Sunday, August 23, 2009

It's The Design, Stupid!



Lakeshore and Ontario Place.
Don't get me wrong, re-routing the Martin Goodman Trail was a good idea but the design has to be right. Already I am hearing reports of people being cut off by drivers making the dreaded right hand turn on a red light onto Lakeshore. As you can see in the photos there is no signage to yield to pedestrian and/or bicycle traffic.

Not needed?
Yeah, right!

We already know that drivers cause most of the collisions between cyclists, pedestrains and cars, but bad design is also a root cause of the whole mess of infra-structure we find ourselves in.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

"No right on red."

Problem solved forever.

Tino said...

Exactly!

Jonathan said...

Unfortunately, that's not enough.
People turning right on a red are at least supposed to stop first, and are therefore should be going slowly. And if the Lakeshore has a red light, the light for cyclists should also be red. I don't see why right turns should be a big deal.

On the other hand, there are also people turning left into to the parking lot. Turning left across oncoming traffic encourages people to turn very quickly. Because they are so far away from the bicycle path, they are less likely to see oncoming cyclists. And most importantly, because the cars are turning on a green light, cyclists also have a green light, making an accident way more likely. What this intersection needs is an advance green timed differently than the bicycle lane light. I hope that makes sense.

Tino said...

Excellent point Jonathan, I have sent photos and a note to the bike union and they have passed these onto Dan egan at the city. Let's sse..

cheers