An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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WHERE BETTER?
Electric bike-sharing in San Francisco:
Soon San Franciscans will have a new option for navigating the local terrain without breaking a sweat or resorting to a car, thanks to a pioneering federally financed electric bike share program that will start up this year.
For those hauling cargo, electric bicycle trailers will be available for hourly rentals, too.
The Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Pilot Program awarded $1.5 million for the initiative … Ultimately the money will go to the local nonprofit City CarShare, which plans to integrate the e-bikes and trailers with its existing car sharing service, and to the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at University of California, Berkeley, which is responsible for assessing the impact and lessons learned from the project.
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SEEING ROUGE
Paris to allow cyclists to run red lights in bid to cut accidents.
Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights. The radical measure, which is intended to cut down on accidents, will be studied by city and town planners in numerous other countries outside France, including Britain. …
It will allow those on bicycles to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red. But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left. Crucially, they will also be held responsible if there is an accident.
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BIKE PARKING
The draft Stanley Park Cycling Plan is out – and waiting for your comments.
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Send your comments by Friday, February 17, by email to ben.mulhall@vancouver.ca.
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Apparently the Daily Mail’s article on Paris is a bit misleading. A friend in Paris sent me this French article http://www.paris.fr/accueil/accueil-paris-fr/velo-passer-au-feu-rouge-oui-mais/rub_1_actu_111135_port_24329 with an English explanation:
“To clarify one thing: the new rules allow ‘straight on red’ only if there is no street to the bicyclist’s right at the intersection (T-intersections). I think this will be a relatively rare situation where the new rule is applied.
I think the new rule is interesting in Paris because motorists are not allowed to turn right on red. It’s much different than North America where everybody is already allowed to turn right on red.”
So, really the changes aren’t that radical. I wonder if Vancouver would consider allowing cyclists to yield through intersections like Quebec/Terminal, Pender/Beatty, or Dunsmuir/Citadal Parade, assuming there aren’t pedestrians crossing?
One “T” intersection that cyclists cruise through (dangerously) is southbound off Burrard Bridge through the red light towards Cornwall.
What many don’t realize is that a lot of traffic turning left from northbound Burrard to westbound Cornwall makes an immediate right turn at Whyte Ave. (towards the Planetarium). The red light holds back all traffic and allows the “turning lane to Whyte Ave.” movement (yielding to pedestrians of course, but a fast moving bike can be outside the driver’s field of vision since he/she is focussing on the turn movement).