Traffic delays up to 20% alongside downtown cycle lanes, city predicts

[chemgear]

It should be interesting to see how this pans out. When there is an accident/construction and a lane is closed downtown, the delay seems surely more than a minute but hey, maybe we are talking an "Airdrie minute" here.

I assume these reduced lanes will be carried year round even in the winter and snow?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ca...453/story.html

City engineers are predicting another trade-off when downtown bike lines replace car space next year: hundreds more cyclists get safe routes, while drivers alongside them could experience about a minute more of peak-hour congestion.

A new report lays out the targets that define success for the approved one-year trial for the network of barrier-separated cycle tracks downtown. Cyclist volumes will double or triple but collision rates will drop or stay flat, while businesses shouldn’t suffer.

The one group experiencing any measure of pain, according to the targets, is motorists on the routes expected to lose traffic lanes, including 5th Street S.W. and 12th Avenue S.

During peak hours, a successful bike lane trial would increase travel times on those corridors by 20 per cent or less. For a five-minute jog across the Beltline, that would suggest it grows to six minutes when one lane is turned over exclusively to cyclists next July.

[Canehdianman]

Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought the idea was to increase traffic speeds, not slow it down further.

What is the point if it isn't going to allow people to get to/from work faster?

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought the idea was to increase traffic speeds, not slow it down further.

What is the point if it isn't going to allow people to get to/from work faster?

The idea was to create a safer alternative transport for Calgarians, especially for those who live and work in the inner city. Not every thing is about driving to and from work faster.

drivers alongside them could experience about a minute more of peak-hour congestion.

Oh the huge manatee.

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Table 5

The idea was to create a safer alternative transport for Calgarians, especially for those who live and work in the inner city. Not every thing is about driving to and from work faster.

Hmm, I didn't know that. I assumed that the goal was to improve rush hour delays by getting people out of their cars and onto bikes.

I lived and worked downtown for 8 years and I never saw a single a bicycle accident (saw a couple close calls, but those were all bike couriers that were weaving around lanes). Saw a lot of vehicle accidents though.

I live and work down in the South now, so I can't say that it would really impact me, but I would be pretty choked if my commute was going to increase by 20% so that some hipsters could feel safer riding their retro single-speed around downtown.

[The Ditch]

it's a well known fact that the only people who ride their bikes downtown during commuting hours are poor, gross hipsters who don't contribute anything to society

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Hmm, I didn't know that. I assumed that the goal was to improve rush hour delays by getting people out of their cars and onto bikes.

I lived and worked downtown for 8 years and I never saw a single a bicycle accident (saw a couple close calls, but those were all bike couriers that were weaving around lanes). Saw a lot of vehicle accidents though.

I live and work down in the South now, so I can't say that it would really impact me, but I would be pretty choked if my commute was going to increase by 20% so that some hipsters could feel safer riding their retro single-speed around downtown.

Well, $hit.. we should just get rid of red lights and cross walks to improve your commute time too. Screw those hipsters who want to cross the street safely and add 60 additional seconds to your drive

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

it's a well known fact that the only people who ride their bikes downtown during commuting hours are poor, gross hipsters who don't contribute anything to society

Riding during commuting hours?

Too mainstream.

[Ozy_Flame]

So the problem is these will impact traffic during an accident / construction downtown?

Don't these streets already come to a stand-still when this happens? And if they have to wait one more minute to get through traffic, is this really a problem worth exploring?

If I'm 20 minutes late getting out of downtown, does it really tip the scales if I'm 21 minutes instead?

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

So the problem is these will impact traffic during an accident / construction downtown?

Don't these streets already come to a stand-still when this happens? And if they have to wait one more minute to get through traffic, is this really a problem worth exploring?

If I'm 20 minutes late getting out of downtown, does it really tip the scales if I'm 21 minutes instead?

I would say the 20% figure is highly suspect (not to mention that your numbers are a 5% increase, not 20%).

I was just surprised that the end result of adding bike lanes in certain areas is going to be a slower commute for 99.9% of people. Maybe I'm just not aware of the cyclist safety issues that exist downtown? Regardless, it doesn't seem very logical to me to slow down the commute for the majority of people unless there is a large safety issue at play.

