JOHNSON – September hot takes: Christmas in August, bumper stickers

Christmas in August

Christmas supplies at Costco in mid-august, and the Spirit Halloween store at 8th and Tranquille also opening mid-August, there’s even people putting up their tree in early Sept and posting about it online.

Am I alone in shaking my head when I see this stuff happening earlier and earlier … while the A/C is still running full blast in my car?

Moving on.

The St. Paul Street bike valet service

It looks like the little space, across from the Doubletree Hotel on St. Paul Street that offered secure bicycle parking for the summer season has closed up.

What we want to see now is full transparency:  What exactly did it cost to create and operate, both initial and ongoing staffing and the one-time installed infrastructure expenses, as well as what were any revenue from all sources for the entire operational period, beyond the B.C. Cycling Coalition grant.

We already know that the biking community appreciated the service, but now we need to determine if it is appropriate for any tax dollars be used to support this in subsequent years.

At the end of the day, it’s a question of finances … and transparency.

Apparently, City Council is set to review the business case after it makes its way through the City’s internal processes.

City of Kamloops?  Ball’s in your court.

Summit and McGill TRU bridge

So, it seems that the bridge is going in across Summit near TRU instead of an inexpensive fence, that would have just forced pedestrians to walk to the corner.

From the image we saw recently (in the banner above) as well as in some past media stories, the City put its foot down and has forced TRU into accepting their location of this overpass.

TRU suggested it be quite close to the intersection, about 70 meters north so it will serve the safety needs of the pedestrians crossing at the corner, but the City has decided to install it 275 meters north of the corner.

Repeat … 275 meters.

That makes this bridge so ridiculously far north of the intersection, that it will only be usable by those at the lowest buildings at the 704 McGill student housing, and the four apartment buildings and a few townhouse complexes on Dalgleish Drive and McBeth Place.

Anyone south of there, including the upper buildings at 704 McGill and all addresses within student walking distances east of Columbia, or from anywhere above, like Arrowstone Drive and beyond, won’t use the bridge at all, so any hope that pedestrian traffic congestion at the corner being mitigated by the bridge at all … disappears almost entirely.

No pedestrian who approaches this intersection is about to walk 275 meters north down Summit, only to climb up the ramp or stairs, cross over Summit, to find themselves at about the Clocktower, where few people need to be.

If they crossed directly at the light, or the bridge was located closer to the intersection, it’s an already existing, short diagonal trail through the parking lot there, which directly feeds onto Campus Drive … the main pedestrian thoroughfare through the university.

Literally a few hundred meters shorter of a walk, going where most students need to go. As well, walkers from the south would have used the bridge rather than wait for the light, and those living lower near Dalgleish could continue up the hill as they have all along, and use the bridge from there.

It also appears that no barrier will be installed up and down Summit around the bridge to stop jaywalkers.  That means those who don’t want to climb the stairs, or walk around the ramp to use the bridge where they are going to build it, will still take their life into their hands and run across, which means the initial safety concern has not been addressed.  Expect to pay for a fence eventually … you know … the most reasonable solution we started with.

All of this is just poor planning and decision making all around, by the City.

Furthermore, no one has tried to explain to those of us who are paying for this overpass … the justification for the location.  It’s literally been crickets.

TRU must be just shaking their head.

Pedestrian / traffic light at Summit and McGill

Staying at this corner for a minute:

This interchange from McGill to Summit northbound is more and more becoming a central feeder from one side of town to another.  This corner is playing a vital role in our needs to get around, and it needs to upgrade to reflect this reality.

The primary problem is the traffic pattern provided for vehicles turning right from westbound McGill onto the Summit Connector northbound.  This specific corner does not have a dedicated right turn lane for vehicles, so cars turning have to wait for other cars to proceed straight through at the green light, before being able to proceed.

Add to that, when the traffic light westbound does turn green, the pedestrian light also changes at the same moment, forcing turning cars to wait for pedestrians to cross from both sides. After all that, about two cars make it through before the light turns red again and cross traffic proceeds.

Once traffic gets to a certain volume, it just doesn’t work.

So, solution #1 – put in a right-hand turn lane parallel to the school bus yard.  There’s room there for a fairly long turning lane and a sidewalk.

Solution #2 – Until that infrastructure is done, we could reprogram the lights today, so the pedestrian control goes white … AFTER the green light for the vehicles to proceed straight, and turn right.

Basically, the same as McGill and Columbia. A corner that runs smoothly.

There is no need for this corner to remain this inoperative.

General parking lot behaviour

Drivers, it’s an easy one.  Just slow down in parking lots altogether, and respond to other cars backing out of their spot, by stopping and waiting … not gunning it.  If you can’t stop in time when you see the reverse lights, you were going too fast to start with.  If you have to accelerate, you should have stopped.  There is no third option.

