Who is Monitoring Highway 401 Collisions & Ensuring Repairs Done in Timely Fashion?
It is easy to get information on the effectiveness of high-tension cables barriers especially from those organizations who either sell them or use them on their highway systems. But what about information that demonstrates their in-service performance and whether the barriers are being repaired in a timely fashion? Silence.
Equally, it is possible to obtain information about the number of collisions occurring on Ontario’s Highway 401 if one has an infinite amount of timee to follow collision reporting provided across the whole Province of Ontario on its 511 system. But monitoring what is happening on specific problem areas such as the infamous “Carnage Alley” between London and Tilbury is virtually impossible because only the most minimal information is provided to the public.
A recent travel through Carnage Alley by Gorski Consulting in early April, 2022, revealed several locations where the cable barrier was damaged from unknown collisions, as shown in the photos below.
What kind of collisions resulted in this damage is unknown. And how long the damaged barriers have remained damaged is unknown.
A long-time proponent of concrete barrier installation on Highway 401 in her Chatham, Ontario area, Alysson Storey, recently noted in a response on Twitter that “I have found it much more difficult to track collisions in Carnage Alley the last 2-3 years. But even keeping a basic running list is better than nothing.”
It is not clear why this greater difficulty has come about. Are police and official news agencies being helpful in providing information about these collisions? How would anyone know? Are the newly installed cable barriers performing as expected? How would the public know when there is no information about the issue?
What we can say from our own observation is that certain collision repairs along Highway 401 are not being made in a timely fashion. For example, on December 3, 2021 we observed the damage to an ET-Plus guardrail terminal on the north side of the westbound lanes of Highway 401 just west of Highbury Ave in London, as shown in the photo below.
This terminal was not repaired until the afternoon of May 2, 2022, as shown in our photo below.
This delay of five months means that, anyone who might strike the terminal would be exposed to an unknown level of performance, most probably a degraded level of performance. But who would know of this delay unless someone was actually monitoring it?
So what about those damaged sections of cable barrier on Highway 401 in Carnage Alley? How long have they remained damaged after they were struck? In Alysson Storey’s experience the repairs should be performed much sooner (and she is right):
“I know in certain states there is a specific time frame (eg 2 weeks) that damaged cables must be repaired by. I don’t know if ON has the same standards, although I sincerely hope so. Once a cable is damaged, the entire segment is useless. So we’re back to square one.”
What may happen when a vehicle strikes a damaged cable barrier is unpredictable. It depends on the characteristics of the vehicle, its speed, the angle of approach, and so on. But clearly we should not be using the public as guinea pigs in such experiments.
E-Bike Rider Injury & Death: An Emerging Safety Problem of the Future
An e-bike rider with a death wish. In late April, 2022, this southbound rider on Highbury Ave crossed the busy intersection at Trafalgar Street in London on a red light and then continued at high speed along the east sidewalk toward the busy intersection at Hamilton Road. How prepared are we for such incidents?
News media have reported that shortly before 2320 hours on April 4th, 2022, the rider of an e-bike was struck by a hit-&-run motor vehicle in the area of Toro Road and Keele Street in Toronto, Ontario. The rider reportedly sustained life-threatening injuries. Understandably no information was provided about how the collision occurred because the investigation is in its early stages. However, as noted in almost all previous occasions, no information will ever be revealed including how the rider sustained his/her injuries.
Unfortunately this is the sign of the times and an indication of what is to come in the not too distant future. E-bikes or E-cycles are becoming more common. E-cyclists not only ride on city streets but also on sidewalks. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has made it illegal for cyclists to ride on sidewalks because of the dangers they say exist including the fact that cyclist speeds are substantially higher than the walking speeds of pedestrians. Yet observations by Gorski Consulting indicate that at least 50 percent of cyclists continue to ride on sidewalks, regardless of the law. This suggests that, despite what the Ministry is saying, cycling on the sidewalk may be safer for cyclists than sharing a lane with motor vehicle traffic. But there is likely to be an added complication to this discussion.
Observations by Gorski Consulting indicate that those who ride e-cycles travel at substantially higher speeds than the average cyclist using pedal power. E-cycles are also substantially heavier, especially if they are also carrying cargo. This combination of higher speed and higher mass means that travelling on the sidewalk, or roadside, will present new safety challenges that few appreciate. If motorists found it difficult to react to a pedal-powered cyclist on the sidewalk travelling at 10 km/h, the problem will be exacerbated when an e-cyclist’s speed is 25 or 30 km/h. That higher speed and mass will also come into effect if collisions should occur with pedestrians, particularly the elderly or children.
