Bikes everywhere or are my eyes deceiving me?

Recently there's been some ratcheting up of the complaints about the Laurier Avenue Segregated Bike Lanes (LSBL) in the local media. A recently formed coalition of citizens opposing the lanes claim that the city is fiddling with the number of users for the bike lanes and that these numbers are exaggerated. Today in the Ottawa Citizen one letter writer, incredibly, stated that only about 25 people use the lanes per day. I probably shouldn't have mentioned this comment because it's beyond ludicrous but this is the sort of thing being tossed around by bike lane opponents. Interestingly, a recent comment to this blog complained about having to deal with the "thousands of cyclists". Too many, too little...I guess they can't decide. On my way down Laurier West today I did a rack by rack count from Kent Street to Elgin Street. Every single rack, without exception, had a bike attached and most had two or more. In total, I counted 220 bikes. This does not include any bikes on any of the north or south running streets that were visible to me. Now imagine if all these cyclists were to drive instead! Where would they find the parking?

Examining the new complaints against the Laurier Avenue Segregated Bike Lanes

This past week there was a front page story in the Centretown News about a new petition started by residents on Laurier Avenue West to get rid of the Laurier SBLs. There were also some new complaints from businesses.

First, let’s deal with the petition and the complaints of the residents. I’m assuming it’s the same gang that complained when this project got underway. These would be residents of the Queen Elizabeth Towers.

Petition organizer Janine Hutt is quoted in Centretown News stating, “ We do not want to cancel the bike lane system but we want the city to use common sense to decide how this can be done with the least disruption to both residents and businesses”. I’m not sure exactly what they want but their suggestions to close the lanes or move one or both to adjacent streets has already been dealt with and dismissed.

Another local resident and petition organizer (Richard Assellin) is quoted as saying “ lack of parking is killing life on Laurier”. Really? Was there ever life after all the civil servants go home in the evening? Is it really any different now? I’m a resident of downtown and I can tell Mr. Assellin that this statement is utter nonsense. And here’s why. Most of the businesses on Laurier that could be people friendly in the evenings and on weekends are closed after the work crowd have gone home. It’s hard to be lively when your cafes and grills close up shop early and are not open on weekends at all. Do you like the Manhattan Grill/Café? Try getting a coffee or bite to eat from them on Saturday or Sunday. Sorry, closed. Think about how quiet the Sparks Street Mall is on weekends and in the evening. Is it the fault of the bike lanes?

Hutt is also quoted as saying that the concrete barriers are a problem. Well, did she even bother to read the City of Ottawa’s plans for the SBL? If she had, she would know that the concrete barriers were only ever meant to be temporary. If the project succeeds they would be replaced by grade separated lanes. So that argument is a lame one.

As is the incessant whining about the lack of guest parking along Laurier Avenue. Since when is it the responsibility of the city to provide guest parking for an apartment building? Assellin is also quoted as saying that “generally you have parking on your own street”. In the suburbs maybe, but there’s no guarantee of that downtown. And anyway, how many hundreds of residents live in the Queen Elizabeth Towers? 450? Is it for the city to provide a guest spot for every resident? Why did the builder of these towers not provide enough visitor parking? My understanding is there is a grand total of four, yes four, visitor spaces for 450 units! Eric Darwin’s West Side Action Blog covered this story well and he had some options for dealing with this parking issue but, of course, these options have likely never been considered.

http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/condo-heal-thyself/

Now to a few of the business complaints. Hussein Yehia (Calvina Gourmet International) is quoted as saying that he has to open up at 5:30 to accept shipments. This, he claims, is one and a half hours earlier than he normally opens. So he opens at 7:00 A.M. It’s interesting to note that you can’t park on Laurier Avenue until 9:00 in the morning. So where do his customers come from for those 2 hours? My guess is they are parking in garages and lots or taking the bus. Or even walking and cycling. He tosses out the usual 15-20% loss in business, but we have no way of substantiating that fact. You can, by going to the City of Ottawa’s website, read that he has failed to be in compliance with the City’s Health inspections on 3 of the last 5 inspections.

http://www.ottawa.ca/en/health_safety/inspections/index.html

This reminds me of a recent article in the Ottawa Citizen about a complaint from the owner of an Indian Restaurant on Laurier. He was complaining about a drop in business but a little research showed that his restaurant was rarely ever compliant with health inspections. Interestingly, after this was pointed out in some letters to the editor, he brought his restaurant under compliance. I found that interesting. Amazing what a bit of fame, or notoriety, can do. I think what these situations point out is that the media seem so quick to accept on faith the reasons for these business losses without doing their research and examining whether other factors may be in play. Why is that? Why do they assume that everyone who runs a business runs it well?

