On-Road Cycling Hazardous to cyclists?

click on table to enlarge - you should see 4 columns

In 2008 there were 292 collisions involving cyclists. My wife almost became one of the fatalities when she was doored two years ago on Bank Street in the Glebe. I have some interest in cycling safety.

The above table is from a city report to transportation committee this Wed. Jan 6th. Please notice that it covers a three year time period and only records the most hazardous zones, ie where there are repeat cycling collisions that result in injury or damages over $1000 (it covers 84 of an estimated 876 cycling collisions in the three year period).

I have heard said that 70% of cycling collisions occur at intersections. Of course this means that 30% of the injuries & some deaths could be reduced or eliminated with off-road paths or segregated cycling facilties.

Note that in the Ottawa stats, first table, that 3 of 4 fatal collisions occured mid-blocks; one (Ottawa River Commuter Expressway at River Street in the near west end) occured at an intersection. This seems to indicate Ottawa is not following the generalized stat.

The second part of the table shows the frequent mid-block collision sites; and the third part shows the most hazardous intersections. Forty-five percent of the most hazardous sites are mid-block; 55% are intersections.

This may have some relationship to Ottawa having only 2% of its streets with designated bike lanes and less than single kilomtre of segregated bike lanes. Recall that the above table only covers 9.6% of the cycling collisions, ie those that tend to cluster at the same locations.

The city staff report goes on to advise council that segregated lanes are not possible at most intersections. [Pardon my skepticism.] The report then goes on about hiring consultants to look at the hazardous spots, etc.

One suggestion I'd make that would be bloody cheap and easy is to eliminate the city's current advice to motorists to 'turn left anytime you can rush it' at signalized intersections. In their almighty rush to turn left across mutliple lanes, motorists cannot or will not see oncoming cyclists. Solution: left turn at multilane intersections only on a left-turn signal, when decent law-abiding cyclists won't be 'in the way' or causing $1000 of damage to precious automobiles.

The second solution is even better: build some proper bike routes. Start with BikeWest, there's space available and construction aplenty planned along the route.

Good news for pedestrians

Oh my, I do rant and rave sometimes about sidewalks and the indignities the City inflicts on us pedestrians and cyclists.

Yet modern society does have its benefits. Consider the horse souvenirs in the photo above. In my father's day, the kids on Christie Street used these renewable recyclable resources for street hockey. Fortunately, modern city pedestrians seldom experience these equine memorabilia.

The photo above was taken at Upper Canada Village. Readers with memories may recall the nice Xmas pictures posted on this blog on the 24th and 25th of December of the village Alight at Night. While my companions were focussed on the nice lights, my camera was pointing elsewhere.

Dipsy Doo for Cars

All pedestrians complain at the roller coaster sidewalks Ottawa inflicts on pedestrians. No driveway is too small or too seldom used that it can't have a dip in the sidewalk.

I had hoped that with the reconstruction of West Wellington, Somerset, Preston, and other streets with new wider sidewalks that maybe, just maybe, pedestrians could come first. But alas, no, the old patterns reappear even when there is no functional reason. Look at the sidewalk in the picture above. It is set back about 10 feet from the curb, but it still slopes down to a dip. Why can't a car climb up six inches (the height of the curb and sidewalk above the street surface) over a length of ten feet? Because then the pedestrian sidewalk would be flat and level and useful ... but not subservient to the almighty automobile. I could take similar pictures on any local streets.

Puddles, slush puddles, icy sidewalks, dangerous slopes, death sentences to the elderly and infirm ... are not regretable by-products of necessity but the deliberate creation of sidewalks by automobile-worshipping city functionaires.

Windsor should be happy

From time to time we pedestrians find mysterious heaps of salt on the sidewalk. The little Everest shown is on Primrose Street in front of the park.
Presumably, a sidwalk plow was re-loaded with salt at that point, and a little spilled over. Oops.

I wonder how many street trees are mysteriously dead in the spring, or concrete surfaces pitted from unknown causes ... when the spring comes, the evidence of the salt dump cause disappears.

