Give me a sign

In my September 2009 post about bike cutouts at traffic diverters, I finished the post with a description of the then-incomplete bike cutout on McLeod at Bank.

In February 2010 it was still incomplete because the space was needed for the cranes to temporarily remove the facade of the Metropolitan Bible Church:

In May 2010 the island was added to allow cyclists to go straight or left while diverting motorists to the right. The church's facade is behind, being stored temporarily in the pit.

A sign was erected on the sidewalk side noting the intersection restrictions...

And then in July a "tigertail" sign was added to the island to avoid people bumping into it in poor visibility conditions.

When they cut out the hole for the island, I noticed that the clearance was only 1.2 metres. In road projects where I've been more closely involved, 1.8 metres is given as the minimum width for a sidewalk plow to get through to clear snow from the bike cutouts. I complained about this, but it was too far along to do anything. As a result, the cutout is covered in snow during the winter:

In January 2011, the construction of the Central Phase 1 was far enough along to move the Metropolitan Bible Church facade back into place. Various street furniture, including lampposts and the signs for the diverter/cutout, were removed to allow clearance for the cranes.

Following this, the signs were placed on a temporary, movable wooden signpost. On multiple occasions, it was blocking the bike cutout and I had to put it back on the island.

When I pointed this out to the City (and the project manager for the Bank Street reconstruction), I didn't expect a prompt response. After all, it took a year and a half to get a response on the Lewis Street potholes. But to my surprise, just a week after I had sent in my e-mail, the signs had been installed on a new permanent signpost on the traffic island.

I suppose they forgot about the tigertail, though to be honest I did too until I prepared this post. It's unfortunate that the precast concrete paver crosswalk was installed too low (or the island and sidewalk too high) requiring the city to pave a layer of asphalt over it.

Anyhow, one less thing in the way of a cycling route!