Pedestrians, holy moly people, if you are coming across a car that is backing out of a parking spot with their wheel turned … STOP or veer far away making it obvious that the driver can continue … don’t walk behind assuming the driver can see you.

Yes, the pedestrian has the ‘right of way’, but don’t be idiots, the car is going backwards.  Have some sense of self preservation.

One easy answer is to only back into parking spaces … but maybe that just moves when the backup risk moment happens, and maybe we don’t want some drivers doing that.

Bumper stickers

It has always been and continues to be a reasonable cultural norm to stick stuff to the back bumper, panels and windows of our cars.  It’s a place to post our lifestyle or activity leanings by showing our club, subject, travel or activity interests or even nationality or flag affiliations.  This is how many of us choose to tell the world who we are and what we are into.  All good.

More recently we have seen this warp towards expressing more and less reasonable political leanings (F cough cough), as well as the plethora of stickers telling us not to tailgate, or the more comedic ‘The empire doesn’t care about your stick family’ type of fun, or my favourite; ‘Please Honk if a Kid Falls Out’.

That one actually made me guffaw out loud.

There is another type we see that makes me wonder … just what is the goal here?

The variety of stickers that tell us there is a child in the car.

Now … this can make logical sense, as in the idea that First Responders might see it and take a good look in the back seat in case of a serious accident, not a bad idea.  There have been stories where the car is such a mangled mess, the child in the seat behind isn’t seen at first glance.

As well, I really like the detailed ones telling us that there is an autistic child onboard; “In case of emergency the child may resist or refuse help, run away, be non-communicative” … etc.  These are excellent ways to impart needed information that could be very important.

Today, I’m speaking to the average “baby on board” sign, be it Banksy designed baby with the hoodie and shades … or otherwise.

Commonplace discussion surrounds the assumption that people might ‘drive more carefully’ around cars with these baby stickers.

The problem is that it seems this idea in reality isn’t a thing.  A little research shows that accident statistics do not change regarding these notifiers of young occupants, neither does injury or mortality rates, when compared to other road users.

People ‘drive more carefully’ regardless of who is in vehicles around them, simply because they don’t want to get into ANY accident.  A baby on board sticker does not raise the bar of driving behaviour; people drive as they drive.  I want them being just as careful driving around me, as they are anyone else, including child occupied vehicles … and they are … and this is the reality.

In fact, statistics view any sticker as yet another distraction from keeping an eye on the road, so in reality such a sign statistically works against increased safety.

One final road oddity – darkened glass and film

More and more vehicles, driven usually by younger people, are seen with very dark window tint or film on the driver side, and sometimes the windshield.

Now … yes, B.C. law is clear, you can not have reflective or darkened window tint on the windshield below the top 7.5 cm for sun visor reasons.  The driver window or front passenger window may not be tinted at all, but you can tint the rear windows.  This is so police officers can look into the driving seat in order to assess the driver and the interior of the car during a routine stop.

The problem is, we all still see vehicles on the road where you actually can’t see the driver due to tinted windows. I have no idea how these drivers get away with this, but it is a fact, we all see it.

Here’s my Hot Take.

In addition to the police, I ALSO need to see the face of the driver for safer operation on the road.  Even though we have pretty clear rules on the road for most situations, often we find ourselves in little moments where we need to instantly communicate with another driver to ensure we can all continue safely:

– “go ahead and turn left in front of me at this uncontrolled intersection”, or
– “Im actually turning into this driveway, go ahead” or even
– “if you’re looking the other way, I will wait till you look at me and we can agree on the way forward.”

In the real world every situation is not covered in the drivers’ handbook, and that shouldn’t be expected. Human communications and decisions are more important than regimented adherence to the rulebook, when the situation requires it.

With darkened windshields and driver windows …  everything goes out the window.  I can’t see the driver, so that joint communication process is lost.

More recently, with the seeming proliferation of darkened windows, my habit has begun to alter; If I can’t see your face at all, and can not communicate with you in one of these odd moments that require it, because of darkened windows … I just go ahead. I will take the right of way if there is subjective question regarding it, and will even honk at you if you decide to proceed and get in my way.

If you don’t have the maturity or state of mind that puts everyone’s safety above your own aesthetic need for what you think ‘looks cool’, I don’t care.  If you can’t communicate with me because of how you tinted your window, I will not communicate with you.  If your windows are that dark, my politeness regime that I will show everyone else, is just gone.

Get rid of the tint, grow up and join the masses who put safety above vanity.

David Johnson is a Kamloops resident, community volunteer and self described maven of all things Canadian.