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-   -   The Great Canadian Urban Cycling Thread (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229436)

Coldrsx Aug 24, 2017 2:24 PM

Our official opening of the Downtown bike grid.

Saturday August 26 from 10am-3pm

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DH73L69XkAAnltG.jpg
www.edmonton.ca

More info:

https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_pla...e-network.aspx

Calgarian Aug 24, 2017 2:57 PM

Congrats Edmonton! bike lanes are fantastic, every city should have more of them, such a great way to get around.

SaskOttaLoo Aug 25, 2017 1:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedog (Post 7899097)
Uh, okay, but the simple fact remains that cycling infrastructure just is not decided on at a CMA level nor is it built or invested in at that level either. OP's thread topic was relative to urban areas, not CMA - shit, Medicine Hat, as an urban area, fails miserably but at a CA level? Edmonton would be a great example of an extended urban area that is creating a cycling network but it is still invited in at an individual municipal level - I highly doubt that the city of Edmonton is putting any of their tax payer monies to work in the city of St. Albert or vice versa. The county of Leduc lies win the Edmonton CMA but probably spends no money within the city of Edmonton on Edmonton's cycling network and the last time I checked there wasn't no general outcry to have the international airport there renamed to Leduc County International Airport.

Sure, it is valid to compare cycling networks at an urban level but certainly not at a CMA or CA level and the builds are all done at a local municipal level. To this end, Toronto's CMA includes the cities of Mississauga, Brampton and the town of Oakville and all three of those municipalities appear to have a fairly good cycling network in place. So is this Toronto's cycling network or not? Were the investment and design/build decisions for these three locales done at a CMA, urban or municipal level? Is Toronto's urban network considered half decent?

Calgary at a municipal level has done well but at an urban level I don't think it has but then there currently are limited choices to get a cycling network out to the city of Airdrie or Chestermere or the towns of Cochrane and Okotoks. Even the payback wouldn't be worth the investment because the demand just isn't there for a dedicated cycling network to those four communities - paved shoulders will suffice for now or in the case of Chestermere, a paved path along side a meandering irrigation canal that is by no means a direct route between the two cities. Airdrie would probably be the first place to look at getting a proper cycling network connection in place but it would most likely be very, very underutilized.

How is the cycling from Calgary out to the mountains? Colorado has done a great job of making cycling super accessible from Denver, Boulder and a lot of other cities, but then again it also has a TON of cyclists! Not sure which way causation runs, but presumably a bit in both directions as somewhat of a virtuous cycle...

Doug Aug 25, 2017 1:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaskOttaLoo (Post 7902928)
How is the cycling from Calgary out to the mountains? Colorado has done a great job of making cycling super accessible from Denver, Boulder and a lot of other cities, but then again it also has a TON of cyclists! Not sure which way causation runs, but presumably a bit in both directions as somewhat of a virtuous cycle...

Too far to really be practical even if the infrastructure were there. The most feasible ride is out highway 8 to Bragg Creek and then the Elbow Valley. Return trip from Westhills (common meeting place near western edge of city) is about 120 km, all on highway with ok but not great shoulders. Riding to Banff along highway 1 is not enjoyable. It is 130 km one way along a busy highway often subject to strong headwinds and over a very large hill. I rode highway 1 all the way from Calgary to Vancouver with my then 10 year old sons in 2012. We hit the rode each day about an hour before sunrise to avoid traffic and usually called it a day shortly after noon. It took 10 days. The boys still talk about the experience.

Denver to the mountains would be an insane climb, like 7k net vertical over Loveland Pass.

speedog Aug 25, 2017 1:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaskOttaLoo (Post 7902928)
How is the cycling from Calgary out to the mountains? Colorado has done a great job of making cycling super accessible from Denver, Boulder and a lot of other cities, but then again it also has a TON of cyclists! Not sure which way causation runs, but presumably a bit in both directions as somewhat of a virtuous cycle...

