Kelowna, CHBC News : Wednesday, September 21, 2011 8:20 PM
Many business owners along a busy commercial corridor in Vernon are
letting city officials know what they think of a plan to put their
street on a diet. “You are destroying the business community,” says Harald Kober, owner of Roko’s auto service. He
and other business owners are not happy with the city’s plan to turn
the four lanes along 43rd Avenue into three lanes, with the middle lane
becoming a dedicated left turn lane. They say the plan will limit traffic on the street, cutting into their bottom line. At a public information session Tuesday night, the business owners gave city staffers an earful. The plan is not set in stone. City staff must complete their report before it goes to council to vote
on.
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Road reduction rage Some Vernon business owners are angry with a city plan to reduce the number of lanes on their street.
Read it on Global News: Road reduction rage - Evening News - Videos | CHBC News
6 comments:
What is going on in Vernon and Coldstream? All these miniature size roads going in are going to be a joke when winter comes. The new grid road,20ave ,29th street and now 43rd are going to be a nightmare in the winter. This is not Europe,we see mainly large vehicles on our roads and there is barely any room for error on these streets. Turning out of a business on 29th street requires waiting for oncoming traffic in the opposite lane to go by because you have to go into the oncoming lane to make a turn. We need to get some qualified people in to manage our roads as the current bunch are doing a very poor job and have been for some time!We will see huge accidents once the snow flies and we have no room to put it anywhere or make the tiniest swerve to avoid other vehicles. We will have to expand these roads in the future at huge cost to the public...what a joke!
It's a small,small,small,small world. Pretty soon only smart cars will be able to navigate Vernon's roads!
this is the city's way of forcing everyone to "go green" and ride bikes around, thats the only thing that will fit in the lane.....
My wife and I call the Grid Road (College Way) the Luge Run. I certainly won't be driving it on those freeze-thaw days. The steep slope, northern face and narrow path will make for some interesting and unavoidable accidents.
So why do so many people, who believe they are acting in the interest of cyclists, want bike paths?
Probably one of the best articles on this subject, is John Foresters article "Objective and Psychological Explanations for Differences in Bicycle Programs of Different Nations". Mr. Forester explains a great deal about the mind set that causes some well meaning people to consider the grass greener on the other side of the pond, as well as aspects of history the lead to different road development.
Even the League of American Bicyclists does not generally support bike paths along roadways:
It is difficult, if not impossible, to design a safe-side path-style separated bicycle facility in most locations. The reason is because accidents occur at intersections; every driveway or side road is an intersection; and side paths enormously complicate those intersections in ways that impact safety...
These complex intersections demand that the bicyclist proceed very gingerly, at slow speed, watching for intersecting traffic from unconventional directions. This fact is counter-intuitive, and some riders attracted to separated facilities are unaware of it.
There are no rules on paths. As a consequence people get hurt. On the road, the rule of law and the "Rules of the Road" apply. (Not to mention the rule of gross tonnage). People behave themselves. Everyone is safer
http://www.gonecycling.com/gvcac
can someone please tell us why the road diet thinning project for 43rd ave is being pushed ahead when I find such statments written in surveys --
/vernon_cycling_survey_July_6_2010.pdf
Cyclists do not appear to view bike lanes on all streets as desirable for the Greater Vernon area, as this was by far their least favorite of the options presented
They also did not seem to favor bike lanes on main connector streets with a wide curb lane
shared with cars
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