You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[81MC]

Totally agree. I’ve ran dedicated winter tires my entire life and not once have I have picked a rock out of the tread. The forces acting on the tire that allow rocks to get stuck are the same that allow it to get free. Waste of energy.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

I decided to look further into this today, as this last page has made me pretty curious about the effort put into rock picking tires.

I have never done it before. I was working on my Hakkapeliitta R3's. I did this in my basement tv room while watching Amazing Race.

After looking around for a good tool close to the 45degree angle hook DoubleF posted, the best thing I could find was an Ikea L-shaped allen key. Didn't seem like a good fit. I ended up using a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

I stood the tire up on edge (as if it was on a car) while I sat on my couch and worked on it.

The first tire took me 18 minutes. The last tire took me 11. I figure I got 95% of the rocks out. There were some that were just too deep in the really small siping for me to get.

I can see a shop not wanting to dedicate a lot of time to it...but it's also not the crazy tediously long job I thought it'd be. It was actually kinda relaxing.

I imagine with a proper tool, a rotating tire stand of some sort and some experience, four tires could be done pretty quickly.

Haha, I appreciate your efforts for science and the current debate. So about an hour? My estimate was double that long, so something was indeed learned. I still don't get it, but half the crap I fata around on my car with makes no sense, either, so as long as it's fun and feels good, why not?

[Sliver]

Since we do driving gear grinders in here, I have a question on a rule that I've seemed to have forgotten the answer to at some point in the past months or years relating to pedestrians crossing the street.

So if a pedestrian is crossing at a crosswalk, you have to wait until they completely clear both sides of the street before proceeding. I do this every time even though 75% of people just drive through after the pedestrian clears their half of the road. Whatever, but I know I'm right on that.

If a pedestrian is crossing at a light with a walk sign and you're turning left in a manner that would have you cross over the pedestrian markings on the road, do you have to wait until they're completely off the road as well, or can you proceed after they've crossed the side of the road onto which you'll be entering?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Since we do driving gear grinders in here, I have a question on a rule that I've seemed to have forgotten the answer to at some point in the past months or years relating to pedestrians crossing the street.

So if a pedestrian is crossing at a crosswalk, you have to wait until they completely clear both sides of the street before proceeding. I do this every time even though 75% of people just drive through after the pedestrian clears their half of the road. Whatever, but I know I'm right on that.

If a pedestrian is crossing at a light with a walk sign and you're turning left in a manner that would have you cross over the pedestrian markings on the road, do you have to wait until they're completely off the road as well, or can you proceed after they've crossed the side of the road onto which you'll be entering?

I'm probably wrong but I think there are different rules for different road types. From what I recall, and it is highly likely that it is wrong, if the road has a median of any sort you only have to wait until the pedestrian has clear your direction of travel and reached the median. No median requires waiting for them to fully cross both sides.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Since we do driving gear grinders in here, I have a question on a rule that I've seemed to have forgotten the answer to at some point in the past months or years relating to pedestrians crossing the street.

So if a pedestrian is crossing at a crosswalk, you have to wait until they completely clear both sides of the street before proceeding. I do this every time even though 75% of people just drive through after the pedestrian clears their half of the road. Whatever, but I know I'm right on that.

If a pedestrian is crossing at a light with a walk sign and you're turning left in a manner that would have you cross over the pedestrian markings on the road, do you have to wait until they're completely off the road as well, or can you proceed after they've crossed the side of the road onto which you'll be entering?

I don't think the law distinguishes between those two situations, so I'd assume technically you're supposed to wait until they've cleared the crosswalk.

But that whole rule is pretty much an Alberta-specific thing, at least within Canada. Most other provinces, once they've crossed into the other half of the road, you're free to go. That might be why so many people ignore it.

[PepsiFree]

Yeah, my interpretation in the simplest terms is that you have to wait for them to cross the area in which cars could legally cross their path. So, if it’s two lanes each way and it’s a crosswalk, you have to wait until they cross the entire stretch. If you’re turning into the lane/lanes, you only have to wait until they cross the lanes you could turn into (because the other lanes would have a red light).