Well there are not dedicated bicycle lanes - you will be riding on the paved shoulder of highway 1 (TransCanada) with vehicles whizzing by you at 100-130+kph. The alternative is highway 1A which west of Cochrane has virtually nothing for a paved shoulder - how's this for a paved shoulder, https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.19846...2!8i6656?hl=en

SaskOttaLoo Aug 25, 2017 2:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug (Post 7902936)
Too far to really be practical even if the infrastructure were there. The most feasible ride is out highway 8 to Bragg Creek and then the Elbow Valley. Return trip from Westhills (common meeting place near western edge of city) is about 120 km, all on highway with ok but not great shoulders. Riding to Banff along highway 1 is not enjoyable. It is 130 km one way along a busy highway often subject to strong headwinds and over a very large hill. I rode highway 1 all the way from Calgary to Vancouver with my then 10 year old sons in 2012. We hit the rode each day about an hour before sunrise to avoid traffic and usually called it a day shortly after noon. It took 10 days. The boys still talk about the experience.

Denver to the mountains would be an insane climb, like 7k net vertical over Loveland Pass.

That sounds like an AMAZING trip! Would love to try it. Did you ever feel unsafe or was it pretty manageable? I'm sure you probably can get up to the actual mountains from Denver, but yeah, I was more thinking about the cycling infrastructure that they have in and around places like Boulder, where on a weekend the cyclists just outside of town are sometimes so many that they are two across. This is one of those roads: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1205...7i13312!8i6656 The photo doesn't do it a lot of justice, but it is a really beautiful area.

Funny, when I look at it the shoulder looks tiny! But you have to give three feet when passing cyclists (http://colobikelaw.com/coloradolaw.html), which I guess is why it feels safe.

Doug Aug 25, 2017 2:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaskOttaLoo (Post 7902995)
That sounds like an AMAZING trip! Would love to try it. Did you ever feel unsafe or was it pretty manageable? I'm sure you probably can get up to the actual mountains from Denver, but yeah, I was more thinking about the cycling infrastructure that they have in and around places like Boulder, where on a weekend the cyclists just outside of town are sometimes so many that they are two across. This is one of those roads: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1205...7i13312!8i6656 The photo doesn't do it a lot of justice, but it is a really beautiful area.

Funny, when I look at it the shoulder looks tiny! But you have to give three feet when passing cyclists (http://colobikelaw.com/coloradolaw.html), which I guess is why it feels safe.

We did it mid September after peak tourist season and rode as early as possible in the morning. We all wore brightly colored clothes and had blinking lights on the seat posts and backs of the helmets. I brought up the rear. It didn't feel crazy unsafe but still not comfortable. There are a few sections that are really hard to navigate by bike like the snow sheds through Rogers Pass and the and the tunnels in the Fraser Canyon. We traveled light and stayed in motels. I always had the option to call for a very expensive cab ride if things got too dicey. We took one day off completely at Three Valley Gap to wait out a rain storm.

Coldrsx Aug 26, 2017 7:33 PM

Officially open! Edmonton's complete grid for Downtown.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIK9OpMVoAAAhh3.jpg
www.twitter.com/jeff_bath

Coldrsx Aug 27, 2017 2:12 PM

How the Least Bike Friendly City in Canada is Becoming a Cyclist’s Dream

Tired of Edmonton's reputation for being Canada's least bike friendly city, Paths for People founders Conrad Nobert and Anna Ho are taking back the streets.

BY OMAR MOUALLEM, READER'S DIGEST CANADA

Great Canadians: Conrad Nobert & Anna Ho of Paths for People

On a frigid March morning, Conrad Nobert locks up his bicycle and crosses 102 Avenue, a multi-lane road in downtown Edmonton. By the summer of 2017, it will begin its transformation into a separated bike route connected to a seven-kilometre-long grid of safe bike tracks.

Until then, Edmonton will have the dubious honour of being Canada’s largest city without a dedicated downtown bike lane. But that’s changing thanks to Paths for People, the organization Nobert, a computer programming teacher, founded with his friend, neighbour and fellow parent Anna Ho, an environmental engineer. Since 2014, the pair has pressured the city to make it safer to be a cyclist or pedestrian in a place Nobert describes as resolutely “car first.”

http://www.readersdigest.ca/features...friendly-city/

ClaytonA Aug 27, 2017 10:44 PM

Anyone ridden Hwy 1A Calgary to Canmore? I'd think that would be a better route than the freeway with higher speeds.


