Cycling Abandonment? So Now What?

by | Dec 30, 2024 | News

This view from December 3, 2024 shows the cycling lane on Brydges/Wavell Street in East London Ontario just after almost a half metre of snow fell in the previous 24 hours. The motor vehicle traffic lane has been completely cleared of snow but the cycling lane has been left untouched and impassable.

The City of London Ontario made a declaration of a climate emergency a few years ago. This was supposed to be a wake up call. Our habits needed to change and this included the way we travel. This was good political posturing that stumbled in its application. A need to increase the cycling mode of transportation from 1% to 25% was advised by one of the City’s advisory committees. This was later downgraded to about 5% by City politicians. Never-the-less a 500% increase in the cycling population was an ambitious goal. Some increases in cycling were noted over the last several years but nothing compared to the City’s goal.

Where the City’s ambitions “failed” can be seen in the example of the cycling lane recently created on Brydges/Wavell Streets in east London. In the following we present a history of the site’s collisions, how the cycling lane became created and what special safety problems still exist for cyclists and drivers of motor vehicles. Cyclists need to know that some portions of protected cycling lanes are not protective and this is demonstrated in this review.

Historical Review of Brydges/Wavell Site

The Googlemaps graphic below shows the site of the Brydges/Wavell roadway with respect to the boundaries of the City of London. As a collector road it runs parallel to the main arterial roadway of Dundas Street which is located about 800 metres to the north. A parallel, arterial road, Trafalgar Road, is also a similar distance to the south. We cannot read the minds of the City staff or politicians who recommended this cycling installation, as much of these decisions are cloaked in secrecy. However it may have been reasoned that this new installation would take cyclists away from these busy roads where no cycling infrastructure exists.

The orange circle shows the location of the Brydges/Wavell site with respect to the boundaries of the City of London, Ontario.

An aerial, Googlemaps view of the western portion of the Brydges/Wavell site is shown below.

Googlemaps view of Brygdes and Wavell Streets in East London, Ontario. Hale Street is located at the bottom left. Note the two curves that exist through the road segment, along with elementary schools, Kiwanis Park and Pottersburg Creek.

Collisions had a history of occurring at the two curves of the site. To the west there was a curve at Cornish Street and to the east there was a second curve at Spruce Street. This should not have been surprising since someone with collision reconstruction experience would know that there is a greater likelihood of a single-vehicle exit from a roadway wherever there is such a curve.

Many collisions occurred when eastbound vehicles on Brydges Street approached the curve at Cornish and failed to pass through the curve, crashing into roadside obstacles on the south side of the curve. An example of this is shown in the following photos below.

In this example, an eastbound SUV went out of control at the curve of Brydges St at Cornish Street in December, 2020. A couple of trees was toppled along with a fence. Also a major Bell Canada telephone exchange box was completely destroyed requiring many days of repair.
View of the telephone junction box that was destroyed and one of the trees that was uprooted by the collision on December 17, 2020.
View on the following day, December 18, 2020, showing tire marks on the grass roadside where the vehicle exited Brydges Street. Numerous Bell Canada vehicles were observed at the site for many weeks as their large junction box had to be replaced.
View looking back westward showing the tire marks and the curve of Brydges Street at Cornish Street.

The existence of the curve at Cornish is not the only issue. The City of London has demonstrated that its lack of attention to maintenance has exacerbated the problem. For example, when a utility pole was struck down on approach to the curve by an eastbound vehicle the City failed to detect that a “curve warning” sign, which was originally attached to the pole, was not reattached. While such signs are not monumental in collision prevention they are helpful to drivers who pay attention that they are approaching a curve. This is another example of the lack of accountability by the City of safety hazards that they create.

A precarious situation also existed for many years at the curve of Brydges/Wavell and Spruce Street. Road surface repairs were partially completed at the curve in 2013 leaving a patch of bumpy pavement. This was more important because, as vehicles passed through the curve they required a pavement with consistent traction so that it would not contribute to a loss of control of the vehicle. Furthermore signage, required to warn drivers of the surface condition, was not installed for many months.

View, looking west along Brydges/Wavell at the curve at Spruce Street on January 31,2014. A crossing guard is positioned on the edge of the curve where students are escorted across the road. When a westbound vehicle loses control it will drift off the road surface and into where the crossing guard is standing.
View, looking west at the curve at Spruce Street. A road repair was performed in 2013 but the surface work was not completed leaving a bumpy surface precisely at the location where westbound vehicles needed consistent traction in order to pass through the curve safely. No “Bump” warning sign was posted for many months while the condition existed.

