🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <47m5eb$6bh@wolfe.wimsey.com>,
James Strickland  <james@portal.ca> wrote:
>john_whistler@mindlink.bc.ca (john whistler) wrote:
>>This $1.5 Million project will include traffic calming measures on Cypress St 
>>that will help facilitate the planned Arbutus Bikeway, though most of the cost 
>>will be spent on Burrard. Left hand turn bays are proposed for 1st, 2nd & 3rd 
>>Avenuesand  will include some property aquisition for the space required.
>
>Is this the city's version of "walking, transit, bicycling" first?  This is
>another waste of money on car infrastructure.

But this isn't just car infrastructure. Left-turn lanes are bicycle
infrastructure as well. I use one on my downtown-to-work commute.

There are really three options I'm aware of when one is running
low on left-hand turn capacity. One is to add a left-hand turn lane
and signal at a major intersection, or increase the left-hand-turn green
time of a signal already there. The second is to add left-hand turn lanes
at the intersections before and/or after a main intersection. The third
is to construct bypasses or some sort of multi-level facility.

I discussed an incarnation of the second option in bc.general (in
an article about Burnaby Engineering) recently. This option, when
it is available, has a couple of advantages to my mind. For cyclists
and motorists, it increases left-hand turn capacity while not
reducing straight-through green time at the nearby major intersection
(or avoiding the installation of an advance left light). It also
puts cyclists and motorists on side streets more often, which
reduces traffic speed, often an advantage for cyclists.

>Radical that I am, I think
>an immediate freeze should be placed on any road widenings.  What we need
>is better transit and more bicycle friendly roads (take the space back from
>the cars!), not bigger and bigger roads.

It is not strictly the case that narrower roads benefit cyclists.
In fact, the daily widening of Broadway (by removing of parking
during rush hours) is a great advantage to me as a cyclist.

>In short: if you want to put left turn lanes in, fine - just remove one
>lane of general traffic.  In fact, it would be easiest to remove one in
>each direction, then use the remaining space for wide curb lanes, right?
>How much would this cost?  A few tens of thousands for painting?

I'm becoming more and more dubious about the benefit of wide curb
lanes.  The only one I know of that's wide enough for me to share
with motorists is Dunbar between about 17th and Marine. This,
however, looks to me as if it's wide enough for two lanes anyway.

Does anyone know of any other `wide curb lanes' in the city? I'm
told that the Cambie bridge has one, but by the time I move left
enough to avoid the rubbish along the margin of the road, I'm out
so far that I need to take the whole lane anyway. (Of course, I am
about 30 cm. wider than an average cyclist, but why should roads
be built for wedgie riders only?)

cjs
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Curt Sampson    curt@portal.ca		Info at http://www.portal.ca/
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Vancouver, BC   (604) 257-9400		De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.