What happens when the SW Ring Road creates a moat around Calgary? From the project plans they're doing a wide sidewalk/MUP north-south from Westhills area into Discovery, but no real links back to Hwy 8 never mind Upper Springbank.

Calgary as a whole, cycling's become too politicized, has rested on its laurels with the downtown cycle track and is probably going to be passed by the other 10 largest Canadian cities. Also the tracks are still in their temporary, pilot, configuration and could be under threat for cheap and easy removal after a municipal election. Are people in Calgary concerned about this? Ten years after the Burrard Bridge installation, now that there is construction at one end, there's a petition making the media rounds about removing the separated bike lanes. Calgary should be making the lanes more permanent.

Doug Aug 27, 2017 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClaytonA (Post 7904866)
Anyone ridden Hwy 1A Calgary to Canmore? I'd think that would be a better route than the freeway with higher speeds.


What happens when the SW Ring Road creates a moat around Calgary? From the project plans they're doing a wide sidewalk/MUP north-south from Westhills area into Discovery, but no real links back to Hwy 8 never mind Upper Springbank.

Calgary as a whole, cycling's become too politicized, has rested on its laurels with the downtown cycle track and is probably going to be passed by the other 10 largest Canadian cities. Also the tracks are still in their temporary, pilot, configuration and could be under threat for cheap and easy removal after a municipal election. Are people in Calgary concerned about this? Ten years after the Burrard Bridge installation, now that there is construction at one end, there's a petition making the media rounds about removing the separated bike lanes. Calgary should be making the lanes more permanent.

The 1a is very unsafe due to bad drivers. Talk to lawyers and crown prosecutors - that stretch has some of the worst incidences of impaired driving in the province.

Coldrsx Aug 28, 2017 2:43 PM

1A is an amazing road to drive quickly on, but also quite beautiful for biking. I have done both a recommend the same.

TorontoDrew Aug 28, 2017 4:01 PM

The bike lanes here in Toronto suck. None of them are the same with how they deal with keeping traffic and bikes separated. Most of the time I find it safer to bike on roads without lanes on them. Cyclists don't obey the rules cars are just as bad. Nobody knows how to use the right turn lanes. There are only three cops on bikes dedicated to enforcing the rules for cars and cyclists on bike routes, and we have over 580km of them. People still use the bike lanes to pull over and text, run into stores, or pick and drop people off. They don't seem to understand the bike lane is a live lane of traffic that they should treat like the any active roadway.

I'd love to see 100 cops on bikes throughout the core enforcing the laws for both drivers and bikers who don't follow the rules making it unsafe for the rest of us. Also the ministry of transportation could be doing a much better job teaching the population the rules of the road in our urban centres.

WhipperSnapper Aug 28, 2017 6:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rousseau (Post 7899309)
I honestly don't understand the inertia in Toronto. Why are the cost objections kryptonite to the political will when the myriad benefits of proper cycling infrastructure have been so empirically demonstrated elsewhere?

Huh? Inertia is what defines Toronto as Toronto.

RyLucky Aug 30, 2017 5:26 PM

Here's a summary from a 2015:

Vancouver has the safest cycling infrastructure with the fewest reported crashes. They also have relatively great integration between transit and cycling, with all rapid transit within 400m of cycle infrastructure.

Calgary has by far the most km of bike paths, by far the most km of path per population, and the vast majority of their network is multiuse pathways. At the time of the study (2015), they had the fewest on-street lanes of the major Canadian cities.

In the last couple years, Calgary has added vast tracks of on-street bike lanes around the city and barrier separated lanes on 7th St, 8th Ave, 12th Ave, and 5th St - as well as massive improvements to their already incredible river pathways (Peace Bridge, St Patrick's Island&Bridge, Inglewood Bridge, etc.).

Edmonton Congrats on your new network! For some reason Edmonton wasn't included in the literature below, but I would imagine it has similar statistics to Calgary (?)

Toronto (2015) scores fairly mediocre against other major Canadian cities, with the least km/pop and worst transit integration. However, Toronto has the most bike shops.

In the last couple years, Toronto has made huge strides to improve. However crowded with taxis, scooters, and delivery trucks they may be, Richmond, Adelaide, Harbord, Bloor, and Shaw now have separated bike lanes - and there have been significant improvements to the waterfront and "Pan-Am Trail". Toronto's Bikeshare has rapidly expanded - soon with 270 stations and 1.1M annual trips.

