Raise the Hammer

Cannon DASHCAM VIDEO SURVEY, Sherman to James

Dashcam iPhone on Cannon, drive Sherman Ave to James St N (August 1, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJC_fZyL...

This is typical good-summer Cannon weekend offpeak. Average bike traffic versus below-average car traffic. Cannon is very empty and quiet for several blocks especially at beginnning, even after I pass a couple cars.

Background information about video:

• 0:45 -- beginning of bike lane at Sherman.
• 0:45 -- Cannon ahead is empty of cars & bikes
• 1:55 -- first time I get close to cars ahead
• 2:01 -- first time I am alongside a car

Regarding bikes:

• 0:50 -- mobility scooter enters from Sherman
• 0:58 -- mobility scooter enters
• 1:03 -- bike with trailer
• 1:42 -- bike
• 2:00 -- bike
• 2:22 -- bike
• 2:56 -- two bikes
• 3:29 -- bike on side street
• 3:53 -- bike
• 4:02 -- ebike crossing James St ahead

Resulting in:

• 8 bikes
• 1 ebike
• 2 mobility scooters
• TOTAL 11 bike lane users

There are (almost certainly) still more cars on Cannon and I was flowing with a very small car platoon, but the bike ratio is competitive. Based on a goal of 25% bike versus 75% car, due to 1:3 bike:car lane allocation, it's fair to allocate 1 moving bike for every 3 moving cars based on road surface allocation of Cannon.

As you can see, in this video, Cannon was so empty of cars during this time period, there was probably only 30-40 (totalled) moving cars from Sherman to James. There was potentially less, but I'm being generous to be honest to car-owner who currently rebut the Cannon lanes. My car platoon had very few cars and a large empty gap behind my car platoon (I was driving ahead of two cars), and a large empty gap in front of my car platoon. Based on an average of 5 cars per platoon, and approximately 6 to 8 platoons for Sherman to James, this would be about 30 to 40 cars. So a bike ratio of 11:30 through 11:40 is rather competitive to 25%:75% road surface allocation on this average midsummer weekend day, as shown in the Youtube dashcam survey.

Dash Cam Mounts for iPhone/Androids are only 10-15 bucks, from places like Amazon or eBay.

My dashcam will be always turned on Cannon. I suggest all Cannon road users buy a dashcam mount for their iPhones and Androids, and make sure that video is running during your drive. Car peak will obviously favour cars (please be honest with your video timestamp by the sun angle), but I can provide a counterpoint: look at how Cannon goes to waste during offpeak.

This is much better than last year. This suggests that the Cannon lane is an unqualified success if the bike traffic improvements continue. It goes without saying that "unused bike lane" is deceiving when cars aren't using Cannon much either during this weekend offpeak. As a car owner, looks are decieving. A smart car owner recognizes that it's fair to allocate one bike lane when the Lower City Hamilton has 6 crosstown arterials (Burlington, Barton, Cannon, Wilson, King, Main), and we've only put bike lanes on one car lane on only one of them.

In fact, I have captured footage that even favours bikes over cars on the "bike ratio" basis (25%:75%), I have made it a new rule that I always dashcam my drives on Cannon, to as real fact to counteract the "car hearsayers" that say Cannon is not worth it.

I intentionally chose a realistic video for weekend traffic that is neither bike favourable nor car favourable.

Car owners who hate bike lanes can video a bad-weathe weekday morning peak period to inflate the car:bike ratio, but I'll call you out on that tactic. I will rebut with an even more bike-favourable videos -- There are neighbours willing to mount my webcam on their front porch 24/7 (pointing outwards to Cannon) if fellow carowners (but ones who hate bike lanes) start to cherrypick badweather weekday morning car peaks -- and capture lots of moments where the bikeratio heavily favours bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJC_fZyL...

This is much better than last year. This suggests that the Cannon lane is an unqualified success if the bike traffic improvements continue. It goes without saying that "unused bike lane" is deceiving when cars aren't using Cannon much either during this weekend offpeak. As a car owner, looks are decieving. An intelligent car owner recognizes that it's fair to allocate one bike lane when the Lower City Hamilton has 6 major crosstown arterials (Burlington, Barton, Cannon, Wilson, King, Main), and we've only put bike lanes on one measly car lane on only one of them.

As a tax-paying property-owner car-owner, I think this is totally fair to allow bike infrastructure to improve in Hamilton. You should agree, too.

* MEMO TO HAMILTON CITYHALL: Please put bike counters in middle such as Wentworth. I ride bike James-to-Gibson so last year's Bay/Sherman bike counters missed my bike trips completely. *

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-08-04 00:44:45