Let’s examine the case of a business complaint in this Centretown News story.



Presse Café at at L'esplanade Laurier



Jean Elkhoury, owner of Presse Café at 141 Laurier, is quoted as saying that the bike lanes are hurting everyone’s business. By “everyone” I assume Elkhoury means the Presse Café as well. Now according to Presse Café’s website http://www.pressecafe.com/en/news/presse-cafe-multiplying/ this location has only been opened since November 2011. So this café was never in business before the Laurier SBLs existed. So, on what is Elkhoury basing this claim? There can’t be any comparative data so is it just an assumption? Perhaps this franchise is not hitting its targets in coffee shop rich Centretown. There could be a simple reason for this and it’s as simple as looking across the street.




Starbucks, across the street from Presse Café. Not the best photo but you can clearly see customers inside. On a Sunday. No chance of that at Presse Café

Starbucks at the corner of Laurier and O’Connor has been in business for several years. Could it be that Presse Café has some serious competition? I would think so. I also think that many people show loyalty to certain coffee shops. I know I do and I know others who can only be found at a certain Bridgehead or Starbucks or any of the other cafés in Ottawa. Does this complaining business have any loyal customers? I don’t know. But I do know that if they do you won’t find them there in the evening or on weekends. Here’s an idea for Jean Elkhoury. If you want a successful café downtown why don’t you open in the evenings and on weekends or at least on a Sunday. Why not use some business savvy and try to attract customers. There is a Running Room just a block away. I happen to know that a large number of the people who run out of this store go for coffee and snacks after their runs on Sunday. But they won’t stop at your shop because it’s closed. And that’s a shame because it’s in a nice, convenient location. But I think we know that the reason the Presse Café is closed evenings and weekends is because they cater to the downtown work crowd and these customers are gone after work. And by the way, they are NOT parking in front of your shop during the day. Those who work downtown take the bus or find private parking garages and lots to use.

Something else you might try, which admittedly is more difficult than complaining, is to try and attract the residents of downtown Ottawa. The ones that might walk or, heaven forbid, ride a bike to your café. Jean Elkhoury, maybe your business model is just wrong. Oh, and don’t look now but things are about to get worse. There’s a new Bridgehead opening up on O’Connor just kitty-corner from the Presse Café. I’m betting they’ll be open weekends and evenings. And judging by the number of bikes often found outside Bridgeheads they won’t be complaining about the bike lanes.



Oh, the irony!


A study from Toronto in 2009 makes for some good reading on the subject of bike lanes and businesses.

http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/bike-lanes-parking.pdf

A spring made for bikes

Record warm temperatures are really bringing the bikes out. It's a great thing to see.

Winter bike parade for winter cycling fans

The Citizen's for Safe Cycling is sponsoring a winter bike parade. The event will be held on Sunday, January 22. Winter cyclists are to meet at Laurier Avenue West and Percy Street at noon. The parade will travel down the Laurier segregated bike lane to the Ottawa City Hall at 110 Laurier Avenue. There will be free hot apple cider at City Hall to warm up participants. The event will go snow or shine. You can visit the CFSC website to view the CFSC promotional poster.

Ottawa cyclist brainstorming session

Saturday (Nov 25) I attended the City of Ottawa’s Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee’s “Public Brainstorming Session”. Hosted by the RCAC’s Mike Powell, the session had the goal of coming up with some safety recommendations to be presented to the Ontario Coroner. (The Ontario Coroner had announced it would be looking at recent cycling deaths.)
The brainstorming session was well attended and Mike had us divided up at four tables with six or seven people to a table. At the tables were some familiar faces and quite a few Citizens for Safe Cycling members. The local media were well represented with CTV, CBC, Centretown News, Ottawa This Week and CBC Radio Canada all present. Councillor Marianne Wilkinson sat in, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity. Was she there simply to give her opinions like anyone else or was she acting on behalf of the city? I don’t know and I would’ve liked to have known at the start. Having said that, she did make some interesting comments and I was glad a city councillor took the time to participate.
Each table was given a question and we were asked to come up with concerns and potential solutions to problems. As you can imagine, there were many areas of concern and just as many ideas about what we could do about them. So, each table discussed a question and after twenty minutes of brainstorming we’d shuffle ourselves randomly at the other tables. There was a little overlap, but for the most part the tables changed membership.
I shall say here that the following ideas are not all mine, nor will I make any judgements on whether I find the ideas presented good or not.

Question 1. What are some of our safety concerns as cyclists?

It’s no surprise with the recent cycling death on Queen Street that dooring was a major concern. Closely related was the use of window tinting on cars. Many cyclists, and all safe cyclists, make a point of making eye contact with drivers. You're looking for signs of driver awareness and signals that a door is about to open. Window tinting, of course, makes this difficult to impossible. Window tinting is legal up to a point, but many felt that some after-market window tints are darker than legally allowed and that this creates a hazard to cyclists.

