Daniel4

I don't care if they respond or not. If nobody complains, then these companies can only assume they are doing nothing wrong.

In my earlier post (#14) I've mentioned that FedEx did respond to me saying they will let the manager of the area in which the offence took place know.

And as I have said before, for all the complaints drivers have of cyclists, and for all the effort cyclists have done to ride in a safe space away from motorists, motorists need to hear about all the violations they are doing.

xroadcharlie

So ride around parked delivery vehicles when the way is clear!

Surely you don't expect delivery people to park a block away to make a 1 - 2 minute delivery. I certainly wouldn't. And if you want your Pizza delivered hot, You wouldn't either.

For those that nit pick every little infraction, Consider this. I, like most people only come to a complete stop at a stop sign in my car unless I have to or if I see a cop. And almost never on my bike.

This thread reminds me of when I sold my 60 year old house and the new buyer had a super picky inspector equipped like the guys in Ghostbusters. I had to laugh. There were enough infractions on this old house to fill a few pages. I gave him $1,000 credit in the end which might have covered 1/2 the cost of the inspection.

The funny thing is there where so many infractions he didn't even mention the gas fumes backing up into the basement because I was to cheap to put a proper chimney liner in the cement block chimney for the hot water tank. I even admitted it to the new owner and inspector.

homeless in ca.

You must be joking of course I expect drivers to park a block away. Actually where they park isn't my problem. Or it shouldn't be.

Drivers can block the road for all I care. If a delivery is that urgent the driver needs to park illegally then he can block one of the car lanes. The bike lane is for bicycles.

homeless in ca.

Counted five cars parked in the bike lane today. All on the same street. I was with my daughter most of the day so I didn't speak to the first three. The first car I stopped and put on my hazards waiting for him to move. He didn't move so I got out of the truck and took a picture. Then he did a u-turn and left.

Number too was picking up a passenger and there was a man with a bike on the sidewalk taking pictures. Number three there was no one in the car. I saw him running back in my rear view mirror.

The last three were in the evening as I was bringing my daughter home and driving back. I think they were food delivery guys

Cars number four and five are parked almost exactly the same spot as the first picture I posted. Number four split as I was turning around in the parking lot to get a better view. Soon as he left number five pulled up and took his spot.

I told number five he was parked in a bicycle lane. He said he was only going to be two minutes so I told him again he can't park in the bike lane. Then I remembered Paul's advice and suggested he park in the driveway which he did.

Daniel4

In total agreement.

I can't understand why bad driving is an acceptable norm.

Daniel4

Send those photos to your city representative with a message that if you can't ride your bike in the bike lane, then you'll have no other choice but to ride with all the car traffic outside of the door zone until the bike lane is clear.


It wasn't too long ago ( before Covid), on my bike ride to the gym, I would always see the same car parked on the street right under the no parking sign.
I called Toronto's parking enforcement and the next thing I saw was that the car was parked on the other side of the street under the other no parking sign. So I called parking enforcement again.

This time I got a respond back saying the parking sign was timed and that the car's disabled sign gave it exemption. At first I felt bad. Then I double-checked on-line and the parking sign was not the kind that gave any exemptions. So I wrote back with my finding. Then I never saw that car there again.


A ticket for all those cars on your street would give them the message.

homeless in ca.

homeless in ca.

I think the capitalist system just regards people getting injured or killed by cars as the cost of doing business. It's an externality like noise and pollution that is imposed on our public space.

homeless in ca.

Saw the chicken car again..

mdarnton

I can certainly ride around a truck, but I don't like doing it in the heavy traffic that was the reason they put the bike lane there in the first place. Why should I have to? If it's not that bad, why was the lane put there?

However, what steams me is people that double park right next to empty parking spaces. Not only are they blocking the lane, but they're also crapping on the empty space/s so no one else can use it. It demonstrates a special level of stupidity, and yet I can't believe how common this is.

njkayaker

The painted symbols behind the car are nutty.

There's a sharrow (shared usage) and a diamond (restricted usage). These symbols contradict each other.

It doesn't appear to be illegal to park in a lane marked with a sharrow.
​​​​​

homeless in ca.

Weird. On Google maps there was a sign that parking is allowed but that's been removed.

Kat12

Doesn't make sense to me anyway. Isn't a sharrow used when there *isn't* a bike lane, to show that cars have to share the car lane with bikes?

njkayaker

There are some pictures that show sharrows used like this (but without the diamonds).

There might be some differences between countries as to how they are used.

It seems that sharrows might be used in Canada (Toronto) this way (to show a shared bicycle and parking/stopping lane).

in any case, the sharrow and diamond seems really odd.

Daniel4

I get your point. But there's a big difference between parking a car in the sharrow lane and driving on it. If the sharrow means to share, then neither a bicycle nor anybody else can use it with a parked car there.

homeless in ca.

Same place. Sign indicates reserved bike lane.

homeless in ca.

homeless in ca.

njkayaker

The sharrow is being misused, it would seem.

You should complain about that too.

Paul Barnard

That's the mentality of the "advocacy" group whose Facebook page I follow. The driver has to balance the best interest of the customer, motorists, bicyclists and himself. Unless the road you pictured in your post is a high traffic road, the delivery driver made the best decision. If the driver parks in a main traffic lane, then motorists have to go around. I am trying to figure out why, as a cyclist, I matter more in that situation.

Paul Barnard

That's a situation to be much more concerned about. That road appears to be more heavily traveled. The cyclist employed poor defensive riding tactics.

Daniel4

If the driver parks in the bike lane, then cyclists have to accommodate and go around.

I am trying to figure out why, as a cyclist I matter less than bad drivers and illegally parked cars in a bicycle's safe space that took decades to get.

Paul Barnard

I am not selfish like that. I absorb the big picture. There are cases where making a delivery from the bike lane is completely inconsequential to cyclists. There are cases where there is simply no reasonable accommodation for delivery drivers. Our urban centers are space limited. We all need to be willing to give a little.

homeless in ca.

Broken window theory says parking in a bicycle lane is never inconsequential to cyclists.



I had my own moving truck. And in my experience when a customer has a bike lane in front of their house they probably ride a bike or know someone who does and don't want me to park there. Even if it costs more money to move their house. Living downtown is expensive.

Paul Barnard

My observation is that militance for the sake of being militant (think broken window theory) is counterproductive to both safety and advocacy. You live in a different part of the world than I do, so it may be different up there. We are more likely to get legislation passed when we are seen as reasonable. We are more likely to win the support of law enforcement when we are seen as reasonable. We are more likely to have courteous on road interactions when we are seen as reasonable. There are hills worth dying on, so to speak, and the delivery driver making a quick delivery in a sleepy part of town isn't one. The situation where the rider was forced out into the travel lane when the bus is coming is a good place to invest energy, even though the rider was an idiot.