Cycling experience around Southern Vancouver Island

On Monday Morning June 29, 2020 while riding south on the Lochside trail I was attacked by a bollard installed by the Capital Regional District (CRD) ) negligently signed with the CRD recommended warning signs. Worse the signage there misinformed one of the bollard location. The bollards are according to their guidelines are to be painted a bright colour for daytime visibility. The reflective grey colour is not even close to a bright colour and seems perfectly chosen to blend into the grey of mature dry asphalt. The yellow diamond they have painted 3 m ahead of the bollard is supposed to be painted around the bollard. For a person with slightly impaired vision riding low as in the height of a small child the bollard as painted dissolves into not there. Had the paint diamond been where it was supposed to be rather than misinforming me of the location of the bollard I would have not collided with the bollard and bent a heat treated aluminum frame. Cost to repair a physically disabled senior citizens prime mode of transportation $5000. because the CRD wished to save a few dollars of paint cost.
While discussing the use of bollards on regional trails in the CRD I was told they are there to stop 4X4 from driving on the trails. I examined almost all the bollard locations on the Lochside trail. Most can be driven around by a car - definitely not a challenge for a 4x4 I have never heard of 4x4's are cars racing up and down the trail. If the pusios.carpose of the bollards was to block cars then why are bollards not installed along all cycling lanes. While the CRD staff refuses to admit it - they only purpose I can see for the bollards is to injure and main cyclists and their bikes
Seems the CRD does not feel it is their responsibility to apply signage as the their Board of Directors specified in a motion not is it important to follow their one guidelines re signage. Yes the bike is still rideable but the Attack bollards at Saanich Rd/Lochside trail he integrity of a heat treated aluminum frame is impaired and can't be safely repaired note the missing no parking signs which help identify a post in the middle of the trail and misplaced diamonds the paint is in the location of previous posts from Capital Regional District Pedestrian aIf this was the only damage the incorrectly signed and placed Capital Regional District (CRD) in Victoria BC did to my bike it would have been "only" a $500 bill to fix as it is it also twisted the frame a bit and requires a new frame too. The Greater Victoria area likes to portray they are a cycling mecca for the world but with steel bollards in the middle of their cycling trails that serve no purpose but to obstruct cyclists they can not claim the honour. supposedly the bollards are to stop a non existent problem of vehicles driving on the trails but if that were the case why are there no bollards installed along cycle lanes to protect cyclist from cars?nd Cycling Master Plan Design Guidelines (no date + 2010?)
Capital Regional District Pedestrian and Cycling Master Plan Design Guidelines page 99
Posts should be permanently reflectorized for night time visibility and painted a bright color for improved daytime visibility.
Striping an envelope around the post is recommended.
When more than one post is used, an odd number of posts at 1.5 m spacing is desirable. Wider spacing can allow entry by adult tricycles, wheelchair users and bicycles with trailers.

Saoirse

Jennifer Herring is a second year masters of planning student in Calgary. Jennifer has been cycling for about 5 years, year round in Calgary. She has noted that for the last 5 years women are more keen to cycle at least in Calgary because of the implementation of safe infrastructure. In her opinion there are a couple of barriesios.cars for why women do not cycle as much as men. One is a cultural one. In North America cycling is typically viewed as a sport and one that is undertaken by men. Because of this infrastructure is not necessarily implemented in way for people of all ages and gender to access it.
The second part is women are typically more concerned about safety, particularly when they are thinking about having families and the logistics of arriving at work or their destination in a presentable manner.
Cycling infrastructure in Europe being primarily built for pedestrians whereas North America was built for carriages and eventually for cars. Here we typically design transportation for cars and in Europe there is more space and adaptability for other modes of transport.

If this was the only damage the incorrectly signed and placed Capital Regional District (CRD) in Victoria BC did to my bike it would have been "only" a $500 bill to fix as it is it also twisted the frame a bit and requires a new frame too. The Greater Victoria area likes to portray they are a cycling mecca for the world but with steel bollards in the middle of their cycling trails that serve no purpose but to obstruct cyclists they can not claim the honour. supposedly the bollards are to stop a non existent problem of vehicles driving on the trails but if that were the case why are there no bollards installed along cycle lanes to protect cyclist from cars?

