Crosswalk Problems in Fredericton

Questions about pedestrian safety at the Montgomery-Windsor street crosswalk have come to light after a woman was struck by a car earlier this month.

The 26-year-old woman was hit on the busy street on Jan. 22 at about 6 p.m. by a blue or black Ford Focus. She sustained minor injuries as a result of the collision. ­­­­

Fredericton police haven’t highlighted the area as a trouble spot – the Jan. 22 collision was just the second-reported accident on the busy street since 2010 – but some current and former students have concerns.

Adam Wright, a former St. Thomas University student who used to cross the street frequently in his wheelchair, lived beside the crosswalk at McLeod House for three years.

Wright almost got hit on multiple occasions while crossing the busy street near campus.

“I would look both ways…start crossing the road, then all of sudden, a bat out of hell came.

“One time, the driver braked just in time by squealing the car. Another time, I had to stop in my tracks and just missed getting hit.”

Wright said he had two close calls and his proctor at McLeod got hit by a car during his time there.

He said the city should take notice and try to put plans in place to make the crosswalk safer.

“In my opinion, they need to put a light there or a speed bump to teach the idiots a lesson.”

Third-year student Justin Marshall had a similar experience.

In his first year, Marshall was crossing the street with a couple of people after getting off a bus when a car sped past him.

“If I would have walked about three inches more, I would have got smoked,” he said.

Marshall brought pedestrian safety at the crosswalk to the attention of city councillor Jordan Graham, who represents the university area.

“He said there’s some kind of issue that you can’t have so many crosswalks across the city, I guess. I like the bus drivers that have the common courtesy to block the road with the bus so students can cross.”

Katherine Flynn, a third-year student at STU, who lived right across the street from the crosswalk, said she had one close encounter crossing the street.

“A car was going too fast and they didn’t check to see if anyone was crossing, but they hit the brakes pretty fast and were very apologetic.”

She said the crosswalk should be better lit for pedestrians at night.

“I would suggest more streetlights because it’s very hard to see at night sometimes.”

http://www.theaq.net/2012/crosswalk-collision-raises-safety-concerns/-10364

Bike share program “one more option” to stay healthy

     As you can imagine with any student, school eats up a lot of your free time. Many of you have been in the same position as I am; finding yourself staring a book for several hours and when you finally look up from your book in study hall, it's ten o'clock at night and you only have minutes before the last bus leaves to get you home. I'm making it my goal to post an article or two a week, so my blog doesn't start to collect dust. I had to break out the swiffer to get this post started up! I was browsing The Aquinian website (STU's student news), and came across this story:

The bikes for St. Thomas University’s bike share program have been locked up until the snow clears in the spring.

Tami Hill, a member of the wellness committee at St. Thomas University, said the bike share program that started in May this year was a success.

“It’s going very well, we’ve got really good feedback on the program.”

Fourteen users signed up between May and Nov. 18.

STU students, faculty and staff were able to buy a $20 membership that allowed them to borrow a bike for up to six hours or overnight if they borrowed it late in the day.

She said the program started slow, with only five memberships in mid-summer, but increased once students started returning to campus.

Olivia Long, a student who graduated this year, but has returned to take a few more courses, signed up in October.

“I only used it for a month, but I found it really useful,” said Long.

“Since I work at the gym I would take a bike at night and return it the next morning when I had school. It was really easy to just bike home.”

She said because she lives at the bottom of the hill, it was faster than waiting for the bus. In the morning she would use the bike racks on the front of the buses to come back up the hill.

Long said it has helped her save some money.

“I’m guilty for using cabs a lot, so it makes a lot more sense,” she said.

The $20 membership fee is used for maintenance of the bikes.

The St. Thomas University students’ union matched the $850 spent by the university to start the program. The money was used to buy five bikes, helmets and locks.

Hill said she wants to have a larger publicity campaign next year to attract more users.

The program is a result of the wellness committee looking “for more ways to encourage faculty, students and staff to be active, therefore healthier,” said Hill.