Something like that, anyway. Downtown is trickier when you’re turning onto a multi-lane one-way street, so I usually just wait until they clear the lane(s) you’re legally allowed to turn into.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I'm fully guilty of ignoring that one, I tend to go once they're clear of my side.

As for downtown, part of the problem is SO MANY pedestrians just crossing whenever. And I've been guilty of that too. But when you have people going when the "don't walk" sign has been up forever and there are 3 seconds left until the light turns yellow it causes traffic problems, there's just no time for traffic to move. The construction has made this worse, on both sides (sidewalks being closed to pedestrians and lane closures forcing more cars into one turning lane in a lot of places where normally there would be two turning lanes).

[Fuzz]

Legally ya, you have to wait.

But in Alberta, the law says you have to wait for pedestrians to get all the way across, say Calgary police.

“It can be interpreted to indicate a driver must yield right of way to a pedestrian while they finish crossing from curb to curb,” Calgary police wrote in an e-mail statement.

Section 41 of Alberta’s traffic law says drivers must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk, and the law says a crosswalk extends across the whole street.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/driv...-to-the-other/

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Haha, I appreciate your efforts for science and the current debate. So about an hour? My estimate was double that long, so something was indeed learned. I still don't get it, but half the crap I fata around on my car with makes no sense, either, so as long as it's fun and feels good, why not?

Yup, about an hour. That was also with some distraction as I'd look up at the TV occasionally, too.

I can't see rock picked tires making any difference on the road, but I could see a shop providing the service, as DoubleF mentioned, as some kind of premium upsell. I imagine that a worker who's not distracted, has the tools and some experience could easily do 10 minutes for an average tire. Mine had a winter's worth of wear on them, and I was nearly at 10 minutes after 'one car'.

There was the oddly satisfying part of it, too. If I need something to calm my mind and I have mine or my wife's 'dirty' winters around, I may give it a shot.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Section 41 of Alberta’s traffic law says drivers must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk, and the law says a crosswalk extends across the whole street.

Yeah, but what does it mean to "yield to" someone or something? I just had a quick look at the Act and a couple of other traffic websites and it's not defined anywhere. In some cases the definition is circular. The closest thing to a meaning I can find is "slow down or stop and don't proceed until it is safe to do so". There's a very good argument that once the pedestrian is on the other side of the road from the direction you are traveling, it's safe to proceed.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Legally ya, you have to wait.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/driv...-to-the-other/

This seems clear to me, so not sure I agree with CHL, but I'm not a lawyer.

At a dedicated pedestrian walk with the two flashing ambers I always wait for the guy curb to curb.

At a traffic light I've always just gone after they clear the side to which I'm turning on; however, this morning the lady in front of me waited for the person to go curb to curb. It had me second guessing my approach and it looks like I may have been doing it wrong and she did it right. Seems it is at least unclear enough to most people that I doubt I'd be getting ticketed by a cop for continuing to do it "wrong" so I'll stick with that.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'm not sure I buy the possibility of a slow accumulation over the winter. I assume rocks come and go, and any cleaning you do will be undone in a week of driving. So now I'm curious for the tire cleaners, take a look after installing and see how long before you have a noticeable number of rocks stuck.

The chips that get caught in the sipes will not release by driving. Remember we are talking winter tires here not to be confused with all season or summer tires. I'm not saying that it's going to make the tires perform poorly but clearly having the tread and sipes rock chip free will enable peak tire performance vs a tire that's got the sipes full of chips but we are venturing into oil change debate territory here so clearly not worth arguing about.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Legally ya, you have to wait.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/driv...-to-the-other/

My only issue with this is that there seems to be a lot of slackers or people that hate drivers out that totally drag their ass (ultra-slow walking pace) when walking across intersections so slow it takes up the entire light.

[sa226]

It's a very specific example, but sometimes the laws exist for a reason.

