● City installs ‘advisory’ bike lane on Somerset Street East in Sandy Hill.
The City of Ottawa has established its first ‘advisory’ bike lane on Somerset Street East between Range Road and Chapel Street in Sandy Hill.
Unlike regular bikes lanes, cars are allowed to encroach in advisory bike lanes to avoid oncoming traffic. These type of lanes are used on streets that are too narrow to accommodate two way motor vehicle traffic and regular bike lanes.
Advisory bike lanes are defined by painted dashed lines instead of the solid lines that demarcate regular bike lanes.
The key to making advisory bike lanes workable is that cars are suppose to yield to cyclists before encroaching into these lanes. This means that when two cars coming in opposite directions meet while cyclists are in the advisory lanes on both sides of the street, the vehicles are going to have to come to a full stop until it is safe to encroach into the bike lanes. The problem is that not all motorists are going to do this.
Apparently, the advisory bike lanes are part of a pilot project for a section of Somerset Street. Last March there were reports that the city was considering installing advisory bike lanes on Byron Avenue between Island Park Drive and Sherbourne Avenue.
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in theory it sounds good, but in practice. Sure, most drivers will follow the rules of the road (80%), but its the 5% that just don’t give a damn that you have to worry about… they will run anyone down cause they are narcissistic fools thinking only about themselves (Dtrump like fools). Those are the people you have to be careful of. I see them on the roads, they almost side swipe yah while riding and just don’t give a damn.
So, for every 100 cars, you can probably expect 5 to just don’t give a damn because the driver doesn’t give a damn. That’s the underlying problem.
Will this advisory lane do much to protect families and kids biking in that area from the don’t give a damn type, don’t think so…
Thus, I’d still allow people to bike on sidewalks, when safe to do so… esp in the downtown core where the roads weren’t designed adequately.
Speaking of poor design and poor planning. I’d like to vent some frustration on the eb eddy bridge where the new zibi project is.
Crossing this bridge can be damn well dangerous during rush hour. Quebec is full of tension and anger, thus this comes out in their driving habits. Esp around rush hour. Biking on that bridge can be painful at times, esp when its full of vehicles. Zibi has recently closed the sidewalk thus forcing pedestrains and cyclists to use the more congested sidewalk. Poor planning on their part, yet no one speaks up… I did, wrote the roads and cycling committee for the city of ottawa to voice my concerns on this matter. Also, debris is starting to form on the bridge due to all the construction. In more advanced cities, sweepers are out every hour.
Also, that construction maze going on by bayview is quite the cluster fk of a mess. When that sharp turn gets wet, lookout, you may spill. I did yesterday and bruised a few ribs. What a mess.
I hope they hurry up and finish that, seems to take forever.
All this infrastructure spending just means havoc, more debt and eventually more taxes as someone has to cover the costs of all those new roads. Ekks, its the 80s all over again. Remember when electricians etc… were working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet because infrastructure spending dried up. Bad bad idea to throw money into the economy all at once like that, just leads to higher and artificially over inflates housing prices, means more debt and higher taxes (low ROI), and typically means havoc for pedestrains and cyclists as we are squeezed out. Throwing money at a problem doesn’t work, period.
Just like these new lanes in sandy hill. Takes a mindset change of drivers. Takes some long term investment into planning safer commutable cities. And, a strategy to increase cycling in the city. All this talk of licensing bikes is complete bullsht, won’t do a damn thing but bring more vehicle traffic. With that means more infrastructure mass spending spree equals debt and more taxes. What a mess… short term fun for long term pain.