There is a large impetus for various jurisdictions in North America to increase cycling volumes, partially due to climate change issues. Cycling groups are also highlighting the benefits of cycling versus motor vehicles. But little is being done to recognize that the environment in which cyclists will be travelling is not compatible, and that cyclist collisions, as poorly documented as they already are, will become more prevalent and more severe in the not too distant future.
Not Enough Radicalization & Intolerance?
This image posted on our Twitter account was meant to warn cyclists of an important danger that would not be apparent to them. Instead many radicalized cyclists took it as blaming cyclists for causing their injury and death.
Recently Gorski Consulting attempted to convey an important safety message to cyclists with a short Twitt. This was based on the results of real-life collisions that were reconstructed by Gorski Consulting. What resulted was an angry response from many who decided the message was blaming cyclists for the existence of the safety problem.
This is just another example, of many, where the internet has created new armies of radical and intolerant beings who can no longer assess matters calmly and objectively. It represents a new development of our time where persons become indoctrinated within their village of fellow believers, unwilling and incapable of understanding an alternative viewpoint. These are psychological matters that need the intervention of specialists in human behavior who can explain what is taking place. Yet the word of specialists on many important issues, whether from the medical, engineering or general scientific communities has been suppressed by the general noise of the internet. It is just as easy for some village shaman to use seductive messaging that pleases what the crowd wants to hear rather than the dry logic of science that is often too complex for the average person to understand. This is an evolving development and its resolution is uncertain. But mass hysteria is a dangerous thing.
Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry – The Secrecy Continues?
Millions of dollars have already been spent by the participants of the Red Hill Valley Parkway Inquiry. Yet, after two years of further delay the City of Hamilton, which could be held responsible for the hiding of an engineering report, now wants to hide some documents and wants the decision to be made behind closed doors.
After two years of silence the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) Inquiry has recommenced with an attempt by the City of Hamilton to keep back certain documents. No one will know what those documents are because the decision to withhold will be made “in camera” or behind closed doors, as noted on the Commission’s website below:
“Update March 30, 2022
The City of Hamilton has delivered a notice of motion for directions. The motion asks the Commissioner to appoint a designate to determine whether or not certain documents are protected by a form of legal privilege and, therefore, the City need not produce them to the Inquiry. The City is also asking the Commissioner to direct the designate to hear the motion in camera and that any motion materials be filed with redactions to protect information that may be privileged.
If any members of the media or public wish to make submissions to the Commissioner about the motion for directions, please contact lead Commission Counsel Robert A. Centa at [email protected] no later than noon on April 6, 2022.”
How would anyone know whether to object to this proceeding without knowing something about what documents are to be held secret? How would anyone know whether to object if there is no information about who the “designate” will be? It can be noted that the City of Hamilton created the Commission in the first place and they placed limits/controls on how it would operate. Yet the City of Hamilton could be one of the entities held at fault for concealing engineering reports about the possible sub-standard conditions of the RHVP. By this time almost all Hamilton citizens will have gone off to “more interesting” topics of the day, guaranteeing that no public outcry would occur even if there is something nefarious occurring.
Cyclists Riding on Sidewalks In London Ontario
Cycling efficiency and safety require that we gather observations about the characteristics of cyclists and how they behave on our road system.
Why do so many cyclists chose to ride on a sidewalk rather than on the road where they are legally required? That is one of the questions we need to answer if we are to improve cycling efficiency and safety in the Province of Ontario.
Gorski Consulting has been gathering observations of cyclists in London, Ontario for many years. These observations are permanent since they were made with video or still photos. This allows for review of the observations to extract information that was not needed at the time of the documentation. As Ontario, Canada and other nations work toward increasing cycling as a mode of travel observations of cyclist characteristics and actions become vital to understanding how to accomplish these increases in cycling volume while also improving efficiency and safety.
In recent years London Ontario, like many Canadian cities, has been building various cycling facilities. Data from several in-street sensors also suggest that cycling volumes are rising. At face value these developments appear to be good news. Yet the vast percentage of roads in London still remain geared for automotive travel. This means that the increased numbers of cyclists are riding on roadways not built to accommodate cyclists. This leads to the likelihood that increased cyclist injuries and deaths can be expected in the future.
London and Ontario have never provided a detailed and public accounting of the number of cyclist collisions that occur in their jurisdictions. One reason for this is that revealing these numbers could place responsibility on these entities for those incidents where the infrastructure has been substandard. It cannot be ignored that both London and Ontario are the defendants in many civil suits and thus they have a reason to hide safety-related problems if those problems become the source of those civil suits. Yet, if these entities cannot be relied upon to detect and correct safety problems, who is left to do that essential work?
At no cost to the taxpayer, Gorski Consulting has been providing data to the public about a variety of road safety issues, including cycling safety, for many years. As we have no interest in the outcome of civil suits we are able to provide an independent and reliable assessment of what is occurring on our roads.