“People can run, walk, go to the fitness centre, go to [fitness] classes, so the program is one more option” to stay healthy, she added.

 The article got me thinking, "if STU can have a relatively successful bike share program compared to the campus' size and student population, could the City of Fredericton benefit from starting one of its own?" There are some issues concerning theft and vandalism in a city-wide bike share program. Some can be conquered through use of credit cards- similar to the bixi program in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver or controlled operations monitored by Fredericton's Trail Visitor Information Centre.


http://www.theaq.net/2011/bike-share-program-one-more-option-to-stay-healthy/-9627

Vancouver, Doing it Right

Blackberry, Making Cycling Cool

Council Divided on Shared Use - Daily Gleaner Fredericton

City councillor Stephen Kelly will get his wish granted for a city hall staff review of shared use for city sidewalks, but support for the in-house study came reluctantly from council colleagues.

Kelly and Coun. Stephen Chase are at odds when it comes to who should get to use public sidewalks.

Chase wants bicycles on city streets, on trails or in designated bicycle lanes, not on the sidewalk. He has argued for more enforcement to drive cyclists to downtown streets.

But Kelly said for nearly half a century, people have ridden bicycles on city sidewalks with relatively few conflicts with pedestrians.

Chase doesn't agree.

Kelly wants to go a step further and consider allowing skateboarders and people who use inline skates to share the sidewalk with pedestrians.

"People of all ages have used sidewalks for various reasons for convenience and safety," Kelly said.

"As a councillor over the past 10 years, I haven't had very many people tell me they have issues with people using the sidewalks - with certain restrictions. "

With the city moving in the direction of going green and being much more active, and with 240 kilometres of sidewalks in the city and $32 million invested in them, Kelly said the sidewalks should be used and can be shared the same way city walking trails are shared by walkers and bicyclists.

Kelly would like to see the idea researched and reported back to the committee by spring.

"I have some concerns with that," Chase responded. "First of all, we've spent a lot of money installing bicycle routes along the sides of streets and promoting bicycle routes, and I think there's further plans to create more bicycle routes.

"It's good to see people on bicycles and to see them using them in a safe way, using their helmets ... but the concern that I have is that bicycles are regulated under the Motor Vehicle Act and they are, in fact, a vehicle."

Chase said sidewalks are intended for pedestrians and are used by people in wheelchairs.

The councillor said he's not adverse to looking into Kelly's ideas, but is satisfied with existing law and policy which generally works well.

Coun. Scott McConaghy said children who are learning to ride bicycles should be on sidewalks, and generally there's little disagreement in residential areas.

McConaghy said he wouldn't want to drive bicyclists back onto city sidewalks.

"I think it's something we can take a look at," said Coun. Tony Whalen.

He said he's OK with young kids on bicycles on city sidewalks, but not older riders.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/1464361

Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Bicycles

Fredericton's Problem Intersections

     Some of the major problems concerning cyclists and pedestrians in Fredericton, is the lack of common sense, failure to yield or even courtesy. Granted, issues are at fault of some cyclists and pedestrians. Who walks at night dressed entirely in black or cycles without lights? Whatever happened to looking both ways before you cross the road? In the map below, I have noted some problem intersections, mostly from personal experience, but also stories from others where they have experienced conflicts. Feel free to explore the map and click the bicycle icons, where I explain my reasoning.

     You know your society is becoming car-centric when it starts installing signs such as the "Pedestrian Accident Area" posted to the left. Why build a society around cars, when you can build one around pedestrians, bicycles and even public transportation?! Incidents between cars, bicycles and pedestrians can be dramatically reduced by implementing traffic calming measures such as pedestrian islands, flashing lights. Even setting speed limits to 30km/h in residential neighbourhoods can be life savers! No, not the delicious candy, that thing that keeps you from knocking at the golden gates... or well, you know.

Flashing yellow lights installed in the ground attract the drivers
attention where it belongs.

Pedestrian island help pedestrians to concentrate on one
direction at a time while crossing.