Oblivious to the potential danger, school crossing guards often positioned themselves at the outside of the curve, sometimes sitting in a lawn chair, as shown in the example below.

This view from November 25, 2013 shows a school crossing guard sitting on a lawn chair on the outside edge of the curve at Spruce Street. If a vehicle happened to go out of control it would likely exit toward where the crossing guard is sitting and the crossing guard would have a limited opportunity to react to escape being struck.

Subsequent to the photo shown above, two days later, on November 27, 2013, a vehicle went out of control on the curve. It struck a sand box only a few feet from where the school crossing guard was positioned. A sign post was also struck and damaged as shown in the two photos below.

This photo, taken on November 27, 2013, shows the damaged sandbox that was struck by an out-of-control vehicle at the curve of Brydges/Wavell at Spruce Street. It was fortunate that a school crossing guard was not struck, nor any students.
This view taken on November 27, 2013 shows a sign post that was knocked over just west of the curve of Brydges at Spruce Street.

It is unknown whether city officials were paying attention to these collisions. However Speed Display Boards (SDBs) were installed on the road segment in the spring of 2011 and also in the spring of 2020. The photo below shows the SDB installed in April of 2020.

This is a view looking east along Brydges Street toward the bridge at Pottersburg Creek on April 18, 2020. The City of London installed a Speed Display Board that can be seen in the upper right of this view. This condition existed before major construction of the cycling lane was commenced in the fall of 2021,

It is not clear whether City officials gained any guidance from the SDB data. However, in September of 2021 Brydges/Wavell began to see construction taking place as a new cycling lane was being installed.

A disaster was averted early in the construction process when work crews removed the centre-line marking of Brydges east of Hale Street, as shown in the photo below from September 12, 2021. While the new centre-line was painted the old centre-line was not completely removed so many drivers attempted to follow the guidance of the original centre-line, thus placing their vehicles on the wrong side of the road.

View, looking west along Brydges Street toward Hale Street in the background. Road construction crews painted a new centre-line while not fully removing the visibility of the old one. Many drivers became confused and continued to drive next to the old centre-line and thus put themselves travelling on the wrong side of the road.
In this example we see one of many westbound vehicles whose drivers believed they were travelling on the correct side of the road because the old centre-line on Brydges Street was not completely removed from their view. Fortunately Gorski Consulting observed what was happening and contacted police so corrections could be made before a collision occurred.

The construction of the new cycling lane was done piecemeal. Some segments were completed while other portions of Brydges/Wavell remained untouched. The progress of the construction can be seen from the several photos shown below, taken April 3, 2022.

This view of Wavell Street was taken on April 3, 2022. It is looking westward from just west of the intersection with Clarke Road. As can be seen, no evidence of any cycling lane is visible. Portions of the new cycling lane are located well to the west of this location.
This view , from April 3, 2022, is along Wavell Street near the intersection of Merlin Crescent. As can be seen many of the previously-existing road markings have been removed yet their shadows are still visible. Since there are no other markings on the road drivers had to think wisely as to how and where they should travel. The beginning of the new cycling lane can be seen in the background.
This view of Wavell Street is looking westward on April 3, 2022. It is just east of Winnipeg Boulevard. As can be seen the new cycling lane exists on both sides of Wavell however there is a termination of the curb blocks which define it as a protected lane. In the background the white painted lines suggest that the curb blocks will likely continue sometime in the future. The curve at Spruce Street is in the distant background but not yet visible.
This is a westward view, on April 3, 2022, along Brydges/Wavell Street at its intersection with Spruce Street. Note there is no evidence of a new cycling lane but the roadway markings have been removed. A driver would have to pay close attention to their lateral position within the curve because of this lack of markings. Yet the shadows of those markings still exist. Not all drivers would interpret these markings in the same way leading to potential dangers.
This is a westward view along Brydges Street looking toward the curve at Cornish Street. This photo was taken on April 3, 2022. Again, there is no evidence of the new cycling lane yet the roadway markings have been removed.
This view, taken on April 3, 2022, is looking westward along Brydges Street from the curve at the intersection of Cornish Street. The intersection with Hale Street is in the background. There is no evidence of the new cycling lane however the north curb and sidewalk have been moved to the north thus providing the additional width to the road for the future cycling lane.

