Connor M

YouTube video by Streetfilms® Ghent Kicked Out the Cars So You Can Walk, Bike, Live & Thrive in the City (Velo-City 2024)

When it comes to designing cities for biking and walking, Ghent Belgium may still not be as well known as Copenhagen, Amsterdam or Paris yet, but it’s one of the most inspiring cities in the world. I was honoured to do some work with them in 2019. Watch @streetfilms.bsky.social’s fantastic video:

Every road/parking lot crossing requires cyclists to be hyper attentive and anticipate… for survival. If only motorists would extend even a fraction of the same consideration.

Finally, I wish they’d prioritize improving areas with substandard (painted) bike lanes. In some scenarios, using them is more dangerous than not having them at all.

Also, not really a Q, but I would be interested in visualizations of data collected from speed feedback signs in 40/30kmh zones, and what trends it shows. It’s available online but not presented in the most user-friendly way.

I’d be interested in the possibility of roundabouts being considered as a street lab/towards 40 project. Lots of suburban ngbhds built circa 1980-90 have extremely wide intersections/crossing distances that I feel could be made safer with these.

Gotta love the classic passive "struck by SUV" in the title.

Unfortunately, I did not ride the bike with studs today 🙃

A sidewalk coated with a thin layer of ice

While most moderately busy roads are bare, most paths/sidewalks in the shade look like this. Studs probably a good idea to stay upright. #yegbike #yeg

Running Creek Road and 110A St feels like the much safer option going forward, unfortunately. I really don’t like the idea of being so close to traffic lanes and at unprotected corners in the winter months. I pretty much gave up on the construction detours in the last few months.

As someone who frequents this area, I am not surprised. The visibility of the crossings are awful and the crossing distances are very wide. Between 3-6 red light runners at every yellow, too. There are no right on red signs, but are frequently disregarded.

A dark-colored pickup truck blocks a crosswalk while attempting a right turn on a red light. The driver only looks to left while ignoring potential users of the crosswalk to their right.

And not once did they ever turn their head to acknowledge anything else other than vehicles. #yeg #yegbike #banrightonred

Gotta love construction detours that put pedestrians and active transport users uncomfortably close to turning vehicles at a corner, with no barrier or anything. Of course, there's barely enough room for a single bike to wait, too. Near a major LRT station. #yegbike #yeg

A shared use path is blocked by a motorist attempting to turn onto a road

Why don't I like riding on certain MUPs, you say? #yegbike

Lawson’s in the west end is pretty tasty.

I got a similar response from the active transport team when I emailed about a tiny missing link that could make a perpetually problematic connection to bike infrastructure much safer. Disappointing.

At the very least most people slow down before them, but will still speed in between them. Usually for minimal time savings, either. *shrug*

They are beginning to pop up more on neighbourhood collector roads in SW suburbia, too, as a part of street labs projects.

Workers attend to a power box/street light struck by a vehicle in a neighbourhood near a crosswalk

This is at least the 3rd time in the last 10 years that someone has jumped a curb and hit something in a playground zone in my SW neighbourhood. In the past it's been a fence, and a bus stop sign. Is it going to take a kid getting killed for the city to install some traffic calming? #yeg #yegbike

Weekly interaction while cycling through neighbourhoods: get passed by a vehicle while doing ~30 km/hr in a playground zone, watch them speed down the middle of a two-way street, then roll a stop sign while making a unsignalled turn, only to get caught at a stop light. Totally normal. #yegbike #yeg

A large crack on a shared-use path in south-central Edmonton (115 Street east of the University of Alberta farm)

Would we leave a road crack that's the width of a car tire unrepaired for 1.5+ years? Sigh. #yeg #yegbike

In a 35 minute bike ride, I counted at least 12 motorists run red lights, and 3 in a blatant fashion. Oh we are so cooked for this coming winter. #yeg #yegbike

FYU, the climb out of the river valley to Wanyandi on your map is a gravel path, I believe (not single-track).

Or how some won't think twice about blasting closely by a cyclist on a 2-way neighbourhood street, but NEED to drive in the opposite lane near parked cars... 🫠

Current Construction Notices Proudly constructing the Valley Line West LRT

marigoldinfra.ca/current-cons...

From the Marigold website, it appears so: vlwcommprod.blob.core.windows.net/vlwcomm-file...

It’s a byproduct of how comically large some vehicles have gotten, and the increasing prevalence of SUVs. Add in horrible spatial awareness lots of people have and their habit of driving their vehicles like semi trucks…

How dare ask for people driving around thousands of pounds of metal take any responsibility for paying attention to their surroundings. 🙄

Getting pretty tired of motorists magically converting 30 and 40 km/hr zones to miles per hour in order to overtake me on my bike. #yegbike #yeg

Fall colours on a river valley trail in Edmonton

Looking south on the Menzies LRT pedestrian bridge near downtown Edmonton.

A crisp, but beautiful day for a ride. #yegbike #yeg

I really dislike how flippant some construction projects can be with totally blocking, closing off, or making active transport paths inaccessible without any notice. It would never fly in an equivalent situation with roads.