Windsor, or the Magdalene Islands, or where-ever it is that our fair city buys its salt from, should be happy at our generous distribution of the stuff. I'm vacuuming hundreds of granules off the floor of my front entry every day.

Find the Sidewalk

As any repeat readers of this blog know by know, I am a big fan of streetscaping.

Nonetheless, as a dedicated pedestrian and cyclist (never owned a car)(dont have  TV either !) some of the ways sidewalks get installed drives me nuts.

Consistency may be the hobgobblin of little minds, but lets have some sympathy for the sidewalk plow crews and pedestrians at some of these intersections where the the sidewalk contorts itself to follow the curb line (of a bulbout) rather than the desire line of the walker.

In the top picture, the sidewalk does not squeeze between the utility box and the post in direct line with the rest of the sidewalk. No, it jogs around the utility box closer to the curb, ie, just where the big pile of snow is. Ironically, on all other three corners of this intersection of Elm and Preston, the sidewalk continues in a straight line to the corner. Predictable. Plowable.

In the second picture, notice that the sidewalk jogs left, glued to the curb line of the bulb out. Notice that the plow continued straight on ....  Now, maybe next year when shrubs are planted along the sidewalks this will appear natural and obvious, but I'm afraid just one plow a year going through the shrubs will cripple them for life. Wouldn't it have been better to have paved the sidewalk straight AND followed the bulb out?

Winter Cycling Path Maintenance

Alright, I admit that the multipurpose path on the north side of Albert between Bronson and Bayview is not really an official cycling path. If it were, it wouldn't be plowed in the winter, because the City and NCC do not maintain cycle paths in the winter. But since this is officially a sidewalk  ... it just happens to look like and function like and get used like a bike path ... it gets plowed and winter maintained.

I thought this path provided some insight into the feasibility of winter cycling in Ottawa.

The Pattern Under Foot

Picture 1 shows sidewalk pavers laid on West Wellington in 2009. The pattern repeats often, with the joint lines lining up in long straight lines. The manufacturer's instructions caution against this pattern, as the eye sees the long lines.

Almost the same pattern, laid along West Wellington in 2008 contracts. The pattern is very similar to the top picture, but there are no long lines. Every few meters, the blocks jog a bit to break up the distracting line pattern. I find this a much more pleasing pattern.

Does anyone think this matters?

Boring Job

Whilst walking along Somerset Street just west of the OTrain track, at Breezehill, I came across these gents taking bore-hole samples from the street. Little painted notations every few meters along the street indicate that they will be doing this for weeks.

I will nag the Somerset street planners for one bore hole result in particular. It will be the hole bored just a few meters east of the OTrain underpass. Eventually, a segregated bike route (CycloPiste de Preston?)  will be finished along the OTrain corridor, and to be useful it will likely have to pass under Somerset Street. Will it be possible to carve out a cycling tunnel along side the Otrain underpass?

If the viaduct (raised road surface that is Somerset Street) is composed of gravel and rock, it could be possible to pump that space just east of the Otrain underpass with grout (liquid cement) until it is solid, then carve out a bike route underpass parallel to the Otrain underpass. This would avoid digging up the road and building a cycling underpass in a cut and cover operation.

Transit Tunnel is no Turkey

The usual suspects are carping about the transit tunnel, again. Did the province provide funding? Apparently no good news is good enough -- they didn't provide 15-25% more than was asked for ... so it's disaster time. Ring-a-ling. Ding-a-ling. It's disaster time in the city ...

So what might happen if the tunnel portion was cancelled? Critics are quick to attach huge price tags to the tunnel portion. But these won't disappear if the tunnel is cancelled. After all the tunnel includes tracks (won't these be needed for the surface rail?); it includes stations and platforms (which will be needed at the surface too, and may have to be located on what is now private property that may have to be acquired by the city); signalling (which will be way more complex and expensive on the surface as it will have to accomodate private cars, trucks, and bus movements too), etc.

Surface rail brings its own unique costs too - streets will have to be dug up for years beforehand to relocate all access hatches (wo/manholes) outside of the track right of way, etc. Anyone visiting Toronto knows how slow the streetcars are and what chaos results in repairs to utilities crossing streetcar tracks or repairing the tracks themselves.