Protected Cycling Lane Corrections At Cornish Curve

By August of 2022 the cycling lane along Brydges/Wavell Streets was substantially developed. At the Cornish Street curve curb blocks were installed on both sides of the curve. However there was evidence that the curb blocks were being struck, as shown in the following photo.

In this photo taken on August 5, 2022 the new curb blocks have been installed along the north side of the westbound lane of Brydges. However one of the blocks is out of alignment and this indicates that it was struck by a westbound vehicle. This is not surprising as the lane was narrowed to create the cycling lane and drivers were having difficulty adjusting to the narrowed lane at the precise location where the lane contained a curve.

The next photo, taken on August 11, 2022 shows a view looking eastward at the Cornish curve and the newly installed curb blocks are seen on both sides of Brydges Street.

This view, taken on August 11, 2022, shows an eastward view at the Cornish Street curve where the curb blocks have been newly installed. Note how the blocks are well into the curve. Later these curb blocks were removed by the City of London.

Evidence that the curb blocks were being struck by passing vehicles can be seen in the next photo where several of the curb blocks at the curve were removed and placed along the north curb. It is believed that this was because the blocks were being struck in the narrowed lane where drivers were having difficulty staying within the lane at the curve.

In this view taken on August 22, 2022, the curb blocks on the north side of the westbound lane have been removed from their original position along the edge of the cycling lane and are now positioned along the north curb.

Removal of the curb blocks also occurred on the south side of Brydges Street, as shown in the photos below.

In this photo taken on August 29, 2022 it can be seen that the curb blocks that were originally placed on the south side of Brydges close to intersection with Cornish Street have now been removed.
In this view taken on August 29, 2022 it can be seen that the curb blocks that were originally placed closer to the intersection with Cornish Street have now been removed.

Subsequently, by March, 2024 the curb blocks on the south side of Brydges were reduced further as shown in the photo below.

This photo taken on March 8, 2024 shows that the curb blocks on the south side of Brydges Street were removed even further away from the Cornish Street intersection. Thus eastbound vehicles travelling around the curve at Cornish Street could wander into the eastbound cycling lane without any protection to cyclists.

The removal of the curb blocks at the Cornish Street curve are a demonstration of the difficulties that drivers experienced in keeping their vehicles within the confines of the lane while travelling around the curve. While removal of the curb blocks prevented them being struck it did not solve the problem, and danger, that continued to exist at the curve. Cyclists believed they were safe while travelling in this “protected” lane but it was not explained to them that motor vehicles travelling around the curve were in jeopardy of travelling outside of their lane and possibly into the cycling lane at the precise location where the curb blocks were removed. Thus the cycling lane became unprotected precisely where that protection was needed the most. This is not a situation that is unique to this roadway and curve but it exists, in differing ways, wherever there is a horizontal curve along with a cycling lane. However this issue has not been publicly discussed.

Not all protected cycling lanes are the same nor do they provide an equal level of protection for cyclists. While the curb blocks existing along the cycling lane of Brydges/Wavell Streets provide some protection it is only limited. A motor vehicle travelling around a curve like the one at Cornish Street will not be redirected by the curb block in any large degree because those blocks are too low and of minimal mass. There are different protections provided in other jurisdictions such as the example shown in the next photo taken on Lakeshore Boulevard near the western edge of Toronto, Ontario.

This view, taken in August of 2019, is of a bi-directional cycling lane along the south side of Lakeshore Boulevard near the western edge of Toronto, Ontario. The much larger and taller concrete barrier shown here is capable of redirecting many smaller motor vehicles and even larger trucks and buses especially when those vehicles are travelling along a straight roadway where the angle of contact is small.
This view from December 23, 2023 shows that, when gaps are left between the curb blocks in a cycling lane delivery vehicles will use them for parking, This location of Wavell Street is just West of Edmonton Street.

Cycle Counts – City of London Data

The City of London has installed a number of cycle counters primarily within cycling lanes. An example of such a counter is shown below.

An example of a bicycle counter imbedded in the pavement of the cycling lane of Cheapside Street just east of Highbury Ave in London

Data from some of these counters is displayed on the City of London website. Data for the year 2024 for the Brydges-Wavell site is shown below with a comparison to six other counter sites.

