School Buses On City Streets

Letter of the day: Bike lanes painted as streets crumble

To The Editor:

The City of Moncton is amazing! (Sarcasm intended.) They are already marking off the bicycle lanes on Shediac Road. The cost of this action should have been applied to resurfacing, not decorating a road that is bumpy and full of patches.

I call that putting the cart before the horse.

So much for living in a high-tax area. The mayor and city councillors seem to have been hit with the same condition as our former premier . . . deaf ears.

Councillor Stephen Boyce said that he won't be reoffering in the next election, so he will put his weight behind this decision and won't give it a second thought. However, our taxes pay for his salary and, until his term is completed, he is beholden to his constituents and the majority do not want the proposed change in our street. So why is he not listening?

Shediac Road may not meet the 20,000 vehicle usage per day, but it is a very busy thoroughfare, not just a regular city street. It is a popular route to reach Harrisville Boulevard, the Trans-Canada Highway, Route 11, the Town of Shediac etc.

It is heavily used by police, ambulance, fire vehicles, heavy equipment, landscape and lawn care vehicles that must park on the street, school buses and city buses, each and every day. The few cyclists that use Shediac Road (I can probably count them on one hand) already have our respect.

The problem lies when they reach the intersection of Shediac Road and Lewisville Road. There is definitely heavy traffic to and from Dieppe with a lot of out-of-towners who aren't certain which lane they should be using.

I am aware of the research done on this project but I still think that it requires more planning. To narrow such a street to two lanes with a shared left-turn lane is asking for many upset drivers. There will be numerous blockades for those going to work: school buses, which will be impassable, city buses and service vehicles.

Obviously someone hasn't noticed the long lines of vehicles early in the morning as well as throughout the day.

I think that the councillors sometimes make decisions too hastily on items that could wait, just to get them off the books. They would be better advised to look at some of the more important items, such as repaving streets all over this city that are literally crumbling. I was on Zack Road this morning and it is in a sad state. Where is the representation for that area? Planning bike lanes for Shediac and Salisbury roads?

NZ In Tranzit: Pedal power school bus

This blog is mostly about public transport and social infrastructure in Christchurch, and transit around New Zealand. Also tracked; transit developments in similar sized cities in Canada and Australia, kindred in demographic patterns, for added perspective and inspiration. NZ in Tranzit blog covers some of the new transit technology and discusses public transport concepts in general, as well. Because the blogster's day-job is in a high profile customer industry to preserve some degree of privacy he appears only as a rabbit in his profile, albeit using his real name. In May 2011 the nature of this blog was shifted to being more a newsmedia watch - Tranzwatch - most the opinionated stuff has been separated out into the comments section, which anyone can contribute towards. Longer articles written by the blogster are subtitled NZ in Tranzit. Christchurch is a city of metropop c 400,000 in Te Wai Pounamu, the southern of the larger islands of NZ. Public transport is operated under the auspices of a regional council with bus operations (and those of one small cross harbour ferry) tendered out to private operators including one owned by the City Council, Redbus. We have a modern clean fleet of buses which offer fairly frequent services to all city areas. The city has been quick to adapt new technologies such as low-floor buses, smart-card (arguably the best in the world!), GPS and Real Time signage and interactive text, and online type information systems. Our busiest route is The Orbiter, a service that circulates around the middle suburbs, and the ring of shopping malls, high schools and the city University about 4-5km from the centre of town Christchurch also has restored trams operating on a central city circuit. Note [May 2011] - Sadly, due to two huge earthquakes (that took 182 lives) and multiple aftershocks much of the central city of Christchurch will be closed to public access for up to a year to allow the demolition of 900 severely damaged buildings. This includes a great many heritage buildings that previously gave the central city its distinctive character and (such was the exceptional ferocity of the second earthquake in February) even some of the high rises, possibly including those shown in photo above. Tram operations are suspended for at least a year. Many other parts of the city have resumed active life for both residents and tourists.

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