The last numbers I saw showed that cancelling the tunnel in favour of surface rail would result in a construction saving of about $300 million.

However, the system would suffer severe traffic flow impairment when it snows, or the streets are congested, or some bozo from upper lower Pointe Gatineau decides to block the track in order to squeeze through the intersection on his yellow light ....

And this doesn't even count the delays caused every day by north-south streets having a regular green light (which means the surface rail track is closed to train movements 60% of the time so the north-south motorist enjoys its green-yellow cycle). Let's throw in some Tamils or other protestors ... or striking civil servants who every few years close down the transitway by picketing at Place de Ville and a few other key spots that "accidentally" block the transitway.

What surface rail gets us in the downtown is a vulnerable transit system. Reliable it won't be. It will be  a very expensive rapid transit emulation system, aka a streetcar pretending to be a rapid transit system.

Transit committee received estimates that going for a surface rail option will, on a daily basis, result in sufficient impairment of service that a number of additional trainsets and operators will be required. How many? Well I saw estimates/calculations of about $100 million dollars per year of capital and operating cost for the additional equipment. [ Readers should see the comments received on this blog, which contest the dollars, time period and payback period for the operating savings. Once I receive the transit committee submission I'll post it on the blog ]  The "savings" in not building a tunnel would be eaten up  ...  by increased costs of surface rail in the core.

We can spend the money to build a tunnel that gives us a fast, reliable service in all weathers. Or we can spend the money operating a congested, grid-locked surface streetcar system. I know which one I choose.

For more on this same subject, including the source doucment, go to : http://westsideaction.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-turkey-talk-on-tunnel.html. Indeed, readers might want to scan several other entries in the last few weeks on the tunnel and station design.

CBC Interview on BikeWest

Last Monday, CBC afternoon show interviewed Eric Darwin about progress BikeWest apparently made at transit committee. You can hear the short interview by clicking here: http://www.ericdarwin.ca/CBC_Interview_2.mp3.

The text of the BikeWest proposal (downloadable) can be found at this coordinate: http://www.ericdarwin.ca/BikeWestReport.doc. However, note that I do intend to update this document in the next two weeks to reflect newer information. The report is rather fat, because it has a lot of pictures in it.

Chinatown Arch

double click to enlarge

The seriously-ornate royal arch to be constructed over Somerset Street near Cambridge in Ottawa's Chinatown district. Fundraising is going well, and a crew will be coming from China in Spring 2010 to install the arch.

More Christmas Lights at Upper Canada Village

Alight at night ... click to enlarge

gingerbread house and UCV Church  

Photos by Michelle LaFontaine. 

Christmas Lights at Upper Canada Village

These photos are of the light festival "Alight at Night" held every evening at Upper Canada Village throughout December.

Photos by Michelle LaFontaine.

New Scott Street Condo

Shown above is the first elevations of a six storey condo proposed for Scott Street. Small buildings like this are called boutique buildings. It will have about 30 units, with one commercial space on the ground floor. Since the lot has access only on the Scott frontage, the building face has the storefront, main entrance, then parking garage ramp, all in a row. Exterior is brick and stucco with glass balcony railings.

The building is proposed for the vacant lot immediately west of West Village Private, which joins Scott at the same intersection as does Lanark Avenue, near the Metropole condo tower. This condo is on the southwest side of Scott. When the West Village was being pre-sold about 4 years ago, the initial sales office was on this lot, and I vaguely recall that even then it was proposed as an apartment site. I also vaguely recall that Larco (the WestVillage developer) also owned the bank note printing plant behind the West Village that also faces Richmond Road at Kirkwood. I like the idea of condos there better than the original suggested new Cdn Tire which relocated to Carling in any case.

Condos in the area seem to sell like hotcakes. The Thieberge Homes building on Richmond between Island Park Dr and the Metro store are 80% sold in just the few weeks since they opened their sales office. Most units are smallish one bedrooms (500-600 sq ft @ $425+/sq ft). Buyers fall into two main groups: first timer DINKs; and older Empty Nesters.

