A Bumpy Start for New Bike Lanes
A couple days ago the Journal asked Edmontonians what they thought of the city’s new bike lanes, so I figured I’d get out the two-wheeler in spite of the rapidly chilling autumn air and check some of them out.
All I had time to ride before it got dark (another sad fact of the coming winter) was the new route down 97 Street from 83 Avenue to 34 Avenue. Since I live on the north side of the river, I’ll go over the route from north to south the way I followed it.
The 97 Street route is pictured at left. The red areas indicate where on-street parking is not allowed. The letters indicate the configuration of the road.
The north end of the 97 Street route is at 83 Avenue, which corresponds nicely with a trail down into the Mill Creek Ravine multi-use trail, and basically provides a highway straight to/from downtown if you’re looking to commute by this route.
From 83 Avenue to 72 Avenue the route consist of sharrows with on street parking allowed in some spots and not in others. Sharrows are a marking depicting an arrow and a bicycle, and are intended to show cyclists where in the road they should ride, and indicate to motorists that it’s proper for a cyclist to be on the roadway. For the most part, the sharrow placement is fine, but in some spots it’s a bit weird.
Above is an example of poor sharrow placement. The marking conflicts with the on-street parking, and seems to indicate that a cyclist should weave in and out of the parked cars, which is dangerous for everyone involved.
Here’s a much better example, near 75 Avenue. The markings are nearer to the center of the street, showing cyclists a safer place to be and indicating to motorists that it’s okay for cyclists to be in the middle of the street, reinforcing the “single file” signs that are also present.
There are also pedestrian signal lights at both Whyte Avenue and 76 Avenue, so if you are uncomfortable riding across these busy streets or the traffic is especially high you can get off your bike and walk across with the assistance of the signal lights.
Running the Gauntlet Through Hazeldean
If you want a concise description of the route from 72 Avenue to 63 Avenue, take what I described above and make it horrible. It’s the same setup, with sharrows and on-street parking in some areas, but the pavement is in ridiculously bad condition. It’s so sandy in some spots that the paint has already worn away, as though city crews painted right over the loose gravel and called it a day. The bumps are so bad it’s impossible to keep a decent speed and the risk of a cyclist losing control and crashing is pretty high. This road needs to be fixed yesterday. It’s unfair to call this a bike route with a road surface this bad. Please fix this now!
Clear Sailing Through Industry
After the bumpy mess that was Hazeldean I wasn’t expecting much from the run through the industrial area from 63 Avenue all the way down to 34 Avenue. But you know what? It was great! There was the odd patch of gravel here and there, but the smooth wide roads allow for easy accommodation of a bike lane. There aren’t many stop lights here, so it’s very easy to cover a lot of ground very fast. The only really unpleasant part is the gross smell from the Labatt Brewery that gives me flashbacks of a previous work term in school.
There was one area I’m a bit concerned about.
Heading north towards 51 Avenue, the bike lane ends and cyclists are expected to continue in the right hand lane, while drivers should presumably enter the left hand lane. The problem is that the left lane is a turning only lane, so now drivers must merge right to continue north on 97 Street. Will all drivers properly check before entering the right lane? When I was watching only about half of the drivers signalled their lane change. I worry this could be a potential conflict area between motorists and cyclists.
Overall Verdict
Half of being “good” at getting around on a bicycle is knowing the proper route to take. To that end, this bike lane has shown me a very good and fast way to get from my house (on the north end of the river with good access to Mill Creek) to the southeast end of the city. If the city patches up the terrible section in the middle of the route then it’ll be great. I look forward to trying out the rest of the new bike routes. Hopefully before the snow flies.
If you’ve tried this route and either liked it or noted some problem, leave a comment!
Thanks for this review Mike! I get that the route through the industrial area works great as a place to ride, but when I saw the markings there I was surprised. I’m sure a few people who work in the area might ride to work, but there is t really anything there for people who don’t work there. Is it just meant to be a sort of bicycle freeway between Millwoods & downtown?
The ladies over at Loopframe Love (loopframelove.blogspot.com) organised a ride on the Saddleback Road loop on Sunday. Their post is up and has some photos of the markings/signage in the area.
Also, just an FYI, your video doesn’t seem to be available for mobiles. I’ll go watch it on my computer though.
Nice review, team.
Tried this route yesterday myself. I agree with you about the poor pavement north of Argyll road 100%. My ride through the industrial area was not so smooth as yours, had a few conflicts with trucks, and I only forsee more eventually.
My problem with this route is it’s redundancy. At the south end of Mill Creek Ravine, an excellent shared bike path exists alongside 91st Street. It runs from from Argyll to 34th Ave, and has none of the on-road problems that the 97th street route has. I strongly suggest anyone else try this side-walk based bike path instead.
yay – finally a new article!
I’ve been cycling commuting for years and I always feel there is enough room on our lanes for bikes – as long as you keep a brisk pace and stay over the side as much as possible. Cyclist need education on riding according to the rules of road more than anything. The good thing is that it will hopefully get some cyclists off the sidewalks.
