Are painted cycling lanes really "safe"?

After a few close calls riding on the cycling lane side of the painted line I have come to a conclusion that cycling lanes are not the safe areas that folk tend to think that they are. When in the lane you are invisible to the people driving their vehicles and they tend to drift to the line or over it. When you ride a tick on the car lane side of the line most vehicles cross over the centre line. I have noticed that the large truck drivers do not get upset and actually respect my choice. I have no opinion on the segregated bicycle lanes except that in most cases they are actually "MURPS" (multi use RECREATIONAL paths). And as such have dogs chase you, kids running across path make them more dangerous than driving in traffic as traffic. As for the people who use Montreal as an example of safe bicycle lanes, well I was totally suprised that I found my self avoiding the streets that had the segregated cycling lanes. The segregated lanes mean that you have other cyclists/skaters coming at you in a 1.5m wide lane separated from motor vehicle traffic. Most times the separation is a cement curb or plastic poles in the pavement. BTW neither stop the effect of a smaller lane when the car driver opens his door without checking (as there is little chance his door will get hit by a motorized vehicle) and cuts small lane down even more. In conclusion to have a safe ride, BE VISIBLE, BE PREDICTABLE and BEHAVE LIKE TRAFFIC. For an extra measure of comfort add a mirror to the bicycle of choice and make eye contact before doing any manoeuvre.


Bikeboy999

Well I am finally done.

Well I spent the latter part of the summer working with my friend Doug doing a little landscaping around the house. We put in a small patio, and re-leveled the back yard to facilitate better water dispersion. We dug a hold 5 feet cubed, and loaded it with large rocks and smashed up bricks. It is called a dry well, it is supposed to fill with water and disperse it slowly. Down the sides of the yard we put in weeping tiles to guide water into the dry well as well as seep out as it goes towards hole. After finishing the back yard we re-did the walkway to the front door. Not enough work done, so we raised the walkway garden and enclosed it with bricks/stones. Lastly we re-sealed the house and re-grassed the area between the houses. The following link shows the work done all the way to the family gathering done in backyard after job completed. Some of the photos show the new shed, and patio swing. http://picasaweb.google.ca/bikeboy999/WhatIDidSummerOf2007

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Pre-BROL ride Thursday August 23.

We had a near collison near the start of the ride where all of us pulled off the side of the road as a crazed woman passed a slower (doing speed limit of course) pickup truck and almost took out the whole group. After we all regrouped and were fine to continue we communicated "car back" a lot more. A little rain fell after the ride started. It occured just as the group was getting near the falls. By the time we got to the falls the sky had darkened and a few thunders were heard. However while we waited underneath some weather protection, the skies lightened up and we were off again. But I digress, Tom Barone had fell here and broke his stem and seat strut. The handle bars were splinted and deemed well enough to shift for rest of ride. The seat strut was not found out until very late in the ride. Half way through the ride we picked up another 10 or so riders, we met at the whirlpools parking lot. The rest of the ride was under sunny skies and was a very nice ride. After lunch at the Epicurean (http://www.restaurantica.com/restaurants/5791/) food stop. As someone with food allergy/senseitivity they were very, very good to me and helped me select a great lunch. The ride back was as fun as the ride to NOTL, at a specific point we split to either go into Queenston and ride the escarpment from there or ride on the road. I chose the road and continued on road to top of Escarpment. A bunch of us regrouped at steps to monuement and waited until co-leader Joe told us we could go on as groups tend to separate here. After the mid point I went on ahead with Keith and flew into Niagara Falls. After Niagara Falls most of the riders went back on the trails, I chose the road. I noticed shortly after the bridge work over the inlet that I was off the track, and I asked the person in the car beside me how to get back to parkway. She got off the cell phone and told me the direction I had to go. I recognized the road and road back half on roadway and half on bicycle path. The reason to ride on bicycle path here is when your mouth drops from seeing the size of the mansions, that I would not swerve into traffic.



http://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/PreBROL

Pre-pre-Brol ride. Wednesday August 22.

Well this ride was not advertised as flat, but riders were told that there was only one hill of significance. It is called the Escarpment, and it is basically a 300 foot rise in around a 1/2 mile distance. On this ride at the very bottom of said Escarpment there was an incident because the lead riders waffled on the direction at bottom. Which in itself would have been fine, except that no one warned the riders on the hill that all the riders at bottom were stopped. What happened was one of those situations where a rider runs into a rider and someone hits the same rider. No one was injured, but an upright rider (who only had that day off out of the near week of riding) had some spokes break. His ride was finished, and he had to walk the 1/2 mile back up the escarpment. That situation pared our group down to 12 once again. The photos are of the group at various stops along the route. The direction of this ride was the opposite end of the canal, in this ride we picked up two new riders and up'd our size to 14. However at the end of the ride we lost them as they were local and the lunch was in their backyard. Notice the photo of the fish, it was caught by the gentleman holding it with the big smile on his face. That picture was on the end of the fishing peer, at the end of where we had our lunch.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/PrePreBROL



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Pre-pre-pre-BROL ride.

Well we loaded up the recumbent and mountain bikes in the van and away we went to the starting parking lot. The starting parking lot for this ride is pretty close to being underneath the Peace Bridge. The ride was totally flat as it followed the river to the start of the Welland canal. Here are the photos, http://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/NiagaraAkaPrePrePreBROL. Since the ride was so flat most of the photos were of the riders at the begining, a mid-way rest stop, lunch and the same rest stop on the way back. So the ride would be considered an out and back, and all 12 of us on the ride were very happy it went so well. It started out as being a bleak day with threats of rain, which was good and kept all the other users off the pathway. BTW, lunch was at a fish processing plant that had a small restaurant in the front selling fresh fresh-water fish.


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Monday check out Niagara area.

We scouted the area's where we would be riding the next few days from. Two of the rides were in the Port Erie area, while the other started at the Brock Monument parking lot. The drive went along Niagara Parkway drive, where I could not believe the quantity of large homes facing the Niagara River ( I guess). The college being in Welland gave us a view of tunnels, bridges and the famous Welland canal. There are no photos because someone (me) forgot the camera in the dorm room.


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Port Hope Trike Fest, then on to Niagara Falls.

Sunday August 19th, went to Port Hope, Ontario to check out the annual trike festival. Sunday was the down day, as every one showed up on the Saturday. However there were a few examples of John Murray's compositions. As shown in the photos http://picasaweb.google.com/bikeboy999/PortHope, you can see that they are well designed. As well as the end of trial time when the recumbent and upright trikes are taken home. At the end of the fest we had to decide if we were staying over and tenting or trying our luck at the college. Well we pushed on to NF, and got stuck in typical Toronto highway madness. It took nearly 2 hours to move 20 km, and we heard on radio that OPP had shut down highway for 10 hours. We got to the college and all was well. We took our booked room a day early. Next will be photos from the Niagara Pre-pre-pre-BROL ride.

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