Bicycle lanes?

When are bicycle lanes going to be built on the highways this road will connect? I gather that the industrial subdivision local access roads will then also have bicycle lanes. In the latter case, I assume the bicycle lanes will be in addition to curbside parking on the local access roads.

How many people are projected to be using a bicycle on this road? In the middle of winter, how many will there be? Anyone coming from town will have to ride up from the bowl to the airport plateau.

I think providing that much pavement for so few users, if any at all, is a waste of oil-based products and the money it costs to put it down and maintain it. That's another 4 metres of asphalt that has to be plowed in the winter if the lanes are to be kept open for bicycles or similar wheeled vehicles.

I am surprised that "gus" missed commenting on the inclusion of a 1.8 metre sidewalk on one side of the road in the critique of the project.

The City of Prince George is, after many years of neglect, beginning to upgrade sidewalks and include some additional new sidewalks in the city.

Sidewalks, along with bicycle lanes, are now considered as part of planning and development.

Good planning is good for all citizens.

There is a world out there ....beyond the automobile. Public safety of all citizens is being addressed.

That was actually not missed. I felt that at least one "protected" path for non car/truck traffic should be made available.

I happen to think that the standards for protected bicycle lanes are very poor. I happen to think that bicycle lanes should be removed from the edge of the roadway and place adjacent to pedestrian paths so that
1. cars do not park in so called bicycle lanes
2. bikers and pesestrians are not splashed from vehicles driving immediatly adjacent to them.
3. better separation is provided between 80km/hr traffic and 20km and less per hour traffic.

If we are going to have these protected paths, then let us get a proper standard so that people feel safer using them and are thus more likely to use them.

Here is just one standard for "best practices"
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Recommendations on effectiveness of bicycle lanes

Where bicycle lanes exist, riding should be restricted to the direction of motor vehicle travel. Paved riding surfaces should be mandatory for bicycle lanes, AS ELL AS A WIDE BUFFER ZONE (preferably > 2.0 m) BETWEEN MOTPOR VEHICLE TRAFFIC AND BICYCLISTS, INCREASING IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO THE SPEED OF THE MOTOR VEHICLES.
http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/practices/topic/bicycles/bikelanes.html

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I am afraid I am not a believer in providing a uselees, substandard utility that puts users in more danger than they should be in. If we provide it, it must be done to best practices. Best practices is not simply a wider road when the design speed is going to be 80km/hr.

BTW, when are we going to upgrade the old Cariboo Hwy adjacent to the airport and put a bicyle lane in there. At least there are residences around that area and there is a ball diamond that some may wish to take their bike to from houses close by. And then there is the matter of a sidewalk.

Where is our upgrading program with a 10 year window for full compliance so that we do not have a checkerboard pattern. I suspect that by the time we have upgrades in place throughout the city, the new facilities such as Boundary Road will have had at least two repaving jobs done to them.

Read this for a best practices report on pathways.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/05085/chapt19.htm

I would opt for a 3 metre wide shared use pathway with a buffer between that and the road. In that location, with the design speed of 80km.hr, a buffer is virtually mandatory to meet today's safety and "comfort" standards. And with what I expect to be limited traffic in that area, a 3 metre wide strip for shared use would be more than adequate. That is not going to be a high use area such as one would find adjacent to an urban beach pathway such as displayed in Santa Barbara.

Look at what they are doing along Tyner.

Also, the specifications for the construction (paved surface part) of such pathways is less stringent than those for a roadway.

And I thought gus was just an anti bicycle sort of person.... perhaps that was wrong.
Sometimes it is hard to tell from posted comments.

Let's get it going!

Hopefully, we can use local contractors amd local engineers to build this new road. We do not need the so called "smart growth" experts from Vancouver.

One more and I will let it go. But, it is amaziong what one kind find on the internet in a time span of no more than 30 minutes. makes one wonder what the traffic engineers around here do to keep up to date on this sort of stuff.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/11/13/londons-cycling-design-standards-a-model-for-nyc

That is from London England where they would have a few years of experience with bike pathways and lanes.

Look at the chart and what is recommended for the traffic speeds along the bottom of the chart. At 80km/hr, it is simple - segregate the bikers from the drivers.

This is how it is done in NY City. Notice the parking at the curb, then the bike lane just like in parts of downtown Vancouver, then a buffer strip (not provided in Vancouver) then the morotized vehiclular lanes.

I would call that best practices.

Norm1 - I worked for the planning firm that caused the wide arterial roads west of the bypass - all of them have bicylce lanes that were, however, never signed as such by the city and are still not maintained as such by the city.

That is the part that I find unacceptable. I look at that as a potential design mistake and aks myself the same questions asked on some of the sites I landed on this morning. What improvements could be made to encourage bicycling more. One of the most common answers deals with safety and comfrot when riding adjacent to vehicular traffic.

That is why I say either forget about it since a path can be put in later with a buffer when the need arises, or build it that way in the first place. Let us not bring 1970s road and bicyle lane designs into the 2010+ era.

It looks like we will continue to use local engineers. However, they could use some lessons on how to bring some of the standards up to date.

'Hopefully, we can use local contractors and local engineers to build this new road.'

Hasn't this project been entirely driven by a 'local engineer' and their pet 'local contractor' on behalf of the developer?

Look at every graphic on every press release for this job. You sure don't see a City of Prince George logo.

So who's going to design a $28 million job in less than 2 months? Who's going to benefit from this tax-payer funded project? Keep your eye on that logo.

No benefits to Joe Taxpayer on this project.

This is a purely Private Venture funded by taxpayer money. With a measley $6 Million thrown in by Business to make it look legit.

In any event they are off and running again, and the road from and too nowhere will be completed sometime in 2011, after which industries from around town will start to move to this new industrial area, and close down in other areas. The **CHURNING** continues.

After construction etc; there will be no new jobs, only relocated ones.

This is what happens when you have a City with a huge tax base, small population, and no growth. They keep finding ways to spend our tax dollar rather than returning it to the rightful owners.

Schools closing, business's going broke and closing down, population declining, and the City continues to build for the coming boom.

What a bloody sham.

Just put your ear to the ground at the end of the runway Palopu. Just like being able to hear the coming train on a railway track, you can hear the slow rumble of the boom approaching.

Make sure you get up in time though lest the landing airbus will suck you up in the wingtip vortices.

When I put my ear to the ground I hear the rumble of footsteps as people stampede to leave this town for greener pastures in Northern BC, Northern Alberta, and Northern Saskatchewan.

3100 people on EI, and what do they do when that runs out. Wait for a Cargo Plane from China??? I think not.