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J O U R N A L O F T H E E L B O W V A L L E Y C Y C L E C L U BJ O U R N A L O F T H E E L B O W V A L L E Y C Y C L E C L U B
Nov2012
Rumble Strips ◆ AGM Dinner/DanceMinister McIver ◆ Tulip Tour
Shared lane sign in St. Jacobs Ontario. The Mennonites are
probably good allies in the effort to save highway shoulders from
rumble strips.Photo: Pete & Anne Taylor
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SubmissionsElbowvalleycc.org
EVCC CONTACTSPRESIDENT
Doug McCulloch ............................................. (403) 247-8715VICE PRESIDENT
Bud Sedman ................................................... (403) 983-3631TREASURER
Brenda Ryder ................................................. (403) 983-3631SECRETARY
Gaylene Davis ................................................ (403) 995-3847ADVOCACY DIRECTOR
Frans Hettinga ................................................ (403) 283-4179
MEMBERSHIP & MULTI-DAY PROGRAM DIRECTOR Mary Nabozniak .............................................(403) 389-9003
COMMUNICATION & SOCIAL DIRECTOR Don Hollingshead ........................................... (403) 289-7061
EDUCATION DIRECTORRennie Atkinson .............................................403-281-1685
DIRECTORS AT LARGERichard Ward .................................................(403) 613-0869Rennie Atkinson .............................................403-281-1685Ken Parent .....................................................403-247-5097Jeff Donald ....................................................403-286-6825
GT COORDINATORBud Sedman ................................................... (403) 983-3631
WEBMASTERRoy Scarisbrick .............................................. (403) 560-4840
Read this Cadence and back issues in colourSign up for rides & socialsRead about past events
Next Social/Annual Potluck:Tuesday Dec 4, 6:30 PM
Where: Nifty 50s, Parkdale Community
Hall, 3512 - 5 Avenue NW
We have many great cooks in the club,
Come and share your favourite dishes.
289-7061 for info
Submissions for CADENCE can be mailed or emailed to: CADENCE Newsletter Editor, 1234-18 Street NW Calgary, AB T2N 2G7 (403) 289-7061 email: [email protected] CADENCE deadline:Nov 6/12
Riding SweepDon Hollingshead
Rumble progressDoug McCulloch and I met with Alberta
Transportation recently to discuss what could be done to reduce the impact that shoulder rumble strips were having on cyclists in the province.
The meeting was very positive and Doug was particularly pleased at the receptivity and perhaps the chance to make some positive changes in cyclists favour.
The AT staff we met will take our sugges-tions to their bureaucracy, but there are still some fundamental issues that need more work.
The province feels that it has a strong case regarding the rational for shoulder rumble strips (SRSs). I personally wonder about risk compen-sation--motorists may feel that they can operate their automobile in less than an alert frame of mind knowing that the SRSs will keep them on the road.
I like Parks Canada position: SRSs are not needed for motorist safety. Ideally there is mid-dle ground where the province can install its SRSs on scenic routes favoured by cyclists with certain changes.