As shown above the “Wavell” site has counted the lowest number of cyclists. The word “combined” is not explained on the City’s website although it has been observed that two cycle counters have previously existed on the Brydges-Wavell site while the graphic on the website only shows a single counter. Never-the-less the general consensus is that the Brydges-Wavell site contains relatively low usage by cyclists. City data indicates that motor vehicle traffic volume along Brydges-Wavell Streets in approximately 10,000 vehicles per day, or 3.65 million vehicles per year. If the Brydges-Wavell site contains 27,732 cycle observations per year then the percentage of cyclists versus motor vehicles would be about 0.76%. This percentage is below the officially reported numbers for the cyclist mode of transportation in London which is about 1.0%. While this difference would not appear to be significant it is. Typically cyclist volumes are higher on roadways containing a cycling lane than roadways where no cycling lanes exist. So we should expect a cycling usage which is higher than average at the Brydges-Wavell site, not lower.

Summary

In the latest Mobility Master Plan the City of London claims that the current transportation modes of walking, cycling and mass transit are about 23%. It boasts that it will increase these modes of transportation to about 32% in about 25 years, as shown in the graphic taken from the Plan.

The City has not provided any breakdown for the “current time” with respect to walking, cycling and mass transit. Nor has it provided any explanation for how any of the reported summaries were determined. While the City has created a number of cycling facilities it has not explained how it will increase the cycling mode along cycling lanes such as Brydges-Wavell. Presumably the Hollywood belief of “if you built it they will come” is closest to any scientific approach that exists.

Meanwhile Ontario’s Ford government has taken a hatchet to the cycling mode by forcing the removal of certain cycling lanes along major arterial roadways in Toronto. Ford claims that these cycling lanes are responsible for the traffic congestion in Toronto. Ford has also introduced legislation that will take decision-making away from municipalities as to when/where cycling lanes will be built to replace lanes used by motor vehicle traffic. He demonstrates that removal of cycling lanes will cause potential risks to cyclist safety and therefore he has also introduced legislation to prevent cyclists and their families from suing the Provincial government where the courts might determine that the Province was negligent in removing those cycling lanes.

These threats are particularly important to sites such as Hamilton Road in London where city staff and local politicians have shared the belief that motor vehicle traffic lanes should be removed from this arterial roadway to install cycling lanes. If the Province vetoes the local decision to install cycling lanes the plans for improving cyclist safety on Hamilton Road will become stagnant as no other options have been publicly aired.

The abandonment of cycling as a realistic alternative was exemplified in London, Ontario on December 3, 2024 when a large snowfall caused various plowing implements to hit the roadways to clear them. In the midst of this clearing a sidewalk plow was observed on Brydges-Wavell Street, as shown in the photo below. The sidewalk plow had been busy plowing the sidewalks of various side streets. As shown in the photo the sidewalk plow was then observed travelling westbound in the “cleared” westbound traffic lane of Wavell Street. Yet the cycling lane next to it was fully loaded with snow – not a single passage was made by a plow along the cycling lane to clear it for cyclist use.

This photo, taken on December 3, 2024, shows a sidewalk snowplow travelling west in the cleared travel lane of Wavell Street while the cycling lane to the right is filled with snow. There is official propaganda about what is being done to promote cycling and then there is the observable reality seen in this photo.

The “chicken versus egg” argument is reiterated: “Well we don’t plow the cycling lane because no one uses it” and the cyclist alternative: “We will never use the cycling lane because you never plow it”.

The observable reality is demonstrated at the Brydges-Wavell site. This article has demonstrated that, over the years, many safety problems on this roadway have been misunderstood or simply ignored. Insufficient or poor maintenance has been at the top of the list and unaccountability for certain dangerous road construction practices has endangered the public. Yet certain design dangers have also never been revealed to the public. No individual or organization with any official standing has ever explained the special dangers that exist whenever a cycling lane exists next to a lane for motor vehicle travel and that roadway contains a curve. As seen at the Brydges-Wavell site the “protected” cycling lane has been altered at its curves so that the protection has been removed. And this removal exists precisely where cyclists need the protection the most. While the dangers at the Brydges-Wavell site are not monumental they represent what exists, realistically, along many roadways in London and the Province of Ontario. Not all protected cycling lanes are the same, and they do not provide protection along all lengths of a road segment. Cyclists are not informed of this. Cyclists continue to believe there is no difference in their protection because there is no information to inform them otherwise. And official agencies that ought to be informing cyclists about matters important to their safety simply do not do so because they have no obligation to do so.