QUEST FOR BIKE SAFETY
Intersections too risky
Erecting a sign telling cyclists to dismount and walk, and expecting them to take a long detour to avoid one intersection entirely, are among the fixes recommended for the city’s four most dangerous cycling intersections. “Terribly disappointing,” is how Bike Windsor Essex executive director Lori Newton describes the recommendations, which cycling advocates hoped would include more significant improvements for these cycling danger points. They want painted-green bike lanes proceeding through intersections, with bike boxes that position bikes at the front of the traffic lane to allow them to proceed through first. But instead, the shorter-term recommendations presented in the study “are utterly failing the cycling community,” Newton said. The intersections with the most bike collisions with injuries over a five-year period were Tecumseh Road/Lauzon Parkway (seven crashes), Tecumseh Road/Windsor Avenue (five), Drouillard Road/Wyandotte Street (five) and Walker Road/Ypres Avenue (four). “These recommendations, we don’t feel, are going to make these intersections safer because they ’re not addressing the problem,” Newton said of the study, whose recommendations were endorsed last week by council’s Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee and will be heading to council in the coming weeks for final approval. Almost all the car/bike crashes involved cyclists riding on the sidewalk along these busy roads and getting hit as they continue through the intersection. At Tecumseh/Lauzon, the study recommends erecting a sign, telling cyclists riding on sidewalks to get off and walk their bike through the intersection. At Drouillard/ Wyandotte, the recommendations include prohibiting right turns on red lights and creating signed “alternate route” for east-west cyclists, involving a detour using Riverside Drive. At Tecumseh/Windsor (across from Jackson Park), the recommendations include outlawing left turns from Tecumseh onto Windsor and eliminating some on-street parking spots.
All collisions at Tecumseh/ Windsor and Drouillard/Wyandotte involved cyclists riding on the sidewalk and getting hit as they crossed the intersection. At Tecumseh/Lauzon, the consultants observed that cyclists use the sidewalks “almost exclusively.” “The sidewalk cycling epidemic in Windsor, it’s really a symptom of a bigger problem,” Newton said. That is that the roads don’t have the proper infrastructure (like bike lanes) to make cyclists feel safe using the road, she said. “Therefore, people feel they are safer on the sidewalk even though the data proves they are not safer.” Motorists, she said, aren’t expecting a fast-moving cyclist to come scooting across the intersection where a slow-moving pedestrian should be. But to suggest cyclists dismount and walk across the intersection, or take a long detour, is “not realistic,” she said. People just won’t do it. “You’re forcing people to behave in ways that aren’t natural,” she said.
The shorter-term recommendations would cost $6,000 to implement. The “cyclist dismount” sign would be $500, and “shared pathway” signs along the multi-use trail that resembles a sidewalk along Lauzon Parkway would cost $3,000. The “no left turn” signs at Tecumseh/Windsor would cost $600 and “no right turns on red’ signs at Drouillard/Wyandotte would cost $1,400.
Longer term recommendations such as cycling infrastructure along Tecumseh Road East, Wyandotte Street East and Walker Road, will be considered as part of the Active Transportation Master Plan that’s currently underway and will take more than a year to complete. The study was done at council’s request by consultant BT Engineering, which conducted bicycle road safety audits at the four intersections and came up with solutions. Erecting a sign telling cyclists to dismount isn’t for cyclists riding on the road with cars, but for cyclists riding illegally on the sidewalk, said Josette Eugenie, the city ’s manager of transportation planning. That helps to ensure the safety of the intersection,” she said. “I think the safety message to our community is to understand what’s expected at an intersection. If you’re on a bike but not in the roadway, to dismount and walk.” Newton’s group is asking that council to try its suggestions for painted green bike boxes and bike lanes that run through the intersection on at least one of these problem intersections. Then the city can measure if the collision rate drops.
“We believe it will because we’ve seen the data for other cities,” she said.
I think the safety message to our community is to understand what’s expected at an intersection. If you’re on a bike but not in the roadway, to dismount and walk.