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Cycling: Transportation services manager defies council on Adelaide "cycle track" bik

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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201..._adelaide_bike_lane_despite_council_vote.html

Toronto’s council voted 39-0 in June to install a “cycle track” on downtown Adelaide St. W. as part of a pilot project.

The city did not build a cycle track.

A cycle track is a bike lane physically separated from the rest of traffic. The government report on the Adelaide project, from transportation chief Stephen Buckley, suggested the city would use “flexi-posts.”

But there were no posts of any kind when the eastbound Adelaide lane opened with fanfare last week, nor any other physical barrier. Cyclists are kept apart from motorized vehicles only by white lines painted on the road and a metre-wide buffer zone.

Advocacy group Cycle Toronto demanded Wednesday that city transportation officials comply with council’s directive. Buckley rejected the group’s concerns.
Buckley acknowledged that the current lane is probably best defined as a “buffered bike lane,” not the cycle track council voted for. But he noted that council also “voted for a pilot.”

In a pilot project, he said, his department has the flexibility to experiment and see what works. He said he has asked his staff to “play with some things” and closely monitor the results.

“There’s folks out there that — they want what they want. And they have in their mind what they want. And I’ll say I think that the folks should trust the civil servants that are working on this, and let us sort of try new things. Which is the whole point of doing a pilot,” Buckley said.
Jared Kolb, Cycle Toronto’s executive director, said council did not give Buckley the freedom to decide whether or not to erect a physical barrier. Council’s language, he said, is “very clear”: the city is to create a separated lane.


Short Bio: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/1...-transportation-manager-on-easing-congestion/

The City of Toronto has poached another American bureaucrat to fill a top civic position. Stephen Buckley, the new general manager of transportation services, hails from Philadelphia, where he is the Deputy Commissioner for Transportation and the Director of Policy Planning in the Office of Transportation Services. He starts in Toronto on Dec. 3.
 
Agreed, control creamery of the worst order if this is true.
 
I'm all for allowing the civil service to experiment with different types of infrastructure. They have some posts up. If the posts do significantly reduce the number of cars driving/parking in the cycling lane, I would like City to have actually gathered the data to prove it and to see where and when the posts are most effective. It would be great if they could experiment with other types of barriers as well.
 
I wonder if this guy was another US type recruit (a la "Gene Jones") by our US--style punch drunk Mayor?
 
In a pilot project, he said, his department has the flexibility to experiment and see what works. He said he has asked his staff to “play with some things” and closely monitor the results.

Because white lines have worked extremely well in this city, so lets give it another try.

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I like what they do with bike lanes in Mississauga, they're painted on green, attractive, easy to see and navigate around for cyclists and cars.
 
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I like what they do with bike lanes in Mississauga, they're painted on green, attractive, easy to see and navigate around for cyclists and cars.

There are also off-street asphalt paths along some major roads such as Burnhamthorpe and The Queensway, which I think are great and should be implemented wherever possible. I haven't seen the green bike lanes though, where are they?
 
There are also off-street asphalt paths along some major roads such as Burnhamthorpe and The Queensway, which I think are great and should be implemented wherever possible. I haven't seen the green bike lanes though, where are they?

I'm not a big fan of these,mostly because unlike Toronto's next-to-street bike lanes, they comes with "Cyclists Dismount - walk bicycle across roadway" signs at every damn intersection. Not that cyclists will actually do it, but they aren't that helpful for commuter cyclists. The same with the ones in Brampton along Bovaird/Castlemore, etc. They can be done better.
 
I'm not a big fan of these,mostly because unlike Toronto's next-to-street bike lanes, they comes with "Cyclists Dismount - walk bicycle across roadway" signs at every damn intersection. Not that cyclists will actually do it, but they aren't that helpful for commuter cyclists. The same with the ones in Brampton along Bovaird/Castlemore, etc. They can be done better.

The best one I've see is along Eglinton W in Etobicoke. I like how it's wide, has painted lines, dedicated crosswalks, is well separated from the sidewalk, and is not too close to the curb.
 
The best one I've see is along Eglinton W in Etobicoke. I like how it's wide, has painted lines, dedicated crosswalks, is well separated from the sidewalk, and is not too close to the curb.
Agreed. This is a great bike lane. It's pretty much on Eglinton so it actually gets you to places, but at the same time it's surrounded by trees so you don't feel like you're riding next to a large arterial road.
 

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