Ottawa has relatively excellent bike-transit integration by Canadian standards (all rapid transit within 400m of cycle infrastructure). Ottawa and Vancouver have the most bike shops per capita.

Montreal has the most on-street bike lanes (in summer), but the most crash rate. Montreal is also the undisputed king of bike share with 540 stations and 3.2M annual bixi trips. They also have had huge pathway expansions

There are also a few notable rural settings with growing networks. Namely, Canmore-Banff (eventually Jasper) Legacy Trail, the PEI Confederation Trail, Quebec's "Route Verte" (most famously Mtl-Tremblant and Gaspe regions), etc.

https://www.pembina.org/reports/cycl...ull-report.pdf

RyLucky Aug 30, 2017 5:48 PM

I notice some semantics about city vs CMA a few pages back and wanted to add my 0.02.

- Canadian cities, big and small, need to develop cycling networks to serve as alternatives to car and transit (in fact, I think we should think of it as more cohesive, accessible transportation as Deutsche Bahn does). This means cooperation between jurisdictions with possibly different funding sources and political affiliations. For instance, if you think people in Laval do not work in Montreal (and vv), you must be kidding. Also, ___-measuring contests need not apply, especially when CMAs are so different in geography and history. Long story short: we want all CMAs to develop safe, accessible cycling infrastructure.

- Many of the best multiuse pathways in all cities is along the water. Continuous public access along waterfront should be a long-term priority nation wide. For instance, I did a bike-camping trip between Toronto and Prince Edward County - there were many subpar gaps, but signage indicates that it will gradually be improved.

- Eventually, I hope there is a national standard of bicycle access. Bikes do not need to be on every road and highway, but they must be an alternative mode of transport between every two locations, whether 10 km apart in the GTA or 200 km apart in Saskatchewan. This means safe space on roads, clear signage, km markings, water access, camping access where possible. Now that most Canadian commercial cores have basic cycling access, the industrial and suburban areas of cities need to step it up. I know Calgary, Toronto. Calgary's suburbs are mostly great for cycling, but Toronto's are frankly abysmal, with the exceptions of Etobicoke, Oakville, and a few minor (disconnected) pathways.

- Drop the semantics and arguments about what counts as in the city. Improvement to the system anywhere improves it everywhere.

WhipperSnapper Aug 30, 2017 6:11 PM

It's you. You're the one making this a dick measuring contest with number of kilometres and kilometres per capita comparisons. It really doesn't tell you much about a city's bike culture. It tells you even less when you include recreational trails. They're mostly for fun. Most aren't practical to go from A to B.

You know Toronto's CMA. You should then know Etobicoke is Toronto. Oakville is a suburb in Halton Region.

logan5 Aug 30, 2017 10:10 PM

^^^ lol.

The bike share in Vancouver seems to be doing fairly well. The bike stations around my neighbourhood are usually close to empty during the day. It costs 10 bucks a day though, and it doesn't appear that you have the option for a quick one time trip, which I think is holding it back a little.

I like the Seattle system. Like Car2Go, you just park the bike anywhere, and it's only (I think) a dollar a ride.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/18/tech...are/index.html

RyLucky Aug 31, 2017 2:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper (Post 7907697)
It's you. You're the one making this a dick measuring contest with number of kilometres and kilometres per capita comparisons. It really doesn't tell you much about a city's bike culture. It tells you even less when you include recreational trails. They're mostly for fun. Most aren't practical to go from A to B.

You know Toronto's CMA. You should then know Etobicoke is Toronto. Oakville is a suburb in Halton Region.

"Suburban" can just colloquially mean low-density, adjacent to employment centres, etc, and does not need to be a different jurisdiction. I'm sure you are aware that people work and live and commute all around the GTA.

As for recreational trails, they absolutely can be used for commuting (as the Humber River is) so long as its orientwd in the right direction and integrated into the system.

Coldrsx Sep 4, 2017 11:48 PM

A solid day of bikes, biking, tour of AB and urban living. Loved how many people were out and about.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DI6tQa8UwAEjLVc.jpg
www.twitter.com/ianoyeg


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