[You Need a Thneed]

If there's an accident in traffic, abandon your car, pull a folding bike out of your trunk, and bike home, using the unblocked bike lanes.

[Ozy_Flame]

They should just scrap the bike lanes and buld +15 roller coasters around the downtown network. Plus an express coaster to 17th, Inglewood and Marda Loop.

Sean Chu would be cool as a cucumber.

[chemgear]

Reading this a bit further, I should have also added this part of the article below. Interesting these transport engineers set these (imaginary?) targets but have no idea what the real measurements are right now.

"1 minute" during peak hours seems to be an unreasonable estimate for removing an entire lane of traffic to vehicles in the downtown. Things get massively backed up just with the loss of a lane over a short distance due to new tower construction or an illegally parked vehicle.

I assume they're going to be locking out these lanes during the winter as well?


While transportation engineers have proposed the target, they don’t know exactly what existing travel times are for those stretches. They’ll measure baseline data this fall and next May, and keep tracking throughout the one-year trial.

“How much more idling time?” asked Coun. Ward Sutherland, one of council’s sharpest critics of the downtown bike network trial.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by chemgear

When there is an accident/construction and a lane is closed downtown, the delay seems surely more than a minute

You're comparing unexpected bottlenecks to permanent lane reductions on under-utilized roads. It's a bad comparison for a few reasons:

- Bottlenecking creates traffic. A two lane road that goes down to one could have traffic where a one lane road wouldn't because of the merging required and traffic waves caused by braking.

- Traffic patterns adapt to permanent changes.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

I would say the 20% figure is highly suspect (not to mention that your numbers are a 5% increase, not 20%).

I was just surprised that the end result of adding bike lanes in certain areas is going to be a slower commute for 99.9% of people. Maybe I'm just not aware of the cyclist safety issues that exist downtown? Regardless, it doesn't seem very logical to me to slow down the commute for the majority of people unless there is a large safety issue at play.

The idea is that the vast majority of people don't commute using bikes because they feel unsafe. I use a fairly untraveled (car-wise) route to downtown including the river path so it's not a huge issue for me, although in the summer I feel for the pedestrians on the river path or anyone who doesn't think their commute to work is the Tour de France. There are a tonne of dickbag cyclists who ride too fast and unsafely on the river path, hopefullythey take it to the street.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by SebC

You're comparing unexpected bottlenecks to permanent lane reductions on under-utilized roads. It's a bad comparison for a few reasons:

- Bottlenecking creates traffic. A two lane road that goes down to one could have traffic where a one lane road wouldn't because of the merging required and traffic waves caused by breaking.

- Traffic patterns adapt to permanent changes.

Hmmm, I can see the merits of those points. Here is to hoping 20% of the core switch over to biking or stuff themselves onto those C-trains then!

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by chemgear

During peak hours, a successful bike lane trial would increase travel times on those corridors by 20 per cent or less. For a five-minute jog across the Beltline, that would suggest it grows to six minutes when one lane is turned over exclusively to cyclists next July.

So, a 20% or less travel time increase is actually the goal, and it may well be worse.

[AcGold]

Driving in Berlin it was significantly easier to get through the city with smaller roads and more cars. The reason; traffic circles, the lights go yellow before green and the off ramp systems take you from the outskirts of downtown to the core in a matter of seconds. For a big city we have some of the most poorly planned roads in the world. Blaming cyclists for an ovrehwelmingly bad design is silly.

[The Yen Man]

This seems counterproductive to me, basically sacrificing efficiency for 99% of the commuters downtown by appeasing to 1% of the commuters who will benefit. Seems to me city council's plan to persuade people to not drive downtown is to make is as inconvenient as possible.

I know the city wants to persuade people to take Calgary Transit downtown as much as possible, but last time I checked, buses also used the very same roads they're looking to reduce. How is this better for the people who bus it downtown?

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Wait a minute...bike lanes aren't a perfect solution?
Well then why the hell are we building them?

RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!

[getbak]

How does a one minute delay equal 20%? How many people in this city have a 5 minute commute?