Big Ride and the North End Roundabout

I've been on a really undesireable work schedule for the past three or four weeks. Although it's opened up a bit more space to do more riding more often, things haven't exactly worked out that way. In any case, I was able to grind out enough time last week to throw down about 150 km all around Halifax, Bedford, Dartmouth and beyond. 

One of those rides was a pretty large loop through Lawrencetown, to Porters Lake and back by Dartmouth via Main St. Clocking in at 70km, it's one of my larger routes that takes me from peninsular, Metro Halifax to suburban and rural HRM. If you're used to longer rides, I totally recommend this one. It's also a great starter or warm-up route if you're looking to transition from 50-60 km rides to about 75-100 km ones. 

In other news, it looks like the construction at the North Park and Cunard streets is coming along quite well. For anyone not in the know: this is the future site of downtown Halifax's first roundabout. 

Now don't get all crazy! 

This little guy is not going to look like the Quinpool Rotary/Roundabout. It's going to be much smaller, with only one lane of travel for cars, and four entry/exit points. In contrast, the Quinpool Rotary/Roundabout is a three-lane monstrosity with five entry/exit points. The North Park and Cunard Roundabout is going to be more compact and --dare I say-- European in design. Having used Euro-Roundabouts both as a cyclist and motorist, I can tell you these changes are going to make these intersections much smoother to get through than the current lighted setup we've been dealing with for the past several decades. 

"What does this mean for cyclists going through?" you might ask. "Aren't roundabouts more dangerous than lighted intersections?" The short answer to that is: Yes. After reading a fair deal about roundabouts from several reports from the Netherlands, Germany and France, there are signs that collision rates between cars and bikes are higher in roundabouts when compared to lighted intersections. A few of these studies go a bit further to see why this happens and have come up with two main suggestions for cyclists that drastically reduce your chances of collision:

1) Position yourself in the centre of the lane! Probably the most important rule of thumb for cyclists in roundabouts. Staying to the right --as you would on most streets-- puts you in a danger zone as this finds you in a blind-spot for most vehicles. Stay directly ahead of cars so they can easily spot you while traveling through a roundabout.

2) Signal your intention to exit. More near-misses were recorded in one study by observers when cyclists failed to indicate they were exiting a roundabout. Although I'm not a big fan of turn signals while cycling, I probably will try to do so when using this Roundabout when it's finished. 

In any case, I'm glad to see this change in the street-scape of the North-End. It should be better for drivers (less congestion, less 90-degree collisions), somewhat better for pedestrians (no waiting for those bloody lights to change, maybe some art-project in the middle of the Roundabout to fancy-up the place, less traffic), and with proper biking habits, better for bikers. 

In other news, I'm hoping to ride out to Peggy's Cove and back sometime in September, and possibly to Windsor and back on another trip as a two-day tour. Will hopefully have a lot of pictures to share from these adventures. Also, I've been hoping to make a few top-three lists of routes, gear and apps for cyclists. Keep your eyes peeled and I hope to see you out on the streets! The cycling season is almost over for those fair-weatherers out there...

The Dome, Classes coming to an End, a Bike Party and North End Hipsters

Ahhhhh... Sorry y'all for not having been here for a while. My time gets consumed and I essentially sweep little things like this under the rug. But I've had an oddly thrilling week, and thought I should update you all with my goings-on.

Last Friday, a couple friends and I went to the Dome, which if you're not from Halifax, is probably our highest-grossing (and probably most filthy skanky) dance bar on the peninsula. This has been a hard shift for me a far as nights out are concerned (I haven't been here in likely over five years). Needless to say, I didn't know what to do with myself, so I resorted to watching the dancefloor.

The big developments going on down there were a midget going wild over a Black Eyed Peas song, and some lesbians trying to subtly European kiss my straight friend on the dancefloor. THAT was actually extremely funny.

After this event, I entered probably the longest (and ironically last) week of my undergrad. Yes, I will be graduating soon --fingers crossed, knock on wood. Instead of just cooling off at Gasby's at the end of the week as per usual, I did something very bizzar: Met actual people at our school bar and proceeded to drink with them! Call it cathartic, but the afternoon was pretty good and we were lucky enough to get free pizza from an english sonnet competition that was going on at the same time.

Call me a snob, but I could pull a better sonnet out of my ass.

Later that same day, after taking a sobering nap, I went out to a Bike Party in the North End. It was pretty decent. Had some cool biking videos. But by-and-large I was essentially hung over and no one really wanted to talk to me.

Bummer.

What I did notice was that this party, and just the new lower-middle class of the North-End is populated by a high proportion of young adults that are somewhat similar to hipsters, the kind of which you see in the Williamsburg area of New York. What delineates these hipsters from Halifax's Norenders (based on the content of this fabulous blog) is our hipsters are much more into cycling, a little less coked out, and a hair less judgemental. All in all it seems like our hipsters may have a longer lifespan and quality of life than those living in BBurg.

Although I'm not a HUGE fan of hipsters in general, as they are a sign of major gentrification in the neighbourhoods which they immigrate to --almost in fact galvanizing it's gentrification-- I'm finding them very interesting. Also, I'm beginning to find that gentrification isn't such a bad thing for some Halifax communities.

I hope admitting this doesn't mean I'm becoming part of the fold... naw... couldn't be...

Hope they're not doing a twosie

So i was biking around the North End the other night and happened upon this little guy. I have no idea if this is recyclable or not. Anyone know?

Oh the marvels of the North End. To be honest, I nearly used it...