Ethel Traffic Jam

[I see what you did]

The fact is cyclists will not be using these routes 12 months of the year, cars will. When all the cyclists hang up their helmets for winter they will be joining the rest of us sitting in these line ups. I'm all for making routes safer and making alternate routes for vehicles that need to move quickly through town but the City and highway agency have failed on that big time. The only reason Ethel became busier is because people were trying to find alternate ways of getting from a to b without sitting on Harvey.
Richter is not a good alternative if you are crossing 97, the downtown section is terrible and often jammed up with people in the wrong lane.

sorry, but you are severely mistaken. I live downtown and work in rutland/hwy33 - can confirm that at least two of my co-workers ride their bikes 12 months a year, one lives on the west side. Yes, it is only anecdotal evidence, but it demonstrates that those lanes are used in the winter by cyclists, push-petal scooters, and even mobility scooters

[Bsuds]

and even mobility scooters

Those are not supposed to use the bike lanes and should be on the sidewalk. We see them all the time where they should not be ridden.

http://bc.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ViewPage.actio ... ntId=14864

[dodgerdodge]

Here is a picture from Feb 4, 2016 ... this is the Cawston multi-use path ... not all cyclists stop for the winter ...



Since I moved to Kelowna I've been riding every winter ... I put on fenders and pants ...

Pandosy crosses 97 too ... a car can get across Ellis ... lots of options for cars to safely cross the highway, yet cyclists have 4 ways to cross the highway from the bridge to Hwy 33 (tunnel, Richter, Ethel, overpass) ... if you don't like downtown, what about crossing at Gordon?

But its not necessarily about crossing the highway, its about getting out of Ethel. The OP said traffic was backed way up due to the right turn lane being blocked off. Yes its now safer for cyclists but has lengthened the line up of vehicles and added time to drivers journeys. Like you said there are options so now all the Ethel traffic will be looking for a less congested route. This is just moving the traffic to another street so adding more cars to Pandosy or Richter or Gordon and making that route more congested.
The problem as i see it is that motorists are the biggest user of our roads but seem to be getting a bum deal when it comes to improvements and easing traffic flow. Whatever you and i think one thing is certain, this latest "improvement" will not encourage huge numbers of motorists to abandon their cars in favour of a bike.

[spooker]

But its not necessarily about crossing the highway, its about getting out of Ethel. The OP said traffic was backed way up due to the right turn lane being blocked off. Yes its now safer for cyclists but has lengthened the line up of vehicles and added time to drivers journeys. Like you said there are options so now all the Ethel traffic will be looking for a less congested route. This is just moving the traffic to another street so adding more cars to Pandosy or Richter or Gordon and making that route more congested.
The problem as i see it is that motorists are the biggest user of our roads but seem to be getting a bum deal when it comes to improvements and easing traffic flow. Whatever you and i think one thing is certain, this latest "improvement" will not encourage huge numbers of motorists to abandon their cars in favour of a bike.

Yes, cars are the biggest users of roads ... but "getting the bum deal" is hard to agree with when, as a cyclist, I have to ride an extra 4 kilometres because of the widening of Hwy 97 to get to Reid's Corner during the construction ... (the detour is all the way out to Rutland Rd along Leathead and then north)

Kelowna planners use "Traffic Demand Management" which is a strategy to reduce single occupancy vehicle usage or redistribute it so that they can focus monies on those specific routes instead of having to spend money on everything ... the $90MM that is spent each year to support cars and trucks just doesn't go as far as it used to ... and would people like to see higher taxes?

"Encouraging huge numbers of motorists to abandon their cars" ... glad to know you have a sense of humour ... you and I know that people will never want to do something that will inconvenience themselves ... and the car is a great convenience even if it costs a lot of money, doesn't help your health, and is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the Okanaga ...

[manmade]

I travelled Ethel in the morning yesterday to attend an early meeting downtown.

As I approached 97 heading north, I figured there must be an accident or maybe some construction ahead, as the traffic was backed up past Laurier Avenue.

But no, no accident or construction, just more stupidity by the City of Kelowna.

Apparently, blocking off the right turn lane onto 97 from Ethel with concrete blocks is someone's idea of traffic flow enhancement.

Oh, they did paint a nice bicycle on the asphalt.

Who hires these morons, anyway?

that road work was completed some time ago. During construction (which lasted many months) that stretch of Ethel was not accessible.

so you use that corridor, maybe once/twice a year, and your slight inconvenience is suddenly grounds for calling out people morons? lol you're funny

[spooker]

There is a nice elderly gentleman and his wife in a silver/grey SUV who have a great story about a cyclist who graciously got out of their way so they could make a right turn onto Harvey from that new little turn lane on Ethel ...

I was coming home tonight and while I was stopped at the red to cross Harvey at Ethel going north I noticed a vehicle nose up right behind me in the bike lane with their blinker on to turn right. Decided to let him know that it is illegal for him to make that move and he could have made the right turn from his own lane (he had been the first car to arrive) ...

He smiled and ignored what I was trying to say through his windows ... I didn't have an angry face on, trying to be polite about it ... he just waved and drove on ... colour me foolish for trying

p.s. It's nice to have buttons for cyclists at this intersection now (part of the reason the lanes had to be realigned) so we don't have to make weird moves anymore that confuse other road users.