Scott Street will be undergoing a community design plan (CDP) in the next year or two. Apparently some decisions have already been made, since the builder has been instructed by the City to move it right up to the lot front. Apparently when Scott is redone it is to be in the "traditional main street" format (like Preston, West Wellington, Bank Street)? This building is considerably shorter than the one facing Scott as proposed for the Westboro Collection, the McRae Avenue site behind and across from Trailhead.

It will be very interesting to see if the City can manage to develop Scott as a traditional main street format when it is presently a mish-mash of houses and commercial, some old, some new. They deserve credit for the attempt, in my opinion, since considerable redevelopment is expected all the street in the next decade and it is better to plan before development than after.

Future of No 3 bus route

The City is busy paring back bus services. Residents in the Preston area are probably glad to get back to having the No 3 on Preston again. And in the spring, the bus stops will again have shelters, benches, and trees for shade.

Once the bus transitway is converted to LRT service (sheduled for 2017 or so) then the no 3 bus route will follow Preston to Albert to Booth Street and the LeBreton LRT station, then over to Gatineau. It will no longer go to downtown Ottawa. Riders on the north-south routes will be taken to rapid transit stations where they will transfer to the LRT vehicles for the east-west portion of the trip.

BikeWest on CBC radio Monday

The route, from downtown to westboro

Possible intersection-free alignment along the LRT through LeBreton flats.

The CBC afternoon show will do a live segment on the BikeWest project Monday just after the 5pm news. If you can't listen in, I'll post a MP3 of the interview in a few days.

Mailbox heaven

At this location on Preston, the mailboxes used to be sitting on the grassy area beyond the sidewalk. When the corner sidewalks were laid, this little paved area appeared offering splendid access to boxes. Civilized.

Let it snow

I have a number of neighbors that manage to avoid shovelling snow as much as possible. Options include just driving over the snow bank and packing the snow down with your four wheel drive SUV, hiring neighbors or plowing services, etc.

This house on Rochester always has its porch plastic wrapped to break the wind and keep the snow off. Last year, and this, it has its steps covered too, in a dropsheet version of those canopied entrances to elegant hotels and really ritzy apartments we see in the movies set in NYC.

I am not tall. I walked up to this cover, and discovered the roof of it hit me at nose level. Hmm. What happens if we have a non-midget lettercarrier?

A tale of two houses ...

Both houses are on Primrose Street. The top one had its second floor stucco exterior wrapped in "house wrap", which prevents air infiltration but allows the passage of vapour (usually out of the walls). I am disappointed they did not put any additional insulation between the wooden strapping that has been applied for the new exterior cladding. I am a strong believer in insulation, but probably like for the City Living houses "renovated" along Albert, the person doing the renovation doesn't pay the utility bill, the tennant does, so additional insulation is not installed.

Next door is the green house subject of earlier posts, because of its sagging rear addition and the reveal of old signs on the wooden exterior. This house is also getting wooden strapping and new exterior cladding ... but is also getting some foamboard insulation AND housewrap too
In a few days, I'll post pix of the different exteriors.

No Toys for Us

One of the biggest toy hits of Christmas 2009 is the Zhu Zhu Hamster.

It's cheap ($8-$12), small, has zillions of reactions to human stimulus. Zhu Zhu is Chinese for Pig. So it's a PigPig Pet or PigPig Hamster.

So I went looking for it. Not at Zellers. They said it was only at ToysR-us. So onto the 95 to St Laurent. Nope, they don't have them. The staff cheerily told me the toys are all being reserved for the Toronto market. If you live in Ottawa, you can't get the top selling Christmas toy because the retailer has decided to cater to the Centre of the Universe (TM) .

I tried to get it online from ToysRUS.ca; but the site tells me its in-store shopping only. It doesn't bother to tell me its instore-only-in-Toronto.

I had thought it was only fancy transit systems that Toronto got.

Transit woes worse than Ottawa ?

Metropolis Magazine has a short article about how badly Las Vegas botched its monorail system. Burried in the article the careful listener might hear some warning sounds about the joys of un-amalgamated cities or urban planning districts that fail to include major sectors (who knew the Las Vegas strip is not part of Las Vegas City and is in fact unincorporated?).

