Raise the Hammer

Great pitch, except I disagree with any sort of sharrow use.

I'm all for raised/protected lanes - ideal for bike wimps like myself. This would be a great connection to the cannon lane which I have never used because I can't get my bike to it (see above 'bike wimp')...

I wouldn't say you're a 'wimp'. Quite normal in fact. Over 70% of Hamilton residents say they would cycle more if they felt it was safe to do so. Developing a city-wide, connected, safe network of bike lanes like this would see many of those people hop on their bikes.

Or they are mostly chuck norris.

I hate sparrows. I feel they're pretty useless, slap in the face of cyclists if anything, like paying lip service to cyclist safety.

FYI the maximum Provincial funding available for any one project is 50% of project costs with a cap of $325,000. The municipality and any other funding partners are responsible for the balance of the capital costs. Someone could probably get a good idea of what the rough costs of a two way cycle track on Bay would be by using Cannon as a point of comparison.

I like Jason's suggestions with a few minor quibbles / points to consider. I agree with the comments of others about the sharrows; if not extending the cycle track further south, do some traffic calming with physical changes to the road to slow traffic and go full out bike boulevard. Also the proposed cross-section from Herkimer to Hunter shows 1.4m sidewalks which do not meet AODA guidelines for accessibility.

On the one hand: hooray!

On the other: this would make the reversion of Bay to two-way traffic even less likely, I imagine.

Given my druthers (and these druthers are those of someone who cycles around the city much more than he drives), I'd take two-way Bay over bike lanes on Bay.

Comment edited by moylek on 2015-10-06 07:46:41

Why? Would it be better if it was just an "unmarked" bike route? I know that sharrows aren't really infrastructure but they are great for wayfinding.

They aren't so bad - we just need to stop thinking of them as infrastructure and start thinking of them as route markings. Some roads don't have the speed or traffic to justify poured-conrete infrastructure - a great example is Shaw Street in Toronto. As long as we aren't pretending that sharrows do anything to actually protect a cyclist, I don't see them as problematic.

The issue with using them on Bay South is that the road is wide enough that if the parking spaces are mostly empty, there won't be any natural speed control. Bumpouts could be used to solve this problem very cheaply.

FWIW, I can't stand sharrows. They are useless in every sense. For this above proposal, sharrows and perhaps a speed hump or two were only suggested for the quiet blocks between Aberdeen and Herkimer where the street is narrow and has parking on both sides.

Further north, definitely would make sense to get rid of the curb parking and widen the sidewalks in the exact spot where the city current has knockdown sticks set up: Duke to Hunter.

OK then don't go to cannon to get your safe biking fix. It's carnage down there, with people getting left hooked daily. Those who plead otherwise are in denial.

Sarcasm? trollery? A brave soul who is exposing the scary truth which the Cycling Lobby is strong-arming the press into suppressing?

Comment edited by moylek on 2015-10-06 20:19:52

I ride on the rail trail towards Dundas valley normally but it would be nice to have a change. Tried the rail/escarpment trail that goes east starting near Corktown park but getting there was not for me. I had a two year old in a bike seat and my oldest riding with me. Very stressful getting there. I'd like to judge the Cannon track for myself but I suspect getting to it would be much like that east rail trail adventure. I'll pass for now.

I haven't heard of anyone being hit there BTW.

Then pushing the same flawed design on other streets until we have bizarre 3-step bike turning rules for each intersection. Yeah I think you know where I'm coming from.

Search cbc.ca/Hamilton for "cannon street"

And this is just what's been deemed interesting enough to make the news.

Ditto. I'm a cyclist and I'm actually disappointed to hear their plans for Bay is a bike-lane. Bay will need two-way traffic even more urgently when LRT goes in, as we saw with the Bus Lane thing - vehicular traffic will be taking Cannon to bypass downtown. If they want to go to a destination along King West, how do they get there? Well, if it's west of Queen, they have to do a weird zig-zag where they use the special U-turn lane to pull onto York Boulevard, then back up to Caroline to get to King. Or they can crawl up James or John and slog through the core of the city where all the buses and the LRT are stopping. Or they can do some crazy loop via Queen->Main->Bay.

I want a north-south bike-lane, but I'd gladly take any other street instead of Bay if we could get two-way Bay and fix the broken wayfinding downtown. Give us cyclists Hughson and Hess (or Caroline if we could get a path across Sir John A's parking lot) and just make Bay a regular 2-way street.

Hmm. Ok, now I have heard of someone being hit there... Maybe some cyclists are too trusting of the drivers they're riding next to? My assumption would be that a driver that is approaching an intersection and not signaling is going to turn simply because that is a possibility. I was a motorcycle driver for fifteen years and quickly learned that I have to assume the worst of the drivers around me. This is because, like a cyclist, I was on the most vulnerable vehicle on the road.

It's 'nice' to know that this is happening there actually because when I finally do get down there it'll be something to look out for. (I'll be that annoying guy stopping at every intersection).

I often get dirty looks from car drivers just for riding next to them! Not eating dead babies people - just riding a bike...jeez.

Anyway, I was thinking the same thing about culture change. As time passes people will become more accustomed to the new infrastructure and hopefully these incidents will decline.

This is one reason why I don't like the idea of 'trial' changes like the bus lane on King. It gives people the impression that this 'thing' will soon go away and so they can resist changing to accommodate it. If a bike lane or dedicated bus lane just becomes the new normal then people will eventually adjust.

I was interested in the judgmental comment about the wealthy people on Bay Street between Aberdeen and Herkimer on Bay not wishing to relinquish parking on both sides of the street. Guess what, if you walk along that part of the street, they all have their own private parking! The truth is that it is used all day by people who either work at St. Joe's or who can't afford the parking at the hospital and use this stretch which is the closest street parking available! Just pity the poor workers or out of town visitors when this parking ability gets chopped!!