#yegbike commute: temperature of +7°C, but southwest gusty wind of increasing significance keeps things cool. Traffic blessedly light, street life quiet, dogwalkers and bike commuters about. Fantastic ride this morning, full of birdsong. #earworm Good Morning Starshine’, Serena Rider https://youtu.be/Szd_59l9qkg?si=ukiMO9FzZSDSHXeb
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#yegbike
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#yegbike commute: although cool at +1°C, feels warmer perhaps from light southwest winds. Surfaces good, although Millcreek a little bit wet gravelly for a small urban bike as yet. Traffic light, street life quiet, a few dog walkers and bike commuters. Overall a great spring ride. Plenty of birdsong! #earworm ‘In France the Kiss on Main Street’, Joni Mitchell. Cause we are rolling, rolling, rock and rolling.
This is what passes for a bus stop in Edmonton. Yes, you have to wait standing in that mud hole or the bus won't stop.
Where we're standing now? That's the only multi-use active transportation path that seems to go anywhere in the west end (and even then, it ends at 163 St when all the businesses are on 170 St and on).
As such, it is a heavily-used path which only becomes unused during a forced "off-season" when maintenance is neglected to the point of making it unusable, and users are forced onto the street where they are often run off the road by aggressive drivers.
The road the cars are driving on? Huge 4-lane road which even during rush hour has mostly empty space but traffic drives so fast and aggressively (with no traffic calming whatsoever), that it is very difficult for active transportation to get in, which they must do (or find a completely different route altogether) during the many long months when the heavily-used MUP is left unusable.
Even though there is SO much empty space on this road, if traffic gets slowed down for a split second (which generally only happens when somebody is turning left, and through traffic passes beside them), the horns come out on FULL BLAST. Tons of aggression and road rage on this street, largely contributed to by the autocentric "stroad" design.
This is a classic example of infrastructure and maintenance designed to force an end of active transportation supposedly by concentrating on automobile traffic, except that this focus on cars gives no actual benefit to them, except to make them feel more privileged.
Note: Despite its looks, this road is more dangerous for the drivers than others. I have seen so many near crashes on it when I used to use it regularly. The road is wide and straight, but that just means people can't get their foot off the gas.
Although they take their anger out on the rest of us, it's the people driving on the road who are most at risk. Driving does NOT make you safer.
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Oh these are EVERYWHERE in #yeg.
Most people, given the choice, will park beside and lock to the frame, or if there's space (which is virtually never because they're usually placed too close to a building) they'll lift their front wheel over the frame and lock to it that way.
In general it is inadvisable to lock to the inside, but absolutely DO NOT LOCK to it if you see tape on the rungs. It is compromised.
#yegbike commute: warm at +5°C, but stiff and gusty southeast wind cools things right down. Surfaces dry, only a very few icy patches remain. Traffic light, street life quiet, a few dog walkers & pedestrians, a few other bike commuters about. Took the small summer urban folder to great results. Great riding overall! #earworm ‘Tusk’, Fleetwood Mac
Had an odd part issue for the summer urban folder. When Park Tool doesn't make a 17mm pedal wrench, you know it's a trip to bikeedmonton.ca
Took some head scratching, but the volunteers helped me find a solution.
Thanks to this invaluable local resource!
#yegbike
A frank and detailed blog post from Rene Herse Cycles, about tariffs and operating a premium bicycle component in the United Sates.
https://www.renehersecycles.com/bikes-in-the-age-of-tariffs/
I do wonder if Canadian bike companies might have an advantage in the upcoming years -as far as I know, we do not have tariff issues with Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam or Indonesia.
I also didn't realize how many European tire brands had moved production to South East Asia!
#yegbike #cdnpoli #ableg
Rene Herse CyclesBikes in the Age of TariffsToday's post was going to be about a new product we're introducing—but we need to hold off while we recalculate our prices. You've probably seen the news: Virtually all imports into the United States will be subjected to additional, steep import taxes, also called tariffs. The…
First commute (and @coffeeoutside) of the season on the freshly renewed and serviced Devinci!
It always feels like such a joy to ride this one again each spring.
Also, geese.
These topics have come up today from several directions, so I want to touch on some things going on with the Edmonton Transit Service, issues which are all being addressed by their union, ATU local 569 (Amalgamated Transit Union).
First off, under ministerial directive by the UCP's Public Safety Minister, Mike Ellis, the city is being told to hand over their Transit Peace Officers to the Edmonton Police Service to tackle fentanyl. Not only is this FAR outside of the duties they signed up for, but this kind of police work will ruin our transit officers in their mental capacity to peacefully deal with the public on a daily basis, training them to work through prejudice, profiling, discrimination, and violence. Public transit needs to remain safe for our vulnerable communities, and this move by the Alberta government will put them at risk.
https://atu569.ca/is-eps-running-the-peace-officers/
The ATU is currently in bargaining with the city, and 98% of members who voted said they are ready to strike. That accounts for about 70% of the total membership. If mediation fails, transit will strike.
They won't strike until mediation fails, but that means they're past the point where negotiations have stalled. Their collective agreement expired over a year ago, and the ATU had to take the city to the Labour Relations Board to get them to the table.
