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

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by getbak

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

The people who live in Airdrie?

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by getbak

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

I do. But I commute by bike since I am one of those greasy hipsters who lives and works downtown.

There are actually days I take the long route home and would welcome a 20% increase in my commute time just because I enjoy riding my bike. Not because I have a wife and kids at home in the suburbs that I dread going home to.

[Incogneto]

Originally Posted by 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.

Gondola's!

[V]

If people haven't yet realized that the City intentionally makes it difficult to drive downtown they never will. Parking is insane, traffic sucks and they add bike lanes. Just do what they want and take transit into the core ffs.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by 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.

I'm still waiting...

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by getbak

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

Because it's not for the overall average commute. It's only the potential delay on the road the cycle track is proposed, and only for the stretch the cycle track actually is. So for instance if your travel time along the proposed 5th Street cycle track (from 4th Avenue to 17th Avenue) is currently 4 minutes. You can expect auto trips for that stretch only on only that road might increase upto 5 minutes.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

Gondola's!

Good idea, but Roller Coasters and nothing less. We are now inconvenienced by 20% more wait time; we need quick, dirty transportation that's so fast and efficient you can get from one building to another in 20 seconds and have time to spit on a Car2Go in between.

Until body tubes are installed a la the Jetsons and Futurama (and I'm hoping these come to fruition within 3-5 years everywhere in Calgary), Roller Coasters will have to suffice.

The city could even put a loop-de-loop around the 6th avenue +15's, make it enter that crumbling brick building that people love so much, down through the empty LRT tunnel under 8th, come out the Stampede Station tunnel, through Elbow River Casino, bridge over the hipster apartments in the Beltline and come to a complete stop right next to the Ship and Anchor.

[NuclearPizzaMan]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Because it's not for the overall average commute. It's only the potential delay on the road the cycle track is proposed, and only for the stretch the cycle track actually is. So for instance if your travel time along the proposed 5th Street cycle track (from 4th Avenue to 17th Avenue) is currently 4 minutes. You can expect auto trips for that stretch only on only that road might increase upto 5 minutes.

The way I read it, an increase of 20% is the target goal, not the maximum impact.

During peak hours, a successful bike lane trial would increase travel times on those corridors by 20 per cent or less.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

Not because I have a wife and kids at home in the suburbs that I dread going home to.

Haha I'm as pro inner city as they get but was that really necessary?

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by NuclearPizzaMan

The way I read it, an increase of 20% is the target goal, not the maximum impact.

They're indicating that 20% is a benchmark to be measured against and a reasonable expectation of travel time delay for motorists. It's an order of magnitude. That is to say, if it's 50% slower, that's unexpected. The "goal" is to minimize delay to the greatest extent possible.

[crazy_eoj]

Bunk are they going to measure the day to day use of these pathways? It would be interesting to see if they are mostly abandoned during the winter months or not.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

Bunk are they going to measure the day to day use of these pathways? It would be interesting to see if they are mostly abandoned during the winter months or not.

Yeah, they'll be monitored year round. They're examining installing cameras and software that can detect and automatically count all usage. The experience on 7th and in other cities is that we can expect about 30% usage in the dead of winter compared to the height of summer.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Yeah, they'll be monitored year round. They're examining installing cameras and software that can detect and automatically count all usage. The experience on 7th and in other cities is that we can expect about 30% usage in the dead of winter compared to the height of summer.

That is a lot higher than I would have expected. Wow.

[FanIn80]

Well at least these people will be a lot safer during rush hour.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The experience on 7th and in other cities is that we can expect about 30% usage in the dead of winter compared to the height of summer.

Just a quick follow up on this. The Herald had an article about running and cycling patterns with users of a Runkeeper app.

Can't seem to link images directly as it is an interactive website.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/in...ycle_walk.html

Maybe users of the app are more fair weather cyclists, but the drop off is pretty massive for half the year. It looks more like 5-15% (85-95% drop). Certainly could be too small of a sample but removing a full lane of traffic year round still seems a little crazy to me.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Well at least these people will be a lot safer during rush hour.

Yeah, those people have funny clothes and brightly colored bikes, their safety isn't important! Only if you wear the class and subtlety of real cyclists should your safety be taken into account...

[burn_baby_burn]

They probably came up with the one minute delay as an average on 24 hours over seven days. So the average delay is one minute, however the average delay over rush hour will be like 30 to 40 minutes.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

They probably came up with the one minute delay as an average on 24 hours over seven days. So the average delay is one minute, however the average delay over rush hour will be like 30 to 40 minutes.

Don't agree with numbers that have been calculated by professionals who work in the specific field being discussed?
Don't worry, you can always just dismiss it based on your assumptions of how they did the math, and them make up arbitrarily large numbers that support your side.

Seems like a reasonable way to make decisions to me.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Don't agree with numbers that have been calculated by professionals who work in the specific field being discussed?

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought municipal employees calculated the numbers. Not professionals.

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Just a quick follow up on this. The Herald had an article about running and cycling patterns with users of a Runkeeper app.

Can't seem to link images directly as it is an interactive website.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/in...ycle_walk.html

Maybe users of the app are more fair weather cyclists, but the drop off is pretty massive for half the year. It looks more like 5-15% (85-95% drop). Certainly could be too small of a sample but removing a full lane of traffic year round still seems a little crazy to me.

A large majority of cyclists use an app called Strava to track their rides. Most (myself included) would never bother to run this or any other program on their daily commute or when running errands. I only track my longer and faster rides.

That would account for the big drop, in the summer people are out for longer rides so the app is active, in the winter most only do short trips to get places so don't bother engaging the app.