Proper maintenance of bike lanes is required to encourage winter cycling.

The right-of-way at right hand turns was another safety concern. Sharing the roads in close proximity to large construction vehicles and too fast traffic were noted often. Narrow roads that put cars and bikes too close together were also noted. Somerset Street West is a good example of a street that's much too narrow. The south side allows for car parking, but if you ride along Somerset heading east you need to take the lane or else you will be much too close to the parked cars. This inevitably irritates impatient drivers. Debris and poorly maintained bike lanes was mentioned. Cycle lanes that appear out of nowhere and end just as surprisingly are a major concern that was expressed at every table at some point. Last, but perhaps most importantly, was the lack of respect that's shown to cyclists and admittedly the lack of respect that some cyclists show to car drivers. It was great to see that at no time did there ever appear to be an “us vs them” mentality in the room. Everyone seemed to recognize we have to work together in this.

Bike lane in Copenhagen

Question 2. What changes to infrastructure would we like to see?

Again, dooring came up. It was suggested that more angle parking may help in this regard. The connectivity of our bike lanes was questioned and everyone agreed we need to fix this problem. Lanes that end at bridge approaches or that just fade away need to be fixed. Traffic light signal timing was a possible change that most agreed with. Advanced greens for cyclists and turning boxes that give bikes a head start seem to be things most would like to see. Very important, and something that is very prevalent in many jurisdictions in Europe is the slower speed limit along bike routes and in the more densely populated downtown area. As someone who was recently rear-ended by a speeding truck I’m strongly in favour of slowing vehicles down in the core of the city. Safer zones around schools was another idea that I actually hadn’t heard of before. Some suggested as much as a three block radius around schools should be parking free zones to allow for safer commutes by children to school. Lastly, but probably only because so many seem to take it as the most important idea, is the use of more segregated infrastructure. People generally feel safer away from heavy traffic and segregated bike lanes continue to be a strong favourite of most people. But not everybody!

Cyclists in Ottawa's Laurier segregated bike lane.


Question 3. What can we do about cycling awareness and education?

There were many interesting ideas including a “think bike” campaign targeting bus, cab and large truck drivers. Signage when entering areas with bike lanes was brought up. As well, the idea of the "John School"* for drivers involved in accidents with cyclists and reckless cycists was a popular suggestion. Rather than being ticketed the charged motorist/cyclist could opt for some cycling education. Another well received idea was having city officials involved in road planning spend four hours on a bike in city traffic. This would likely change how they see things from a cyclist’s perspective. I would love to see that! It was also suggested that the Ministry of Transport put some information in their packages for driver licence renewals reminding them to be aware of cyclists and the Highway Traffic Act as it applies to cars and bikes.

Question 4. What legal and regulatory changes could be implemented to make cycling safer?

Adopting a mandatory minimum distance that cars must give cyclists (1 metre suggested) was easily the most noted change that people would like to see. Again, the issue of the tinted windows and why police seem to be ignoring some tints that are clearly illegal was talked about and it was suggested that the police themselves would have an interest in enforcing the laws that are already in place. However, some suggested that the maximum tint standard allowed today is too dark and should be changed. The lack of side guards** on trucks were another concern. A recent accident in Toronto where side guards may have prevented a cyclist’s death has highlighted this again. With the rapid pace of development in downtown Ottawa now we are seeing a large number of trucks in the heavily congested core and this summer we had a pedestrian death involving a right-turning dump truck. Some work needs to be done to make trucks safer. Another change many wished to see is the so-called Idaho Stop. This is where a stop sign can be treated as a yield sign for cyclists. It’s a very practical idea.

A bike "launch pad" on Laurier Avenue

These are just some of the topics that were discussed. There were far too many for me to put in this post (the infrastructure table had over 9 pages of notes!) but it does give you an overview of what we talked about. If I could pick five highlights for the session I would say that number one was the need for more separate/segregated infrastructure. This was the first item brought up at the infrastructure table. Number two would be the posted speed limit downtown. Most feel this needs to be lowered. Public awareness campaigns would be number three. Connecting the bike lanes we have to form a solid integrated network would be number four. It was unanimous that we have far too many dead links in this network. Number five concerned right-hand turns. Given this is where most accidents occur the participants had strong feelings about the need for advanced green lights and turning boxes (that put the bikes ahead of the cars) to keep cyclists safe when turning.

* What is “John School”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_school

**What are truck side guards?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/infographic-truck-side-guards-designed-to-safeguard-cyclists/article2235084/?from=2235099