We were crossing a busy 4 lane road that enters a roundabout (well 2 lanes entering, 2 lanes exiting) as we walked past the first 3 lanes, a guy in the last lane saw us coming but decided he had time to go. So he zipped through. I actually don't have much of a problem with that, but the issue is that the car directly behind him sees his car proceed through, so they go too, without considering what's going on around them. Human nature I guess.

Luckily I kind of saw the whole thing unfold. When the lady in the car behind realized what she did and made eye contact with me, I thought she was going to have a heat attack.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Since we do driving gear grinders in here, I have a question on a rule that I've seemed to have forgotten the answer to at some point in the past months or years relating to pedestrians crossing the street.

So if a pedestrian is crossing at a crosswalk, you have to wait until they completely clear both sides of the street before proceeding. I do this every time even though 75% of people just drive through after the pedestrian clears their half of the road. Whatever, but I know I'm right on that.

If a pedestrian is crossing at a light with a walk sign and you're turning left in a manner that would have you cross over the pedestrian markings on the road, do you have to wait until they're completely off the road as well, or can you proceed after they've crossed the side of the road onto which you'll be entering?

When I took AMA driving school, the guy that I had told me the practical way to address this was that the pedestrian had to be a full lane away from the one I wanted to enter. So if it is just one lane in each direction, you have to wait till the pedestrian gets to the other sidewalk.

Curb
-------
Not if pedestrian here
-------
You turning to this lane
-------
Curb

But if it's two lanes in each direction, you can start turning once they are a full lane past the lane you're turning to. The AMA instructor said technically it's still wrong, but it's reasonably accurate based on the spirit of the law and you're unlikely to get a cop pulling you over for that in most regular scenarios. The pedestrian has to be a full vehicle lane over while in the crosswalk and not be in the middle of the next lane over.

Curb
-------
Yes if pedestrian here
-------
Yes if pedestrian here
-------
Not if pedestrian here
-------
You turning to this lane
-------
Curb

Or in a dual turn scenario:

Curb
-------
Yes if pedestrian here
-------
Not if pedestrian here
-------
You turning to this lane
-------
Not if pedestrian here
-------
Curb

You could basically argue that the individual had reached the middle curb (if it has one) and/or that it was unlikely that the individual could change their mind and rush back 10+ feet in the 3-5 seconds it would take for you to turn onto and clear the lane.

The pedestrian a full lane over (vs curb) is something I consider as the "unofficial official". Kinda like 9 kmph over posted speed limit, but not 10+.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

My only issue with this is that there seems to be a lot of slackers or people that hate drivers out that totally drag their ass (ultra-slow walking pace) when walking across intersections so slow it takes up the entire light.

You ever driven in Vancouver?

Calgary pedestrians cross at a brisk jog in comparison.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The chips that get caught in the sipes will not release by driving. Remember we are talking winter tires here not to be confused with all season or summer tires. I'm not saying that it's going to make the tires perform poorly but clearly having the tread and sipes rock chip free will enable peak tire performance vs a tire that's got the sipes full of chips but we are venturing into oil change debate territory here so clearly not worth arguing about.

I find that hard to believe, otherwise after years of use they'd all be full.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I’d be glad if our #### drivers would stop trying to hit me while in the crosswalk, let alone make it halfway or all the way across.

Some ####tard in a truck sped past me so close I could reach out and touch his POS vehicle and when I flipped him off he stopped and lost his #### screaming that he’s a good driver because he didn’t hit me and that’s all that matters.

Thankfully his wife’s embarrassment at her loser husband seemed to have an effect so he got back in his truck and drove away.

[PepsiFree]

It’d be nice if cyclists stopped at crosswalks more regularly than they do. I’ve had more close calls with them than vehicles (though I do prefer the risk of some bumps and bruises to getting pancaked).

[Monahammer]

I just want cyclists to choose whether they're a pedestrian or vehicle. And most do. The worst people on the road, bar none, are cyclists that are on the road approaching a red light or stop sign, and hop the curb to then become a pedestrian and use the cross walk infrastructure.