Ed Treijs
Do the "facility-of-the-month" photos work?
In article <679gj5F2o18a9U1@mid.individual.net>,
Peter Clinch <p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk> wrote:
>Ed Treijs wrote:
>
>> Do you have better luck in the UK? Do the atrocities pictured in the WCC's
>> site actually get fixed? Are the authorities shamed into action, or do they
>> just continue to mumble?
>
>I don't know about individual cases, but I think FotM is doing some
>good because it does break out into national press coverage from
>time to time, and that gets egg on folks' faces and they don't like
>that.
That seems to be the general response: "may do some good, but not a huge
amount".
Considering how atrocious some of the pictured installations are, it's amazing
that anyone with a brain would care to be associated with the initial
construction. Who on earth looks at these things, wipes the dust off their
hands, and says, "Jolly good job, eh?"
I know, my question is rhetorical.
But there's something else I'm interested in: how many of the facilities of
the month are actually used to any extent? Other than the bicycle of the
person who took the picture, they look pretty deserted.
The bollards in Toronto are nowhere near as bad as some of those pictured,
but the problem is that it's a major route for bicyclists as well as
rollerbladers, joggers, and walkers. The city's count is "100 to 300 cyclists
per hour" in summer, but it's not clear where or how that's measured. Last
night, for instance, I came zipping down the hill to the east, making about
40 km/h and coming to the bollards about the same time as a recumbent trike
going in the same direction. He was heading for the middle of the mess so
I went around the end bollards on the right (safer in Canada than UK!).
The only alternative route to the waterfront trail for my commute is Queen
Street, which is a narrow street with parked cars and streetcars (trams), and
looks pretty much like
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/streetcar-4101-05.jpg
for its entire length. This morning I took Queen, and could not get ahead of
a streetcar. I caught up to it just fine, but had to stop for its open doors
(no safety islands: vehicles are not allowed to pass to the right of the
streetcar because passengers have to cross the traffic lanes to get to/from the
sidewalk/pavement). I can then usually get ahead of the average streetcar, but
this one was somewhat late and accelerating more quickly than usual, so it got
ahead of me and then pulled to a stop.
Despite the horrible nature of the street as pictured, it is a major bicycle
route; the cyclist in the picture is not an unusual freak (neither is it me!).
I have bookmarked the WCC pictures and will publicise the link, as part of
my personal campaign against idiotic bicycle facility construction.
Thanks
Ed