Huge Changes to University Ave. and History Repeating

Well it's happening again: Another roundabout installation on the corners of North Park and Cogswell --and Trollope, and Ahern. Looking back on how much smoother the roundabout  at North Park and Agri has made to everyone's commutes, this change to the roads around the commons is exciting. It's also ending a two year long planning process on how to improve traffic flow in the North End at two of the most ridiculous intersections known in Atlantic Canada!

This makes me happy in a couple ways, one of which is that this city has performed a study of the area, came up with a solution --albeit a little controversial when first promoted-- and followed-through on their plans! All to often, I find myself gobsmacked at Council's preference to perform study after study without taking the strong leadership role that this city needs: making and following-through on a decision. Though it's been nearly a full election cycle since his departure, I think this lack of decision-making is something identifiable moreso with the Kelly-era --though I've been seeing council make more bold decisions as of late, be they for better or worse. 

Although there is speculation now that former mayor Peter Kelley is considering a return to the Mayors seat in the next election. **audible groan**

Speaking of following-through on reports and studies, Dalhousie is getting the Green-Light on installing protected bikeways down the length of University Ave! This little piece of planning is a story akin to the little engine that could. Not only did this project receive rebukes from the Rebecca Cohn crowd, but also the differently-abled crowd and even the Dawgfather himself! Despite taking the beating of a lifetime, it has made it's way to council for approval.

So mark it on your calendars, little ones! Bike Lane vote on Tuesday, May 12th starting sometime after 1:30pm! Head on over to Grand-Parade and sit in on what could be our first protected bike lane in Peninsular Halifax! 

Although this in itself is great news, it's slated as a two-year trial at the moment, which means we'll have to use it and promote the hell out of it in order to keep it. Also, with the next municipal election set for next year, I can see this being a small to medium impact election-issue for this district and the Mayoral run. HRM also reserves the right to terminate the trial at any time if it sees fit. 

There's a lot on the line, folks! Write in to your Councillor, and/or the Mayor, and/or the Province (they're the ones footing the bulk of the bill along with Dalhousie) when the lines are painted and the bollards are planted, letting them know how much you love this bike-lane and how much you love biking in HRM!

Church goers crying foul and Sambro Loop safety issues

Well fall is rearing it's ugly head (I'm more of a spring guy). The leaves along many a bike route are starting to show crisp, rusted fringes and bikers are starting to group together for that one last, exceptional cycling trip of the season. Unfortunately, we're seeing a couple complaints in HRM regarding cycling infrastructure and cycling behaviour. 

Let's start with the more ridiculous issue.

Last fall, the city finally created a functional bike lane connecting the South End of the peninsula to the North End. Doing so effectively connected residential neighbourhoods to commercial areas, the universities and the hospitals --the latter two being HRM's largest employment sectors along with the Army/Navy bases. It was great! Current cyclists seemed happy to see a piece of the AT plan of 2005 come to fruition. New riders from the City Streets neighbourhood (such as Cork St., Liverpool St., Edinburgh St., London St., Berlin St., Vienna St.) came out of the woodwork to cycle using this new piece of infrastructure. Everything was going so well until someone noticed parking signs stating "No Parking, Mon-Sat." The ensuing Sunday-bike-lane-blockage was like clockwork. Starting at about 7am , church parishioners would come out, clog the lane and shut things down for new cyclists on possibly the most appealing day for recreational riding.

Thanks to some handy camera-work by @zeptep (photo above), the issue came to light on a local cycling group on Facebook. The Halifax Cycling Coalition then swooped in to rectify the issue with city staff and have the signs replaced. 

Staff looked into issue of parking in Windsor St bike lane. “No Parking Mon-Sat” signs will be removed, will notify @HfxRegPolice @IBIKEHFX
— hfxgov (@hfxgov) September 8, 2014

Unfortunately, we found out blotting out bike lanes is a hobby for a few folks in HRM.

Washmill Lake Dr.

So who is dropping the ball here? The blame would have to go to Halifax Regional Police as well as municipal staff. Despite staff's great work in establishing the broad strokes, HRM has to pay attention to fine detail with such an intense change to Halifax's transportation infrastructure. HRP has to pick-up the ball from there and consistently enforce the law. Plan, promote, enact, enforce; this should probably be an acronym for HRM staffers to keep in mind for future roadwork. P.P.E.E. ... Pee? Well, maybe we can figure out some new letters first.