While Gorski Consulting cannot provide any information about cyclist collisions, we are able to provide a detailed study of the characteristics and actions of cyclists on London’s streets. This can help to unravel what causes may be involved in those cyclist collisions.
The table below is an example of two factors that are being tracked in our cyclist observations: cyclist gender and cyclist riding location. For a number years we have been noticing the small number of female cyclists that exist an London’s roads or adjacent to them. Similarly we have also observed that a large number of cyclists use the sidewalks of roadways rather than riding on the right edge of a lane shared with motor vehicles. The table below summarizes the status of these two factors over a nine-year period commencing in 2013.
Looking in the first column of the table we see the data referring to the years 2013 and 2021. It can be seen that there were a total of 1574 observations of male cyclists and only 277 observations of females, resulting in a total of 1851 observations.
Next we note how many cyclists were observed to be travelling on the sidewalk rather than on the road. There were 761 males and 160 females observed on the sidewalk. A limitation in this analysis is that there was no distinction made between cyclists who were walking their cycle versus riding on it, although the vast majority of cyclists were riding. Also cyclists who were observed within a pedestrian crossing were also coded as riding on the sidewalk regardless of whether they were walking or riding. We may update the analysis on some future date to distinguish between walking and riding cyclists.
Next we have a row of the table labelled “% Female”. This is the percentage of all observed cyclists who were judged to be female, over the total number of observed cyclists, so 160/1851 = 14.96 %. All the data in the table excludes cyclists whose gender could not be identified. There were 130 cyclists in the years 2013 through 2021 whose gender could not be identified.
Next we have percentages for the males and females observed on the sidewalk. As an example the number of observed males on the sidewalk, 761 was divided by the total number of male cyclists, or 761/1574 = 48.35 %. The same method revealed that 57.76% of females were observed on the sidewalk.
It was noted that a larger than normal number of observations were made in the year 2021 (564) compared to the nine-year total of 1851. In 2021 there also appeared to be a higher number of cyclists observed riding on sidewalks. Thus we made a column of data for the years 2013 through 2020 and a separate column for the year 2021, to show the differences. It is not clear whether the differences are genuine however it appears that the percentage of males (64.89) and females (64.94) riding on a sidewalk were higher in 2021 than the previous eight years where the males percentage was only 40.94 % and the female was 55.00 %. Differences could exist in the way that we made our observations in the earlier years such that we may not have focused as much on cyclists existing off the road surface. Never-the-less the difference is intriguing. We cannot see an obvious reason why cyclists should be using the sidewalk more often but this may be resolved with further studies.
We also created a separate column for data from the first quarter of the year 2022. Since there were only 83 observations made in this period the calculated values have likely been affected by small cell volumes. For example only 10 female cyclists were observed and 9 of them were observed on the sidewalk leading to a calculated percentage of females on the sidewalk of 90%. Clearly this value does not appear to be accurate. But we will see what develops once further data is obtained for the year 2022.
Discussion
Cyclist observation data collected by Gorski Consulting between the years 2013 and 2021 indicates that approximately 50 percent of cyclists ride on sidewalks adjacent to the streets of London, Ontario. On higher hazard roads this percentage rises dramatically. For example, from observations obtained between 2018 and 2021, along the busy, 4-lane, segment of Dundas Street between Highbury Ave and Clarke Road the percentage of sidewalk riders was noted to be 82.6 percent.
This is a view of a male cyclist riding westbound on the north sidewalk of Dundas Street near Burbick Place in December of 2021. Far more cyclists ride on the sidewalk than on the road along this busy, 4-lane segment of Dundas Street in east London.
It is peculiar that the City of London’s by-law prohibits cyclists from riding on a sidewalk unless the rider is under the age of 14. Presumably this is because it is deemed safer for children to ride on the sidewalk. Yet arguments presented by Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in various publications emphasize the dangers of riding on the sidewalk. For example, in Ontario’s Book 18 of the Traffic Manual the following dangers of riding on sidewalks are noted.