The double-decker buses on the strip are a success though. I last rode them a few years ago, and there were crowds of people at every stop. Most of them had never ridden a bus in their adult lives, and fumbled the fare cards, etc. Frquently overheard comments were "hadn't been on a bus since 7th grade" or "seats aren't as nice as my Lincoln". The buses are similar the one that Ottawa is test driving on the 94 route. Perhaps because of the novelty, the strip bus is a big success; the off-strip monorail (refurbished Disney older-generation trains, I think) is not.

Metropolis concludes that Vegas is now looking  for " a ride from the Strip to downtown via a “train-emulation system.” While this sounds even more 21st century than a monorail, it’s more commonly known as “bus rapid transit,” planningspeak for a bus with a dedicated lane and sophisticated stops that work like transit stations."

Keep in mind that the Strip is crowded with people who by and large are visitors, and thus millions do not have their own cars with them. All urban planning lessons from Vegas come with huge caveats because of its unusual economics. What works in Vegas stays in Vegas.

http://www.metropolismag.com/lists/lt.php?id=eU0DDgAGUgdWXBoIAkwADgICAA%3D%3D

Elevator added

For many months work has been under way to install an exterior elevator shaft and new entry porch on the north (Lisgar St) side of McPhail Baptist church.

I rather expected a ultra-mod addition -- you know, glass box, exposed steel frame -- and am pleasantly surprised to see how well the contractor blended the old brick and new, kept the same foundation materials, etc.

Wayfinding in Little Italy

The city continues to upgrade the streetscaping along Preston. All new street signs are being installed at the intersections. While each cross street got its sign (one on the west side, one on the east side) not all of the intersections got the Preston Street sign, as shown here.

BikeWest motion passes Transit Committee

Faithful readers of this blog will recall I promote a cycling project called BikeWest.

It calls for a off-road bi-directional cycle route parallel to Scott and Albert Street between Westboro and the downtown. The city owns the land all along the streets, on the north side.

I am concerned that the DOTT  LRT project could block BikeWest at two key points, Bayview Station and Tunney's Station. Since transit committee was considering the LRT project, I spoke at the meeting, and asked friendly councillors to present a motion. But I got more than my minimal goal. Transit Committee passed a motion instructed staff to consider

- attaching the BikeWest path to the south side of the LRT route from Empress to Bayview, which if built would give Ottawan's a grade-separated no-intersection bike route for the first kilometer of so out of the downtown core

- what options we have for the Otrain overpass (more on this in a subsequent post)

- how BikeWest can safely pass the Tunney's station.

Before the motion was voted on, Councillor Legendre demanded of staff where BikeEast was as his consitituents deserved similar facilities.

I am delighted. Here is the key part of the motion that was passed:

Be it resolved that the subsequent design phases of the DOTT project include examing the possibility of including space for a segregated off-road bi-directional cycling path along the south side of the LRT alignment from Empress St to Bayview, and

Be it further resolved that staff evaluate options for including a bike route overpass over the Otrain cut at Bayview as part of the Bayview Station planning; and

Be it further resolved that staff explore options to ensure that there is room for the BikeWest project to safely pass the Tunney's Station on the south side between the station and Scott Street.

Of course, this does not mean BikeWest will be implemented. But the idea now has training wheels and is going foreward.

Sewer lids, access hatches, etc

It probably reflects some deep psychological disturbance in my early childhood potty training ... but I find I notice sewer lids, (wo)manhole lids, catch basins, access hatches, etc on our streets and sidewalks. They do add interest to our quotidian walkabouts ... at least to those who notice them.

The photo above is of a new fancy sidewalk made of interlocks. The stones are cut in an even square around the access hatch, and the perimeter filled in with cement. There may well be practical reasons for this, but it does somewhat spoil the look. I notice that on Wellington Street in front of the Parliament buildings the stones are cut very carefully in curved edges to abut tightly to the (wo)manhole -- this may reflect or Parliamentarians keener interest in matters sewage. The solution on plebian streets is simple: after pouring the cement, a grooving tool should have been used to continue the joint lines onto the cement.