Saoirse

Dr Kay Teschke Professor Emeritus UBC School of Population and Public Health. Kay Teschke's 252 research works with 6,996 citations and 10,295 reads, including: Who is in the near market for bicycle sharing. A number of her papers are on the UBC School of Population and Public Health web site http://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca . This interview’s topic is A Woman’s Perspective on Cycling in BC.
About 25% of cyclist that commute to work in BC are women. This is significantly fewer than the number commuting by other modes of Transportation in Canada, which is approximately 50% or in many other especially some European Countries. In European countries like Netherlands, Germany and Denmark the percentage of women cycling to work is about 50/50 compared to men.
A survey of over 1400 cyclists clearly showed the reason. For both men and women safety cycling is the dominate concern that kept people from riding. Specific concerns included: do the drivers know how to drive near cyclist, motor vehicle speed, worried about being hit. Women worried about their safety more than men. These concerns also showed up in the kind of route women were willing to ride. Women are much more likely to ride where they will be away from motor vehicles.
Men and women tend to rate the desirability of routes in the same order, although men were more willing to ride on the less safe routes than women. People with children tended to rate routes the same as women did. Things that affect woman’s decision on where to ride also affect families. Parents are much more concerned about safety when cycling than single people. Women and families parallel each other and if we want to encourage children so they will cycle more we need to make women comfortable cycling
Cyclists taking the lane is riskier than some may suspect. A study in the US of 600 cycling deaths found 40% of them were cyclists getting hit from behind and almost all of the deaths occurred in daylight. Were the auto traffic is faster and higher volume her studies show it is less safe. If you mix people cycling with parked cars, moving cars or near many fast moving cars cyclists are more at risk compared to on a quite street or on a separated bike lane.
Separated bike lanes with physical barriers makes cycling safer and is a strong cycling motivator for both men and women. Other motivators for cycling, especially for women is residential bike routes, especially if their is some form of traffic divert-er coming from the main busy street.
One cycle route all cyclists prefer, in particular women is bike paths.
Rail trails are among the best bike paths, often better scenery and also better grades. Highways can be 8% or more for cycle routes a maximum of 5% is recommended, in Holland 3 % is used and old mainline railroads used a maximum of 2%. When paths like the Arbutus-Greenway in Vancouver people flocked to it. In neighbourhoods that a closest to the great quality route types cycling infrastructure often 20% of the trips are by bike. If you build quality route types you get considerably more trips by cycles. In these neighbourhoods women are more likely to ride with closer to a 50/50 split between male and female cyclists.
Some say women are the “indicator species” for cycling. If you have 50% of bike trips by women then you are building it right.
If you enjoy cycling, think it is a lot of fun then put pressure on your municipal. Provincial and federal politicians to support cycling.

Saoirse

One of the best places to go for a ride is in British Columbia with its mix of country/quiet roads and scenery. For the energetic they can have all the hills they want for a good workout. This ride in totally was bit less than 300 k and nearly 3000 k in elevation. For most of the trip traffic was not a concern.
The bike or more accurately “trike” is along cycle lanes to protect cyclist from cars? a recumbent trike from Catrike -Expedition model. For both this trip and a 1500 k trip a month ago the bike performed well and has not let me down. Because of the hills in BC IO have made a modification to the trike, I added a drag brake for the rear wheel. This extra brake gets lots of use especially when descending a long winding steep hill such as one finds entering Port Renfrew.
The trip started in at Fresh Cup Coffee in Saanichton, connected with the Galloping Goose regional trail at the TransCanada Highway from there mostly on the trail until near Sooke, from there on the roads to the first nights stop at the China Beach campsite past Jordan River for the first night. From there onto Port Renfrew and over night at the Fairy Lake Campsite.
The next morning the weather began to change so I pushed on to Lake Cowichan and the Lake Cowichan Trail to Duncan. After Duncan I “took on” the main Island Highway for a run to catch the Mill Bay Ferry and on to home. More details of the trip when the next videos are edited (takes more time and effort to edit the video than do the ride).

Saoirse

Late summer ride (Sept 2019) from Saanichton to China Beach Juan de Fuca South Vancouver Island on a recumbent trike (Catrike Expedition)

Saoirse

Late Summer ride (Sept 2019) from China Creek, Juan de Fuca to Fairy Lake near Port Renfrew on South Vancouver Island on a recumbent trike ( Catrike Expedition)

Saoirse

Late Summer ride (Sept 2019) from Fairy Lake near Port Renfrew to Mill Bay on South Vancouver Island on a recumbent trike (Catrike Expedition) Waking that morning the weather felt like it was startling to turn so a quick ride home

Saoirse

Coffee Break while out for a ride on the Saanich Peninsula on my Catrike and my coffee shop anywhere. This "popup" coffee shop is in the Straits View picnic site using a Biolite stove to heat the water and an Areopress to make the coffee'

Saoirse