look like the city's put up no parking signs? I guess they technically aren't in the wrong if there's no signage.

Even then, they're both illegally parked within 1.5 meters of a driveway. You might fit a smart car with enough room between the red spray paint in the foreground.

Painting the bike lanes would help. There's 6 friggin driveways on that block.

 

[trtcttc]

Even then, they're both illegally parked within 1.5 meters of a driveway. You might fit a smart car with enough room between the red spray paint in the foreground.

Painting the bike lanes would help. There's 6 friggin driveways on that block.

And the driveway closest in the picture looks to be new? Why did they not put in the new style driveways that are much flatter in the sidewalk portion and only curves at the end. They redid 19th street (a very small portion so far) and while the people living there are complaining about the slope, it makes the much greater number of people walking much more comfortable without random drops every few steps. It also helps bike/car safety because drivers have to come out much slower because the slope is more steep.

 

[John Wick]

As far as I know the only accessible bike lane obstruction data/map for Calgary out there is on Bike Lane Uprising.
Sadly they don't make specific vehicle blocking frequency available.

 

[kora]

Curious to see how 15 Avenue will play out with regards to car parking. And then I wonder what changes they will make (if any) to prevent car parking

 

[Mountain Man]

Once the lane is open and full of cyclists, drivers will wise up. Right now there are no consequences for parking there and no cyclists to yell at them lol.

 

[lemongrab]

Really good video on Victoria's bike system. Obviously their context is very different from ours, but I think there's a lot of great lessons in here.

For me the big thing we're failing to explore are bike boulevards (or 'Yield Streets' as they called them in this vid), and this shows how great they can be. Of course the greenery and bioswales look like a totally different planet than our current conditions! There are some drawbacks to be sure, but we aren't exactly building our dedicated infrastructure to Dutch Gold Standard either.

I imagine their driving culture hasn't descended to the same level of horrorshow as we have now based on their smaller population, so I don't think we're ready for some of the yield street designs they show. I'm a big fan of diverters, but I also thought it was really interesting around 11:00 that they had a diverter that was still open for buses and emergency vehicles and only "controlled" by a sign. They noted that they still observed cars breaking the rules and using it...but so what? It still works! I feel like it would be very easy to dismiss an idea like that because we know compliance will be less than 100% (just like...everything else drivers do!) It wouldn't be a hard thing to ramp up enforcement for - use cameras to count users and fine violators.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Really good video on Victoria's bike system. Obviously their context is very different from ours, but I think there's a lot of great lessons in here.

For me the big thing we're failing to explore are bike boulevards (or 'Yield Streets' as they called them in this vid), and this shows how great they can be. Of course the greenery and bioswales look like a totally different planet than our current conditions! There are some drawbacks to be sure, but we aren't exactly building our dedicated infrastructure to Dutch Gold Standard either.

I imagine their driving culture hasn't descended to the same level of horrorshow as we have now based on their smaller population, so I don't think we're ready for some of the yield street designs they show. I'm a big fan of diverters, but I also thought it was really interesting around 11:00 that they had a diverter that was still open for buses and emergency vehicles and only "controlled" by a sign. They noted that they still observed cars breaking the rules and using it...but so what? It still works! I feel like it would be very easy to dismiss an idea like that because we know compliance will be less than 100% (just like...everything else drivers do!) It wouldn't be a hard thing to ramp up enforcement for - use cameras to count users and fine violators.

Hoping our next iteration concentrates on overall calmer streets for everyone. I don't suspect we'll see a lot of new biking infrastructure downtown, but there is probably some appetite to build some biking infrastructure into street calming in areas outside the core.

If anything happens in the core, I hope it is an east/west connection outside of Stephen Ave. Maybe 6th or 9ave Aves? As Stephen Ave undergoes its revitalization a quick painted lane and some cones could do wonders.