The changes I would like to see include:• Attitude and policies of accommodation and
encouragement of cycling on highways in place of the present policy of toleration
• Placement of the SRSs on the fog line rather than over in the shoulder area (and unfortu-nately often in the middle of the shoulder)
• Implement a penalty for contractors that do not place SRSs as per the specification
• Discontinue SRSs adjacent guard rails• Place gaps in the SRSs to that cyclists can
cross them safely when needed• Repeal the recent law that compels cyclists to
use a highway shoulder despite its state of repair
• Not place SRS on steep downhills (more than
ANNUALGENERALMEETING
& Volunteer Dinner
Saturday November 106:00 PM
Fort CalgaryOfficers Mess
(all members are welcome toattend the AGM) followed by theVolunteer Appreciation Dinner at
7 PM(See www.elbowvalleycc.org for
details)
5% grade) to increase the lateral manoeuv-ring space available for cyclists travelling at speed
• An ongoing dialogue between AT staff and the cycling community so that future chan-ges to SRS and other safety issues can be discussed before changes are implemented
Doug has done a stellar job of raising the issue of SRS safety for cyclists with the prov-ince. His initiative has started a process that will pay benefits for cyclists
For SalePanniers Seratus World Tour . I know longer want or
need them, so I am offering to sell them for $30They are almost like brand new. I have only used them a couple of times. Great for multi day trips or just carrying groceries.Lisa, 403-246-3999, [email protected]
Minoura Indoor Trainer
Rim driver for rear wheel placement, also in-cludes front tire rest. Great for winter train-ing. No tire wear. Uses the rim of the tire for resistance. No need to change tires! Only used twice, then stored. $150 contact Deb Warner at [email protected]
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Meeting with Alberta Transportation
re: Shoulder Rumble Strips
Don HollingsheadIn response to the appearance of shoulder
Rumble strips on Highway 40, arguably Alber-ta’s most scenic highway and one of the most popular cycling destinations, Doug McCulloch wrote the Alberta Premier, Allison Redford a let-ter (see Sept 2012 Cadence). The letter was passed on to both the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Transportation to respond.
We published Minister Cusanelli’s response in the October Cadence and elsewhere in this is-sue is Transportation Minister, Rick McIver’s re-sponse. Basically, Minister McIver offered the EVCC a meeting with two of his department’s representatives.
On Thursday Oct 25, Doug McCulloch and I met with Fred Lee, Alberta Transportation (AT) Operations Manager, Southern Alberta, Calgary Office and Steve Otto, AT Director of Highway Operations, Technical Standard’s Branch.
As it turns out, Steve is a cyclist and rode the Tour de l’Alberta last July with his wife.
Doug showed photos of the August crash on hwy 7 that claimed the life of a young female cyclist who was drafting her dad. We think that the narrow space between the shoulder rum-ble strip (SRS) and the steel guard rail may have contributed to the crossing and touching of her front wheel and her dad’s rear wheel.
Also recounted was the crash that occurred on Hwy 22 south of Longview on an EVCC tour that left our rider in hospital for several days with broken bones and lacerations to the upper body and face. It was several weeks be-fore this person could cycle again. In this case, it appears that the SRS prevented the cyclist from
moving left in time to avoid a pile of gravel that had accumulated on the bridge deck, shortly af-ter the cessation of the SRS.
Justification for the province’s position on SRS is contained in a set of power point slides by AT staffer, Bill Kenny with the Technical Standards Branch. See http://tinyurl.com/bszyxwj
Fred Lee mentioned early in the meeting that AT was not interested in encouraging cy-cling on highways.
The Alberta Traffic Safety Act requires cy-clists to use the shoulder when it exists, pre-sumably whether it is fit for cycling or not. This is a new law that did not exist in the old High-way Traffic Act. Doug recounted the story of an EVCC group ride that was using the travel lane left of the fog line (the painted stripe at the right side of the outside driving lane separating the driving lane from the shoulder area) due to de-bris and SRS on the shoulder and was ordered by the RCMP to ride only on the shoulder, right of the fog line.
Until the installation of SRS in this province, motorists had helped to sweep the shoulders clear of gravel, glass and small debris. These motorists now avoid driving there with the re-sulting build up of debris.
Presently, the only criteria used to select routes to receive SRS is shoulder width. All roads with shoulder widths of 1.4 m or wider are scheduled to receive SRS based on life cycle maintenance and availability of the equipment to mill the rumbles. Fred says that roads with even narrower shoulders will soon get the green light for SRS application.
What we heard was that the metric used for crash history assessment would probably make the quiet scenic roads that cyclists favour, even more eligible to receive SRS treatment. I’m still not clear on how this works, but it appears to be academic at the present time since crash his-tory is not a criteria that is used in determining
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November CadeNCe November CadeNCe where SRS are installed.
We asked that if the cycling communi-ty identified certain routes as worthy of special consideration, whether AT would do its SRS in-stallations differently, perhaps with cyclist’s in-terests in mind. As I recall, this idea was re-ceived with interest but also with reservations.
