I'm not imagining it, these suckers ARE popping up like daisies. City councillor's newsletter with lots of info on how MANY they've put in and what the process is. Pretty short on why, or how effective they actually are, or whether or not they're a hazard for people on bikes
I like the posts in Ward 9 where I ride my trike. I found drivers do slow down and between the small post and curb is wide enough. I have never seen any broken off so maybe we have more cautious drivers here?
To be clear, I hate these things and they're EVERYWHERE. They get broken and block the bike lane; they have little pads they're bolted into that could catch a bike tire; people think they're marking off bike lanes when they're not; they create pinch points where cars try to squeeze past you
Case in point: the centre post has been hit so much it's got scars and black streaks. The post on the left has been snapped off halfway up but is still standing; the post on the right has been knocked down and then presumably dragged out of the bike lane
On a suburban connector road near us, they only had the central flex stake for a long time. Now they added the thinner flex stake on the side. On a curve, they installed both of these, and cars & trucks park within inches of them on both sides. 1 of the thin flex stakes gets mowed down. City gave up
Yeah, they eventually gave up on the set close to my building that was right in front of a bus stop when the buses kept just massacring them while pulling in to the curb
I agree. Unless there's an actual bike lane on the side the big centre post is just adding danger via some very sketchy close-passes. It's like the City is requiring us to drink their kool-aid re: Sharing the Road: "just take the lane and everyone will patiently go single file, it will be fine!"
These do lower speeds—at least early in the year, before drivers get used to them. (Avg reduction of 5kph and +25% in speed limit compliance.) But they're also effective at squeezing cyclists. City doesn't always try to slow speeds *and* make cycling comfortable bc it's harder and more expensive.
yeah, I've watched drivers fully come to a stop faced with these things when they're new, and then skootch slowly through. I've also watched buses just drive right over them. Honestly they should just put up speed cameras - those work AND generate revenue.
The other thing that bugs me about them is that as far as I can tell they are NOT meant to delineate bike lanes, or at least not always, but people THINK they are. From what I can find out, the outside poles are placed a set distance from the centre, not the curbs. (blue poles tho ARE bike lanes?)
Which means the ones on Kilborn follow the bike lanes: but the ones nearby on Pleasant Park are frequently too close to the curb to safely allow a bike through. But drivers may assume that I'm going to be staying outside them "in the bike lane" ... and crowd me.
Or what the reason is if they make things “safer” why they aren’t permanent. Snow clearing is no excuse
I can kinda see the snow clearing argument: it would be really tough to clear around them and as a winter biker I can only assume they would just clear *inside* the posts, leaving even more snow at the edge of an already narrower street. And I don't know how they'd clear around those centre posts.