Raise the Hammer

Cannon St STREETSIDE VIDEO SURVEY - 10 minute, near Wentworth

Due to uninformed car commentators, I went to collect more video proof today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0e0rNm...

Random spontaneous moment during a midsummer long weekend. Not a cherrypicked moment; I've seen the ratio be more bike-favourable at other times. This is just typical for a weekend. Quiet traffic for both cars and bikes, whereas the bike:car ratio is competitive to road surface allocation for moving vehicles. I ignored vehicles (bikes and cars) that turned off Cannon early near left edge of video, I counted only vehicles that passed the telephone pole near center of image.

Vehicles were counted as they passed the telephone pole closest to the centre of video image.

CARS: 0:03, 0:07, 0:13, 0:16, 0:45, 0:51, 0:53, 0:54, 0:56(taxi), 0:58, 1:29, 1:33, 1:41, 1:46, 1:55, 1:56, 1:58, 2:02, 2:03, 2:03, 2:07, 3:02, 3:08, 3:14, 3:14, 3:16, 3:17, 3:19(taxi), 3:22, 3:23, 3:24, 3:27, 3:33, 4:16, 4:25, 4:30, 4:35, 4:40, 5:29, 5:31, 5:35, 5:36, 5:39, 6:21, 6:32, 6:33, 6:35, 6:37, 6:39, 6:47, 6:49, 6:54, 7:22, 7:54(etrike), 7:55, 7:55, 7:59, 8:11, 8:12, 8:17, 8:54, 8:55(taxi), 9:12(taxi), 9:13, 9:21, 10:03, 10:05, 10:13, 10:14(taxi), 10:15, 10:16, 10:28

BIKES: 0:10, 0:11, 0:11(sidewalk), 0:12, 0:50(ebike), 1:13, 3:03, 4:04, 4:28, 4:29, 6:42(sobi), 6:43(sobi), 7:50, 8:04, 8:20, 9:22(funky), 10:26

• COUNT: 65 cars (including 5 taxis and 1 etrike on road)

• COUNT: 17 bikes (including 1 sidewalk; due to rough asphault on bike lane)

• In-motion bike:car ratio 17-vs-65 = 0.26

• Road surface bike:car ratio 1-vs-3 = 0.33

It looks like more cars are using than bikes, but look at the road surface allocation ratio for vehicles in motion. Bike traffic has improved to the point where it almost approaches the ideal bike ratio of 1 bike for every 3 cars, based on road surface allocation. Further bike traffic improvements could consistently yield a favourable bike ratio, more than 1 bike for every 3 cars. This is competitive on a road-surface-allocation basis.

As you can very well see, blanket claims of /"bike lanes aren't worth it in Hamilton"/ is deceiving when we consider the road surface allocation ratio.

Fellow car owners, myself included, should understand that it is not as simple as hearsay "there's not many bikes on Cannon", when looking at actual evidence of an average moment like this. The video shows why it's worth throwing one small measly bone of one dedicated set of bike lanes on only one of the six Lower City crosstown arteries (Burlington, Barton, Cannon, Wilson, King, Main). Yes, this average-moment video looks like massively more cars than bike, but on a road-surface-allocation ratio (1:3), the bike:car ratio actually ends up looking very, very fair. Intelligent car owners realize that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0e0rNm...

Observe I didn't post a bike-favourable moment or a car-favourable moment. This was an average summer weekend moment with a slightly less than 4 cars for every 1 bike -- very close to road surface allocation ratio! Far better than last year, and probably not as good as next year will be.

Over the coming years, I will collect more dashcam video, streetside video, and bikemount videos, to permanently protect the Cannon lane for voters like you and me who voted these bike lanes in. Time permitting of course. This is proof to prove that Anti-Cannon-Bike Lane people have no leg to stand on.

Signed,

Fellow Car Owner

Fellow Property Tax Payer

Synchronized-Green-Traffic-Lights Lover But Also Love Copahagen Too

Mark Rejhon (REAL NAME -- google me)

Ward 3 (and we voted pro-bike Michael Green, like many of us)

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-08-04 02:01:31