 

[trtcttc]

Hoping our next iteration concentrates on overall calmer streets for everyone. I don't suspect we'll see a lot of new biking infrastructure downtown, but there is probably some appetite to build some biking infrastructure into street calming in areas outside the core.

If anything happens in the core, I hope it is an east/west connection outside of Stephen Ave. Maybe 6th or 9ave Aves? As Stephen Ave undergoes its revitalization a quick painted lane and some cones could do wonders.

Rebuilding streets or bike lanes always require funding, and this council doesn't seem too keen on raising taxes, even at the pace of inflation. I hope we see some more main street funding but doubt it given all the news about Marda Loop. I know there is one in Sunalta, but that's a pretty small project.

 

[whatchyyc]

I'm a big fan of diverters, but I also thought it was really interesting around 11:00 that they had a diverter that was still open for buses and emergency vehicles and only "controlled" by a sign. They noted that they still observed cars breaking the rules and using it...but so what? It still works!

We have one of these for peak hours in Upper Mount Royal, of course extensive and effective traffic calming is reserved for millionare mansion neighbourhoods only

 

[lemongrab]

It's also annoying how we've made the old bus trap (car trap) connections completely unpassable pushing all active users onto a sidewalk with bollards in the middle...to make damn sure a motorcycle doesn't take this shortcut (even though the only thing stopping a motorcycle from using the sidewalk is a no motorcycles sign). Of course bicycles aren't supposed to ride on the sidewalk except for all the times we randomly say its okay. It's not that awful to use, but actually does feel cramped on my cargo bike or with a bike trailer and there are plenty of pedestrians given proximity to Sirocco station.

The current sign above says Emergency Vehicles Only (though they'd have to stop and remove the chain, unless its set to breakaway or something). I can't quite make out the old sign but I think maybe it says 'This corridor is for future bus right of way'

I was going to say that this could become a little community gathering space (not that Strathcona is hurting for those) that facilitates bikes and emergency travel (and street hockey?). But they should really just reopen this for buses...route 94 is currently two independent loops sharing the same number with lots of unproductive travel, redundancy, and left turns:

The Strathcona loop runs clockwise; the section from the bus trap turn off to complete the loop is about 850 meters of ultra low density with two stops. So cut that out and the worst case scenario becomes a 425 meter walk to a stop (but this side of Strathcona is also close enough to Sirocco station that you'd just go straight there).

So you could cut out that low yield travel, and then a left turn at lights onto 69th Street, and then a left turn at slow lights to turn onto 17th and into the bus loops. And then for the Sirocco loop it runs up and down 17th, including a signalled left turn back onto 17th that is often delayed by train signals.

Anyways, that turned into more of a transit post, so maybe I'll link this post there and sketch out an alternative route to compare travel distance.

 

[lemongrab]

This is a great local channel - make sure to throw them a subscribe/follow - a few months ago we were talking about the 19th St NW improvements. It's the third intersection discussed in this video (3:15):

The drone footage of these intersections is great. Per the design below it looks like this is at least supposed to get paint where the lane 'disappears', but IMO this just shows how bad we are at intersections.

The right turn onto 5th is already an obtuse angle...why couldn't the path stay elevated around the full corner? This was a perfect opportunity for a truly protected intersection. You can even see [faintly] the exact place the curb should go running parallel to the SE corner/curve

 

[lemongrab]

Unsurprisingly the 17th and Richmond T-intersection was also featured. The final intersection featured from Canmore with the Dutch style traffic lights at the front of the intersection prompted an idea for how this intersection could have been properly fixed...and for once the answer might actually be a slip lane!

My drawing skills leave much to be desired, and I'm sure this would need more than 10 minutes of thought to be fully refined, but I think the general idea is sound:

It's a narrow slip lane with a speed hump (elevated crosswalk). Drivers deal with the pedestrian crossing first, before they can even think about yielding onto EB 17th. Only downside is the slight detour for peds looking to cross N-S...you could probably mitigate that if you wanted to, but I think it's better to separate the ped crossing and the yield