The bottom line is that a bicycle is a motor vehicle – and thus any cyclist is subject to the law pertaining to motor vehicles – i.e. the highway traffic act. All cyclist (teens/adults) should be aware of this and read this legislation. I’m sure you would rather read it yourself than have a judge read it to you, right? : )
Heyo,
The terrible stretch of 97 St is scheduled for repaving within the next 2 years. The City decided to mark the bike lanes with paint for that stretch this summer so that there would be continuous bike routes, but they plan to repave and remark (with more durable thermoplastic rather than paint) the lanes in the near future.
Marilyn: it’s all part of the Bicycle Transportation Plan to make a grid network of bike routes.
prettythings: Staying “over to the side as much as possible” is something that we discourage in our CANBIKE on-road cycling courses. It tends to encourage unsafe behaviour from automobile drivers, and leaves less margin for the cyclist to manoeuvre to safety.
And on a technical point, bicycles are not considered motor vehicles. They are considered simply vehicles, with mostly the same rights and duties as motor vehicles. It’s only an important distinction from a matter of sense (if there’s no motor, it clearly isn’t a motor vehicle), and a some specific sections of the law (insurance, registration, licencing, equipment regulations, and impaired driving, primarily).
Cheers,
Chris
chris – your body is the motor. its mechanical. regardless, the law applying to vehicles is the same. I think you are just getting fussy with the way I word things.
Also, if CANBIKE discourages riding close to the side does that mean they encourage riding infront of traffic? seems like you need explain this more. Obviously I don’t mean ride on the curb or in the gutter…i meant stay to the side so that traffic can get by you.
[...] Construction is wrapping up on 21 new kilometers of reserved bike lanes and shared-use lanes. As The Charrette reports however, it has been a bumpy start. [...]
o_u_prettythings: riding “to the side” encourages drivers to drive straight through the lane you’re in. It’s not safe to have a car/truck and a bicycle in the same lane, and it’s not legal. Riding in the middle of the lane makes a clear statement that it’s *your lane*, and you’re taking it up, and nobody should be trying to pass without safely getting into the lane to the left. If you’re in a no-passing zone, too bad, no passing that bicycle.
The picture of the Hazeldean Gauntlet doesn’t even do that horrid stretch of road justice. I live in Hazeldean, and when I bike around my area I have to avoid the road that actually has the bike lanes for an enjoyable cruise.
Aside from that area it is pretty nice though.
Chris, I know the plan is to have a grid network, but why start with a route that doesn’t seem to be anything other than a corridor? Should t we be trying to connect people to ammenities?
Prettythings: I’m not being fussy. I clearly said that the distinction is only important for a few things, and not in the main. But if you’re talking about the Traffic Safety Act with anyone that cares (police, judge, lawyer), it’s important to know the law with accuracy and precision. Arguing that your body is a motor will get you nowhere when the law clearly defines a bicycle as a non-motor vehicle.
As for CANBIKE: there is also a significant distinction between telling someone that they should ride “close to the side” and that they should ride in a lane position that facilitates safe movement of traffic, including cyclists. The law states that cyclists should ride as far right as practicable. Practicable is bounded by safety: in the case of lanes narrowed by lines or road hazards, or crossed by many intersections (including alleys & parking lots), or other considerations, it may be safer to ride in the middle of the lane than on the edge of the road. If you’re riding too close to the edge and you hit a road hazard and fall in traffic, or you’re hit by a vehicle exiting a driveway, it does nothing to help traffic flow.
In general, and on Edmonton roads, this means: on arterial roads which have widened curb lanes, riding about 1m away from the curb. Sometimes it means taking the lane as gravel and potholes (and parked vehicles) tends to concentrate at the road edge. On suburban boulevards, which have monstrously wide lanes, it means riding just to the right of the traffic lane (and not at all near the curb). On narrow roads, such as 101 St downtown and many residential roads, it means riding in the middle of the lane to encourage drivers to pass in a different lane rather than trying to squeeze past in the same lane.
The key is predictability: if you’re riding straight down the middle of the lane, other drivers know exactly what you’re doing. They may not like it, but they know they have to change lanes to pass you, and when cross-traffic looks for oncoming vehicles, they’re looking exactly where you’re riding. If you’re riding on the edge of the road, you’re out of sight, out of mind, and forced to make constant lane-position changes to navigate around road hazards, parked cars, etc. Every lane-position change that you make carries additional risk for a collision.
Marilyn: The merits of working on connecting individual communities with their nearby amenities, versus building corridors that allow larger swaths of the city to travel some portion of their route along bike lanes, is probably not a clear choice. There are strong arguments for both, and they serve different demographics.
The reality of the matter is that building things that serve individual communities (and therefore single wards) is a harder sell at Council than building things that serve multiple areas.
So the fact that 97 St was done over another route is mostly a matter of political ease, economic efficiency, and roadway maintenance planning. There were other routes planned for this summer that probably better fit your goals (e.g. a short route leading to an LRT station), but they didn’t get built for a variety of reasons.
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