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vistaway

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I noticed this interesting tidbit on the www.mississaugacycling.ca site:

MTO Approves Bike Crossings
Jim Bradley, Minister of Transportation, sent a letter of approval to Mayor Hazel McCallion and the City of Mississauga for the use of ride-through bike lanes, otherwise known as "Crossrides". This letter includes the proposed design for these crossrides. City staff is now reviewing the approval and looking into the possibility of a pilot project. The use of these at a specific intersection requires careful consideration of a number of issues, but most importantly safety. Crossride bike crossings, in theory, would allow cyclists on a bike path to cross the roadway at an intersection without the requirement to dismount the bicycle.

Here's the design:
http://www.mississaugacycling.ca/media/File/bike_crossing/Bike_Crossing.pdf

I am impressed that Mississauga is intending to pilot this.
 
With all due respect to the fine administrators of the City of Mississauga and all involved parties, the dismount requirement was a total joke to begin with.

The sooner we can put this "requirement" behind us the better.
 
I always thought that was a provincial HTA law? I agree...it's ridiculous and I rarely, if ever, follow it when on a bike path crossing an intersection.
 
vistaway said:
I always thought that was a provincial HTA law? I agree...it's ridiculous and I rarely, if ever, follow it when on a bike path crossing an intersection.
Click to expand...

That comment, with all due respect, is the sort of attitude from cyclists that annoys others.

I drive downtown on many roads that are heavily cycled.....I spend a great deal of care to make sure I am aware of where the cyclists are and give them enough room to not only make sure they are safe sharing the road with me but also that they feel safe (ie. they know what I am doing and don't feel threatened). That said, cyclists (in general) show a blatant disregard for the rules of the road.

So your comment (and I don't mean to jump on you) highlights that prevailing attitude...."everyone should follow the rules of the road as laid out in the highway traffic act.....everyone, that is, except the cyclists"...we will just go on our merry way, weaving in and out of lanes, creating a new phantom "inside lane" beside that car that is turning right and if he hits me I will yell at him for not knowing where I am, I will ride on the sidewalk when its convenient even though I am not allowed to and when I come to a road I will magically transform from being a sidewalk pedestrian bycicle to a road using vehicle.
 
TOareaFan, I agree with your comments, but I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Perhaps I wasn't clear - I don't ride on sidewalks. I was referring to dedicated or multi-use bike paths as they intersect roads. Particularly when riding with my trailer or Trail Gator, dismounting to walk across an intersection (on a green, of course) is cumbersome and potentially dangerous. This new crossride design seems to address that concern.
 
vistaway said:
TOareaFan, I agree with your comments, but I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Perhaps I wasn't clear - I don't ride on sidewalks. I was referring to dedicated or multi-use bike paths as they intersect roads. Particularly when riding with my trailer or Trail Gator, dismounting to walk across an intersection (on a green, of course) is cumbersome and potentially dangerous. This new crossride design seems to address that concern.
Click to expand...


OK....sorry. Cyclists (some!) are a sore point for me...I really, really do take extra care and caution around them (I couldn't imagine how I would feel if I hit someone on a bike with my car)....but I get really irked by the cavalier ones that, frankly, have a lot less concern for their own safety than I do.

I am not sure how to handle the bike path intersection thing....it really is a bit of a convergence of old and new. The old being the idea that bikes were really just a recreational thing and they should dismount at intersections and the new where we are encouraging people to look at bikes as a serious mode of transportation.

Maybe this experiment in Mississauga will provide an answer!
 
Yes, i noticed this from the other thread too. They will be particularly useful for the bike trail along Burnhamthorpe. I still think bike lanes are the answer though for the minor arterials.

Montreal as lots of bike paths at the side of the road, with proper crossings of the streets, so i don't see how it wouldn't work here. However, the path and crossings are much are much more clearly marked there though. And the trails themselves are at the same level as street, unlike here, and I'm not sure if this makes a difference or not.
 
They already have similar things in Toronto on Eglinton Ave in Etobicoke, to separate pedestrians and cyclists in crosswalks:


(Clickety click for bigger)

Not terribly effective at keeping peds out of the "bike" area though. But since these are technically a multi-use trail, that's not surprising.

Still might not be legal according to the MTO.

Anyway, nice to see that they might make these things more common and legal, starting with Mississauga. The Burnhamthorpe Trail is useless to me because of the crappy intersection designs. I may be more willing to ride there, rather than on the road, if the trail intersections were made better.

Still...I'd be more worried about getting schmucked at an intersection riding on the trail than on the road, especially if I was going contra-flow.
 
This is very very unrelated, well at the very least I was on a bike : - )

So I was biking around MCC and south on Hurontario and one thing I noticed is that Hurontario south of Eglinton seems so much more alive ... and most of the stuff here is old and I believe somewhat lower income levels. But there are actually some people on the street, there's a lot of street level retail and it doesn't feel very detached. Compare that to ALL OF MCC less some very small parts (hence the detached feeling) well there was hardly anyone less people waiting for buses and there was no sense of a main street, retail was spare and spread around ... this is throughout ALL OF MCC (I biked around forever : - D). I dunno it just seems like things aren't being done right in this area ... just learn some lessons from the area just to the south and I think it would be better off ... trying at the very least to develop some main street so I actually have to worry about hitting someone on my bike ... which I didn't have too at all : - )
 
^ I think you mean south of Burnhamthorpe, the Cooksville area? It was mostly developed in the 60's, typical 60's suburb though perhaps more urban as there are some older stuff too and it was the original downtown of Mississauga, which you can see this on the older road maps, even on the ones from 90's.
 
Yep sorry that's correct
 
Crossrides article link change

Hi there,
The Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee brought in their new website recently.
The new direct link to the Crossrides article is: http://www.mississaugacycling.ca/?p=46

There is news out now that the City of Mississauga has approved a go-ahead for piloting the Crossrides. I'm sure mississaugacycling.ca will post something on that when the material is ready.
 
this worked quite well in the Netherlands when I was there... I felt much safer on my bike knowing that drivers were not going to suddenly turn right in front of me.. although many intersections had bike signals as well
 
Bicycle Signals in cooperation with Crossrides

=I felt much safer on my bike knowing that drivers were not going to suddenly turn right in front of me.. although many intersections had bike signals as well
Click to expand...
I'm really interested to hear about these bike signals. I get the sense that there's some trepidation about putting crossrides in at signalled intersections because of the "right hooks" that could nail cyclists.
One option would be to disallow cars to turn right on red, but that wouldn't be fair for automobile commuters (oh I can't believe I just typed that). Having a bike signal at the intersection with a button for cyclists is more than adequate to calm the planners' fears. Is there any city in Canada that uses bike signals? Maybe Mississauga can be the first for that, too! The Crossride is a valuable tool that will be beneficial, but driver/cyclist education and other tools such as bike signals will make them safer and even more functional.
 
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