Raise the Hammer

Kind of laughing at "something strange happened on York Boulevard". Yes, so strange!

Lol...glad someone caught that.
A giant mystery. A clear accidental oversight....

I was thinking about this today as I rode down York. Who should I call/email/write to "inquire politely" about cleaning up the bike lanes? I love those freakin' Bobcats, and they'd be perfect for the bike lanes.

Jason Farr is the Councillor for Ward 2.

Thanks! Will do.

It's hard not to think that the crews are being malicious or at least perverse, but I dare say it's merely lack of any thought for cyclists.

A related problem can be found on the King Street bridge: ice slicks. While the pedestrian/cyclist lane has been cleared of snow, the snow is melting during the day and freezing at night into thin, slippery patches. All it would take is some salt. But I'm sure that the city crews haven't thought of it nor do they cycling the route themselves.

I complained to Councillor Aidan Johnson about this on December 30th, he passed my concern along to staff. 8 days later and the bike lanes remain obstructed.

Hopefully, ploughing these can become part of the routine rather than something that has to be complained about all winter.

Anyone have a salt spreader that could be towed with a bike? :)

Everyone knows that nobody rides their bikes in the winter so why bother clearing it?

That is actually a really good idea! A bike could pull a small hopper with a simple lever to open it over any icy areas. Low cost, low emissions and we all get to watch a public works person riding a bike in the winter!

Comment edited by ergopepsi on 2016-01-08 09:47:58

To be fair, I think this kind of half-assed snow-clearing is what cars actually generally get, and for cars it actually works okay as curb-lane buses and trucks and cars act as ploughs themselves.

With only occasional curb lane vehicles pulling over, instead of properly packing the snowbanks they spread them around into hazardous bumps thoughout the bike lane.

So no, I don't think city staff are doing any worse job they were when it was a car lane - at least not in intent. The outcome is obviously quite different, though.

However, the whole justification for unprotected lanes is ease/cost of ploughing them with full-sized normal city ploughs. If the city is going to use ploughs as a justification for leaving bike lanes unprotected, then they really ought to actually properly plough them.

Fortunately, I bike the exact route Ryan describes as "they did an okay job here" - last year Dundurn North was a death-trap, this year its been quite well done. And there's only one flattened snowbank I have to curb-hop onto when traveling Westbound on York Boulevard. And as always, they have done an execllent job with the Cannon track.

let's also keep in mind we've only had one winter event with 4-5cm of snow/ice. The photos of York/Wilson above were taken 2 days after the 'storm'. Wilson was clear as a bell right to the sidewalk curb as was Main, King etc... the only lanes I could find with big piles of snow in them were bike lanes. I told Ryan that had the city simply done nothing, it would have been better than actually piling up huge mounds of snow into the bike lanes. With only a few cm and mild weather the following couple days the bike lanes would have cleared up on their own.

I think it's important for people to remember that for all the impressive numbers we see coming from Sobi, that only represents folks using Sobi bikes. My anecdotal observations would lead me to believe that 1 of every 10 cyclists I see is on a Sobi. Maybe even less. Many days in my hood I'll see dozens of cyclists before seeing a single Sobi bike.

In other words, the number of rides and km being ridden everyday by cyclists in Hamilton is WAY higher than the Sobi numbers.

Similarly, on Wentworth St N, which has an excess of traffic lanes given its usage, snow is being plowed completely off of every traffic lane and onto the sidewalks. In some place, the sidewalks are completely covered in snow, uncleared.

I emailed ward 1 councillor Aidan Johnson about the ice last night. When I crossed East over the highway at lunch today, I found the bridge and the bike lanes to the West of it salted, with the slicks melted or crumbling.

I only hope that this can become routine maintenance and not something someone has to whine to a councillor about.

if any of this ever becomes routine maintenance it will definitely be front page news.

Cannon Street is also heavily used by disabled people in mobility scooters. Which is illegal, unlike in The Netherlands where... well, I'll just skip the rant and go straight to showing the better way at:

http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/200...

Anecdotal observations show most bikes tend to avoid York even in the summer -- as it's not even generally pleasant to ride on during the summer, due to the fast cars. I've seen more bikes ride on riverfront pedestrian trails that are only several meters away.

I really would like to see improvement to the York cycle lanes with better separation, since even myself I get a bit nervous of the fast-moving cars on my last summer bike ride to the RGB area.

The York lanes aren't very attractively implemented in the first place (and probably sets a bad example for drivers: "nobody rides bikes" when they're actually taking other routes).

York's quiet summertime traffic also probably makes it harder to ugprade the York cycle lanes because they get as much a critical mass to rally around, of improving those specific lanes (especially west of Dundurn).

Whereas, the Cannon cycle track from James to Sherman Ave is actually getting really noticeable usage in my earlier summer 10-minute curbside video surveys. And even now in winter, I still even see the bike here and there on Cannon.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2016-01-08 18:03:10

I can assure you as someone who lives just off York, there are tons more cyclists now than there ever was prior to those bike lanes going in. Even now during winter there are always several commuting via York.

When it's warm again, grab a coffee and sit on one of the benches facing York for an hour. You'll be surprised.

No dispute there, there's use on York, just not noticeable enough like it is now on Cannon on a random passthrough -- look forward to 2016 to provide further usage & infrastructure improvements, even a hopefully few knockdown sticks.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2016-01-08 18:04:46

I still bike York's bike lanes end-to-end regularly, mostly jusr because there's no place to turn left when traveling westbound.

Hi, I live on a street which hasn't been plowed once this year. Our street has a school and a rec centre on it. Should I submit an article here also?

Feel free.

A typical active school definitely does raise the priority of the street, given the number of kids being driven to school, and school buses, that need safe access. Sounds like a serious omission. Unplowed sidewalks are an issue, but unplowed access to school is another level altogether. Pictures of this during snowstorm height is also important, as a picture is worth a thousand words.

If it's just a dusting during the Holidays, that's one thing. But if it's currency icy for days while kids are trying to cross the street to school, dodging dropoff cars, adding major safety issues -- that's another thing and quite high priority.

Take pictures!

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2016-01-13 12:48:21

An article with pics would be great. Just for clarification, my street hasn't been plowed at all either. I don't think we've had enough snow to warrant any plowing yet. But in school zones I've noticed they clear the sidewalks, crosswalks, salt everything and even use sweepers if needed to get the sidewalks and pathways clear. If they've not been doing this in your area, it's definitely a problem.