Gerald Fittipaldi, who is on an e-mail list with me, has posted a video on Flickr of cyclists traveling through an intersection where a two-way bikeway turns from one street to the other.
Clicking on the link above or the still image below will bring up the video on your computer screen.
Video of Montreal intersectionMr. Fittipaldi has described the intersection:
Below is a video of a protected intersection for bicyclists in Montreal. This is at the crossroads of two heavily used 2-way cycle tracks. Metal pylons are used to form a large protective space for cyclists queueing to make a left turn.
This is the intersection of Rue Cherrier and Rue Berri in Montreal. I’ve been there. The “protective space” operates as a two-stage left-turn queuing box for left-turning traffic, but it also serves right-turning traffic traveling in the opposite direction.
I have posted a video including my own ride through this intersection — near the start of the video. This HD video from August, 2012 displays nicely if you click on the vimeo link and expand it to full screen.
Rue Berri from Cherrier to de Maisonneuve, Montreal from John Allen on Vimeo.
Bikeways which are separated from the travel lanes of the street are commonly referred to as “protected,” and Mr. Fittipaldi refers to Berri and Cherrier as a “protected intersection.”
The term “protected” is used in traffic engineering to refer to a movement during which conflicting movements are prohibited, however, at this intersection, bicyclists crossing Rue Berri are exposed to conflicts with traffic turning right and left from Cherrier. At the start of the video, bicyclists get a few seconds of advanced green, but otherwise there is no separate signal phase or turn prohibition.
The bikeway across Cherrier does get a protected green while southbound motor traffic on Berri waiting to right or onto the Berri frontage road is held back by a red light as shown in the video, and similarly for northbound traffic, by a left-turn signal: see Google Street View with the sign “attendre la flèche pour virer à gauche” (Wait for the arrow to turn left). I’ve included an image from the street view below. The “protected space” is visible in the background
The sign reads, in French, “wait for the arrow to turn left.”
Because of the two-way bicycle traffic in narrow corridors on one side of the street, unconventional encounters between bicyclists are common. For some reason, flickr’s time indication in the video runs from high to low. At 00.46, near the start, the video shows bicyclists headed toward the camera passing to the right of another who is headed away from the camera. Another bicyclist may be seen riding against traffic on the far side of the intersection. Later, at 00:28, a large number approach in the crosswalk rather than in the bikeway. Several bicyclists merge left around the waiting area to continue on Cherrier. At 00:12, one bicyclist ignores the waiting area, which is already crowded, timing his left turn to the signal change.
Thanks to the time of day at which it was shot, the video shows all but one bicyclist headed westbound on Cherrier and turning left onto Berri — for which the area inside the pylons serves as a conventional two-stage left-turn queuing box. But, because both streets have two-way one-side-of-the-street bikeways, right turns using the installation are made by going around the outside of the intersection clockwise, from the left side of Berri to the left side of Cherrier. This is very time-consuming compared with a conventional right-turn. as shown at 3:00 and following in another of my own videos. This video is from June, 2008, but nothing important is different.
For other movements as well, signal compliance is poor, and some bicyclists take unconventional shortcuts. That is the case with one bicyclist already mentioned, and with both bicyclists in this Google Street view:
Two bicyclists ignore the designated route at Berri and Cherrier
— also with the bicyclist at the right here, on Cherrier just east of Berri.
Bicyclist riding opposite traffic on Rue Cherrier