Over the past many years, I have overheard many complaints from ETS drivers, and seen how it has affected their work and the effects it has on the public. Although technically the negotiations are stalled on wage discrepancies, but that's all tied in with the work required. Foremost on complaints I've heard are impossible schedules to keep, making the buses "always late", giving the drivers no time for breaks, and causing them to rush and speed.
One of the union's proposals included the conversion of CSOs (Community Service Operators) to Transit Operators. That would increase staffing for drivers, and alleviate a lot of these problems. At the cost of more staffing expenses, of course.
https://atu569.ca/strike-ready/
My family and I are continuing to see issues arise from pressured transit drivers. In my opinion, I feel they need to be better informed about their labour rights, and refuse unsafe mandates. If they feel pressured with their schedule then rather than rushing on the road and putting the public in danger, they should be taking grievances to their union representative, and quiet quitting when they feel under pressure. That would show solidarity and force collective action on their employer.
That's just my thought, but without question our transit system is grossly underfunded, and that needs to change! The better we make our transit system, the more use it will see, and that saves money for ALL TAXPAYERS IN EDMONTON.
Nearly all the infrastructure costs for transportation in Edmonton arises from the rampant dependency on automobiles, and at the same time most of the greatest dangers from living in the city arise from the same dependency, and the lack of safe infrastructure for any other transportation.
The more people feel safe and accommodated to use transit, the less we have to pay for people's entitlement to drive around in grossly inefficient automobiles which cost taxpayers billions to support, and causes great traffic congestion, making it difficult for people to move around the city and blocking essential logistics like trucking and emergency services (and of course, efficient mass transit).
Being accommodated by transit includes sufficient service to get them to their destinations reliably and efficiently, along with personal safety and accessibility concerns. These personal safety concerns disappear on their own through increased usage of transit though. North America, the most transit-adverse space in the world, is unique in its prejudice against transit as "unsafe due to undesirables". Where transit is accessible and used, this is not a concern. It is our underfunding of transit as a service and our creation of a transit-adverse culture, which has created the problem of safety on transit.
So I beg the City of Edmonton. Fund transit service, fund transit staffing, pay their damn wages, open the budget, and make this city a SAFE place for everyone.
ATU 569 · Is EPS Running the Peace Officers?In a word, NO. Following last week’s grand announcement that Edmonton Police Service would be using Edmonton’s TPO Corps to engage the fentanyl battle, ATU issued a media interview on the top…
#yegbike commute: a chilly -7°C, with light but gusty northwesterly winds. Small skiff of snow overnight, but surfaces quite good, only a very few crunchy ice patches. Traffic light, street life quiet, only a few pedestrians. Last day of cool? #earworm ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go?’, The Clash, here covered by 2 Davids from the crime family show Blackpool https://youtu.be/MVuiThX44bE?si=Wko1R3-MQKXvZw8f
Continued thread
Incidentally, my local urban Albertans might know that this is exactly why I am absolutely terrified about our upcoming municipal elections in Edmonton. Never before have we had big money party politics in our humble independent municipal elections, until the Provincial UCP government interfered with our independence and changed the laws to accommodate their rule-by-wealth agenda.
The first ever political party in Edmonton is without any surprise a reactionary group dedicated to "City Council is full of radical left lunatics!" politics, ecstatic that they can now further their agenda with big party resources thanks to Danielle Smith.
I really hope Edmonton can stay strong and pull a Wisconsin against this introduction of party politics to take over our long-standing independent election process. PACE is already burying the voices of Independent candidates in the way you would expect them to: through well-funded bot behavior, overwhelming social media with mass trolling.
They attempted to recruit my support merely because I asked a critical question to the city, even though I was very clearly asking for more progressive public spending, not less. They have no intention to listen, only to create false interactions.
Which is really ironic considering that they claim, 'PACE will transform the current sham of "engagement" to really listen to citizens.'
The "sham engagement" they are talking about is recognizing diversity in our city (ie, like painting a Pride crosswalk or acknowledging First Nations), not actual sham engagement like they are doing by flooding social media with trolls.
I saw this image on "What does it mean?" so my answer was, "See if your municipality has an Active Transportation map. Overlay the last image on it, and then you'll understand."
#yegBike report: Mostly good and clear except for the hard crunchy chunks of ice on some of the residential streets. Still patches of black ice around, too, so be careful.
Funicular and elevator both running.
#yegbike commute: a cool 0°C, with southeastern winds. Surfaces mostly fine, more MUPS cleared, if down to crunchy ice, including 96th street through Chinatown and Little Italy. Some minor roads still crunchy ice, but quite rideable on the summer gravel bike. Seems to be the morning of dog walking. For this April Fools Day, the #earworm is this perfectly ridiculous setting of The Smiths ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’, as David Tenant entraps son of a gambling family https://youtu.be/e8tY8zElvRw?si=F_vTRhSVWbo-C2wZ
#yegBike report: Conditions vary a lot, from packed but slightly icy snow to snirt to hard icy ruts, to sometimes even clear (but still with icy patches).
It feels colder than it looks, with high humidity and wind.
Funicular and elevator are both running.
#yegbike commute: a surprisingly cool -2°C, with southeastern winds. Surfaces mostly good and dry, most MUPS done, but a few are either crunchy ice, or unusable - notably 96th street through Chinatown and Little Italy. Traffic light, street life subdued, a few dog walkers. Pretty good spring ride. #earworm ‘Coffee Spoons’, Crash Test Dummies