The next issue that we addressed was the placement of SRS on the shoulder. Many of us have seen SRS place in the middle of shoulders rather than near the fog line as the specification requires (see slide 34 of the above link). I asked why SRS could not be centered on the fog line. Steve mentioned that motorists, especially trucks tend to drive to the right side of a lane, creat-ing as much distance between themselves and oncoming traffic as they reasonably can. The thinking is that these drivers habitually drive with the wheels on the fog line. If the SRS was lo-cated there, the constant noise would negative-ly impact the quality of life of anyone living near the highway.
Regarding SRS that are sometimes locat-ed in the middle of the shoulder, we asked if the province penalized contractors for this lack-adaisical workmanship and were told that, no, the province feels that SRS located in the mid-dle of the shoulder also prevent run off the road crashes so they have not seen a need to penal-ize contractors for this practice. Originally, the excuse for improper placement was that the fog line had not yet been painted so there was no reference for the placement of the rolled in style of SRS (this type of SRS has been discontinued in favour of the milled in variety).
We then asked if SRS were necessary in addition to steel guard rails. The answer seemed to be “no”. They couldn’t ratio-nalize both. This is important for cyclists since guard rails di-
minish the area available for cycling outside of the SRS. We look forward to this issue being addressed before our next meeting.
Our next ask was for AT to provide periodic gaps in the SRS to allow cyclists to safely cross them when avoiding animal carcasses or parked motor vehicles on the shoulder or when passing another cyclist, as BC has done on its highways. Say a 4m gap every 16m or SRS. Again, there was receptivity on this point.
We were informed that center line rum-ble strips (CLRS) have been approved and will start to be implemented in Alberta soon. Cy-clists from other jurisdictions have reported that CLRS can cause motorists to pass cyclists too closely as the rumbles keep motorists from crossing the center line.
Steve thought that we should be able to ar-range spring sweeping of our favourite routes, especially bridge decks. He also mentioned that AT is taking over the AMA’s road reports. He sees no reason that if cycling groups report their scheduled rides to AT, the road reports could in-clude alerts to drivers to expect cyclists along these routes.
Steve said that he would take our sugges-tions forward to appropriate personal in his management. A follow up date for a progress meeting is set for March 21 2013 at the Cal-gary AT office.
Elbow Valley Cycle ClubWebsite:
elbowvalleycc.org
The Elbow Valley Cycle Club’s (EVCC) mission is to fulfil the bicycling related recreational,
social and educational needs of its members and
use its influence to enhance and protect the rights of all
bicyclists.
Opinions expressed in CADENCE are those of the author or contributor and are not necessarily shared by the editors or the Elbow Valley Cycle Club. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, and content, and is the sole judge of suitability for publication of all articles or advertisements.
© Copyright 2012, by the Elbow Valley Cycle Club.
All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for the reprinting of articles herein by any nonprofit group or publication. Full credit to the author and CADENCE must appear in your publication, and a copy sent to:
ELBOW VALLEY CYCLE CLUB
1111 Memorial Drive N.W.Calgary, Alberta
T2N 3E4
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November CadeNCe
Tulip TourSaaninch & Olympic Peninsulas - Skagit Valley - San Juan Islands
April 13-21 2013
A West Coast spring loop tour that exploits the extensive paved trail systems on the Saan-ich & Olympic Peninsulas including a kilome-ter long cycle across Fidalgo Bay on a convert-ed train trestle; quiet backroads; Dungeness crab, and possibly the best seafood chowder & BBQ salmon anywhere. And, oh yes, lots of
ferries,tulips & daffodils. Starting and ending at Victoria Airport, we’ll cycle 40-70 km per day and stay in hotels and motels. Baggage is shut-tled. Good maps allow the participants to ride at their own pace and stop for breaks where/when they want. See club website to signup.Contact Don Hollingshead for more info: [email protected]://www.elbowvalleycc.org/events/details.asp?eventid=1483