Is this the end of cycling in HRM? Definitely not. New cyclists are probably a little put off by these events, but established, year-round cyclists will always be there to call attention to these issues and have them fixed. The HCC is also here to help and has proven particularly capable of responding quickly when issues come to their attention. 

Enter the next player in this debacle. 

Despite the ridiculously high amount of public parking on nearby side streets, churches are deploring the move which is steering their parishioners towards actually walking a whopping two to five minutes to get to mass. 

Imagine! Walking! On your hind legs! Like a Cretan! The nerve...

The really confusing portion of the article linked above is that families are taking two to three cars to church every Sunday. Is that not a completely ridiculous concept to anyone else here?!

I hope this story ends here with churches capitulating to the fact that maybe a short walk might be good of their congregation, and older members of the church or people requiring wheelchairs or walkers are differently-abled, not disabled.

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Now let's switch to the complaint going on right now that has a degree of legitimacy. 

The residents of everyone's favourite cycling route, the Sambro Loop, are getting a little frustrated with cyclists not obeying the rules of the road. The creation of the "Make the loop safe" group on Facebook seems at first blush to be a great way to share concerns, offer some solutions, and mobilize residents and cyclists in solving a space issue on the Sambro Loop. After reading a few comments however, you'll quickly see that this is yet another cranky-motorist-ranting page.

Taking pictures of cyclists riding in an unsafe manner is encouraged and really goes to show how biased many members of this group are against cycling. The pictures on the page would be laughable if so many people didn't take them so seriously. Here are some examples:

Cyclist positioned excellently to the right.

Another great example of responsible riding

Maybe hard to see here, but two bikers, single file, staying to the right

This might be a legitimate complaint. Do these guys go single file as soon as they are through the intersection? We don't know.

Believe it or not, every picture above had complaints that the cyclist(s) is not far-right enough, or they are simply at a section of road with a blind crest or a piece of winding road --difficult to see around those corners.

Think about that: someone is mad at you for existing in a certain place at a certain time. A remarkably poor attitude towards cycling, but hear me out for a minute...

Group rides. Probably one of the best ways to spend an hour or two working out with a friend, shoot the shit about your week, make some plans to get together for coffee sometime soon. Definitely helpful in increasing your average pace, and covering a great amount of distance with a reduced amount of effort. These guys riding like this --which is probably the most common riding pattern for groups of six riders or larger worldwide-- although promoting camaraderie and riding efficiency, is not particularly lawful in the strictest sense. Put another way, people that don't cycle don't get why you need to have two columns. On top of this, there are a few stories by motorists that group rides will curse, flip-out or otherwise act like a jag towards passing cars. 

There are a plethora of reasons for cyclists to freak out. Are all these cars passing at times when it's safe to do so? Are they giving the proper metre of distance required by the law, regardless of how many abreast these cyclists are? Could these bikers do better in thinning out when cars are approaching? How does their behaviour reflect cycling in area? How well are motorists promoting equity in road sharing when they come upon a group like this? Are group riders making the rest of us look bad?

The answer to all these questions is: I don't know. A Facebook page bitching about cyclists and showing a few stills of individual cyclists giving massive amounts of space for cars juxtaposed against group rides at a moment when the pack might not even know a car is behind them is not proof that cyclists are behaving particularly poorly. It does not show that this route is significantly unsafe either. It does illustrate that this is one of HRM's most cycled routes, and as more people take up cycling for it's health and social benefits, there are more interactions between the two road users. 

But there is good news to motorists in the area: you're not doing that bad of a job! I usually hit this route once, maybe twice a week and I have to admit that nine out of 10 of you car-folk give me space, slow down on your approach, or wait for oncoming traffic to go by before you pass. Would a bike lane be beneficial to increase the safety of the area? It would likely make riding more comfortable for cyclists, albeit on a road that hasn't seen a motorist-cyclist collision resulting in serious harm or death in the last 10 years --very likely much longer. 

Will it make things better for motorists?

If these two folks serve as an example of "poor cycling," then there's going to always be a section of motorists that will always have a hate-on for bikers and who will bitch at every chance they get when they find a cyclist ahead of them, whether in a bike lane or not.

Either way, I'm not particularly anti-bike lane on the Sambro Loop. I do think there are better places to invest in cycling infra, such as off-road trails or sprucing-up urban bike routes. There is a poorly written, online petition encouraging government to create a bike lane around the Sambro Loop, but I encourage you to write to your councillors or MLAs and encourage them to invest in cycling in HRM and Nova Scotia. 

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This was a long one and I have to thank you for reading this far. I'm interested to see what you guys think about this, so leave your comments below.

Happy trails!