But alas, probably few people will notice and this improvement will be lost underfoot, like my suggestions to the Preston BIA that they get from Rome a donation of a few sewer lids for the street that say SPQR*, these would have been a real treat when the street is closed for Italian Festival, as would a few Beijing sewer lids in Chinatown.

*SPQR: latin, "by the senate, for the people of rome"

Cornerstone Project launched

the Cornerstone women's housing apartment building (42units) will be built at the corner of Booth and Eccles, on the site of the former Desjardins/IGA/Loeb grocery store

Diane Holmes, Royal Galipeau, Jim Watson, Sue Garvey, and Yasir Naqvi

Sue Garvey speaks to the large turnout that came to launch the project

Sidewalks by Design

Our fair city continues to insist that it is pedestrian friendly. Of course, this friendliness comes second to being very friendly to motorists.

At first glance the above photo is so typical of Ottawa surely it is nothing worthwhile noting? But consider the engineering and design effort that goes into designing a road and sidewalk system that consistently delivers a slushy puddle at hundreds of thousands of sidewalk dips all across our city for four or five months of the year. Consider the thought and effort that goes into ensuring pedestrians are directed onto steeply sloping sidewalks at exactly the same geographical point as the slush and ice and muck is put onto that same sidewalk!

I used to think this was part of a scheme to reduce pension obligations, since a high percentage of elderly falls result in a broken hip that results in death within six months. But I no longer believe that, since the downtown neighborhoods are increasingly bereft of elderly persons and the puddles remain. I do however remain impressed at the consistency and frequency at which the city can deliver these sidewalk features throughout our west side neighborhoods.

"Elegant, Romantic" and Christmasy

These photos on Preston Street south of the Qway overpass were taken by Rachel Pereira. They highlight what a huge change has come over this street as it has been renovated by the City and the BIA and individual merchants.

In case you missed the pun, the Elegant Romatic terms come from Sunday's Citizen story by Maria Cook on the rejuvenation of Preston. Here's the photo link:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/photos/Gallery+Preston+Street/2335008/story.html; and here's the story link: http://www.google.ca/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fcommunities.canada.com%2Fottawacitizen%2Fblogs%2Fdesigningottawa%2Frss.aspx; which is to Maria Cook's on-line edition.

Casulties of the reno

When reconstructing Preston, some of the dead-end side streets (and there are many) were temporarily opened up to resident access by removing street closures or temporary easements over private properties.

The above posts are on the street closure on Elm Street. All the posts were damaged removing them from the ground in the spring. Crews reinserted the posts this fall. Neighbors will be watching to ensure they are replaced with unbroken ones in spring 2010.

Corso Italia

One of the delights of the Preston Street rehabilitation has been the Preston BIA's remaking of the Queensway underpass into an interesting highlight of the street. Instead of the former dark and dreary underpass, the framed murals and background murals are great eye candy. The west side is Preston Street yesterday and today; the east side is the immigration story.

In the spring, the east side sidewalk will be further developed into a place to linger, with special sidewalk light fixtures and paving. The north end of this zone opens onto the parking lot at 301 Preston, which is converted into a festival plaza during special events like Italian Week. Recall too that large signs have been posted on both sides of the overpass, which in the next few days will be backlit at night.

The wall-mounted light fixtures in the underpass are being replaced now with fewer fixtures, presumably brighter. This will necessitate touching up the mural paintings.

Who would have thought an underpass could be made into a neighborhood focus?

Yucca Yuk

This picture is taken along the city parking structure on Laurier Avenue. Along the south-facing side is a pleasant-but-thin garden. The perennials have been cut back flush to the earth. Notice the hole in the centre. There was a matching hole at the other end of the garden. These were homes to spectacular Yucca plants. Looking straight out of the Arizona & New Mexico deserts, these exotic looking perennials are hardy in Ottawa and send out tall bloom spires.

Alas, the mature plants are gone -- victims of city maintenance crews or theft? I collected some seeds off this plant in the fall, which I will attempt to germinate this spring.

For more on the yucca, go to  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca