CN, one of Canada's major rail companies, has found it necessary to start cracking down on people trespassing on their property due to safety concerns. This bothers me a fair bit, because there are railroad tracks running through areas close to where I live, and the streets dead end at the tracks often enough. Just crossing the tracks on foot is included in the list of things considered trespass. One of the people commenting mentioned that in some urban areas people bike or walk along the tracks because it's considered safer than the street, which is arguable because it's a lot harder to stop a train than a car, but at least there are fewer people honking at you and yelling at you as they nearly ram you with their cars. This does amount to a sort of discrimination by default, because tracks don't run through the more affluent neighbourhoods the way they do through poorer residential areas. Poor people are also more likely to bike or walk out of necessity than those more well off. This is one of the reasons I get upset when people complain about the cost of installing bike paths, sidewalks where there were none and better traffic signals to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. No one flinches when a new section of freeway is built, and that's undoubtedly much more expensive and counter-productive when it comes to improving traffic flow (more roads just mean more driving).
Monday, April 28, 2008
Bad Traffic Planning at Work: Following Rail Tracks When Biking or Walking
Cycling: To Do or Not To Do
Today I brought out my bike for the first time in probably two years. Not surprisingly, the air had all gone out of the tires since last time I'd ridden it, and part of the reason I haven't used it is because I don't have a bike tire pump, so I had to take it to a gas station to get air (apparently it's not exactly safe to do this since gas stations intend for car tires to use the air, not teeny bike tires, but I figured it was safe enough considering the tires were completely flat, thus little risk of over-inflation). I actually took my bike to the 7-Eleven yesterday, but they didn't have air, and I couldn't be bothered to walk to the next gas station just then. So today I determined to do it. The next gas station I went to didn't have air either, apparently because they had problems with vandalism. Finally I at the third station I managed to put enough air in the tires so that I could ride my bike without ruining the wheel rims.
Once on the bike I remembered why I don't like riding it much. The seat is too hard. If I started cycling regularly (gas is $1.27 per liter at some of the stations I went to), I'd definitely have to replace the seat or get some kind of seat cover with added cushion. I'd also have to get a bell for alerting pedestrians that I'm coming up behind them on shared paths. And, probably, a bike pump. I have another bike (which my husband is supposed to use, but never does, and thus it's pretty much mine), and it still has flat tires. I'm debating giving it away, but I keep thinking cycling will make more and more sense as gas keeps getting more expensive and more and more people give up their cars for bikes, public transit, walking, and also just buying smaller cars and motorized vehicles and becoming less lead-footed, making the streets safer.
My neighbour just bought a king-size SUV (on the cheap, as they tend to increasingly be, at least the used ones), and I can tell he thinks I'm totally bonkers for living in my small place and stuffing my two bikes in there too. Maybe he'll want to borrow my bike when he can't afford to fill his gas tank anymore. I don't say this in a mean, I told you so kind of way. I'd be happy to let him and his wife borrow the bikes any time they want, especially if they let me store them in their garage. Sole ownership is overrated anyway. I really wish my city had a public bicycle system so I could avoid all these headaches altogether.
*On a side note, the City did just announce some plans for improvements to the transit system including GPS for the buses and preferential traffic light switching for them when they're running late. And, as a bonus for regular people and a serious quality of life improvement for the blind, there will be an announcement system of stops on the buses. If you've ever stayed on a bus or the subway, etc. past your stop because you were reading or otherwise distracted, or just because you weren't familiar with the route, you can see the value in this.