“Myth #1: Cycling on Sidewalks is Desirable
Cycling should almost never be mixed with pedestrian traffic on sidewalks. The only exception is for children (typically under the age of 11) who may lack the necessary skills and cognitive abilities to operate a bike on a roadway with motor vehicle traffic. Cycling on a sidewalk is strongly discouraged because of the mobility constraints and varying abilities of pedestrians and cyclists. Cyclists travel at much higher speeds than pedestrians, yet they cannot change their direction or speed as quickly as a pedestrian can. There are also numerous fixed objects on or adjacent to a sidewalk around which cyclists must navigate. These include parking meters, utility poles, sign posts, transit shelters, benches, trees, fire hydrants and mail boxes. In general, cyclists should have access to dedicated or bicycle-friendly facilities. Other conflicts that cyclists encounter while riding on a sidewalk include pedestrians alighting from buses, exiting stores and emerging from parked cars. Such situations do not allow enough time for cyclists to avoid a collision. Pedestrians, on the other hand, can find it difficult to predict the intended direction of an oncoming or overtaking cyclist. When cyclists use sidewalks to travel in the opposite direction to the adjacent motor vehicle flow, conflicts occur more frequently at driveways or intersecting streets. This is because drivers who exit these areas are not looking for cyclists, who travel at higher speeds than pedestrians. The risks to cyclists are similar to those for raised cycle tracks, in-boulevard facilities and separated bike lanes described in section 5.4.1.2. However, they are amplified since the lack of a formal cycling facility and associated signing makes drivers less likely to expect cyclists to be crossing. Finally, sidewalks are typically 1.5 metres wide which is the minimum width of an on-street bicycle lane. Thus, any manoeuvring by the cyclist to avoid pedestrians, fixed objects or oncoming cyclists would require them to either stop or leave the sidewalk. In residential areas, it is common for children to ride their bicycles on sidewalks. This type of cycling is appropriate, however these sidewalks should not be signed as bicycle paths or routes.
By-laws in London Ontario require that cyclists cannot ride on sidewalks. An exemption applies for children under the age of 14.
If cycling on the sidewalk is so truly dangerous why does the Ministry of Transportation and many municipalities allow children to ride on sidewalks? Do children’s cognitive skills really become better than adults when it comes to dealing with the dangers of riding on sidewalks? Or is it that riding on the road is more dangerous than officials wish to admit.
Many cyclists can appreciate when their travel on a sidewalk could pose a safety issue to pedestrians. While discounting may be an option many cyclists can simply slow down or steer off a sidewalk briefly, at low speed, without causing any danger to a vulnerable pedestrian. It is not that cyclists are a danger on the sidewalk but that inappropriate and inconsiderate actions by some cyclists sometimes occur when better judgment is possible.
Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation and Ontario’s municipalities downplay the hazards of cyclist travel on roadways. The two photos below show an example of a typical hazard. As shown in the first photo a cycling lane comes to an end on Hale Street just south of Brydges Street in London, Ontario. The southbound cyclist must now approach a parked vehicle with no alternative but to steer left, further into the southbound lane.
Situations such as the one shown in this example are common in London Ontario where cycling lanes suddenly end and a cyclist is left to travel along a roadway which may not be designed to accommodate cyclists. Here a cyclist needs to veer out into the southbound lane to pass a parked van.
In this situation Hale Street is wider than normal, so the danger is not as great, but that is not the case along many roads in London. Veering out to pass a parked vehicle, or to avoid surface deficiencies, means that the cyclist is vulnerable to being struck by a passing motorists.
In other instances not all cycles are of the same width, especially when the cyclist is carrying cargo, as shown in the example below. Veering further into a traffic lane means that a potential is created whereby an unsuspecting motorist must steer away from the cyclist when that opportunity does not always exist.
There are many examples, such as the one shown here, where cyclists carrying cargo may be safer riding on a sidewalk rather than being exposed to being sideswiped by a passing vehicle.
There are other examples of the lack of practical understanding of how cyclists ride that results in the creation of cycling infrastructure that attempts to force riders to perform according to official dictates. In the example below the City of London created a one-way cycling track on Dundas Street in east London presumably in the belief that cyclists would follow the dictates of the signage and only travel in the direction indicated by that signage. The result, as shown in the two photos below is that cyclists just ride the “wrong” way in accordance to the way cyclists have always travelled despite what the signs say.
Here a westbound cyclist is using the south sidewalk to travel along Dundas Street near English Street in east London. A new cycling track can be seen next to the roadway but the cyclist ignores that presumably because it is signed so that cyclists can only travel eastbound, not westbound on the track.
As shown here the westbound cyclist eventually travels onto the cycling track travelling the wrong way. This is not a problem with the actions of the cyclist but a problem with the official understanding of planners of such facilities who believe they can force cyclists to act in a different manner from how they naturally behave.
Those who design cycling infrastructure must understand how cyclists behave, naturally, in the roadway environment rather than dictating that their behaviours must change. Unreasonable theoretical dictates mean that there will be conflicts and a constant need for costly enforcement to subdue cyclists to confirm with those dictates. Many of these problems can be reduced by observing how cyclists behave in their natural state. Detailed documentations using video and still photos are objective ways of providing data of cyclist characteristics and motions. Gorski Consulting continues to provide this vital behavioral data.
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