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General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

Cyclist rammed by taxi driver loses leg

Incident leaves man in critical condition and residents traumatized from 'horrible situation'

PETER CHENEY AND JOSH WINGROVE
Globe and Mail
November 15, 2008

The relationship between Toronto's cyclists and car drivers has always been an uneasy one - and yesterday it took a violent turn when a late-night standoff ended with a taxi ramming a bicycle rider, severing his leg.

"It's a horrible situation," said Bernadette Matos, who operates the Luna Cafe, just metres from the site of the incident, at the corner of Dovercourt Road and Argyle Street in southwest Toronto. Ms. Matos arrived at her café to find a scene straight out of a television crime show: the street was blocked by police vehicles, the sidewalk was flooded with blood and forensic experts were combing the area.

As she quickly learned, a tragic confrontation had taken place in the early hours of yesterday morning. Shortly after 2 a.m., residents were awoken by the sound of a high-decibel argument between two men - a cyclist and the driver of a Beck taxicab. Moments later, there was a loud collision followed by a sickening crunch and the sound of a man desperately screaming for help.

Several residents arrived on the street to see the taxi zooming away to the south, and the cyclist lying on the sidewalk, with his leg hanging by a few "shreds of gristle" as one witness described it. The cyclist, believed to be in his 30s, was taken to hospital with injuries that were described as "critical and life-threatening."

Toronto police said the cab driver called them about three hours later and gave a rambling, disjointed account of the incident, suggesting that a robbery or assault may have been involved. The driver then appeared at Toronto Police Traffic headquarters in Liberty Village, and was questioned for several hours. He was released, but police told him to stay in the city as the investigation continues.

"This is a fluid situation," police spokesman Sergeant Tim Burrows said. "We're working toward a clear picture of what actually happened."

Sgt. Burrows said police gathered evidence yesterday about what the driver was doing during the three hours that elapsed between the collision and his first call to police. Interviews with witnesses and others familiar with the case suggest that police are waiting to speak with the cyclist before deciding on criminal charges. Although several people heard the encounter and saw its aftermath, it seems that no one but the perpetrator and the victim witnessed the actual collision.

The cyclist was reported to be in critical condition late yesterday after undergoing a leg amputation. "He's in very rough shape," Sgt. Burrows said.

Gail Souter, the owner of Beck Taxi, said she was shocked by what had happened. "This is a tragic situation," she said. "A man lost his leg, and now he's fighting for his life. We're all shocked."

Ms. Souter said the driver involved in the incident leased the car for night shifts from another driver, who owns the taxi as well as the city-issued cab licence. Ms. Souter called the taxi owner repeatedly yesterday, but didn't get a return call. She said the driver involved in the collision with the cyclist is "a family man," and she has never heard anything but positive reports about him.

"We're as much in the dark as everyone else," she said. "We need to find out what actually happened."

Many local residents quickly categorized the incident as a violent manifestation of the animosity between car drivers and bicycle riders in Canada's largest city.

"This speaks to how badly cyclists get treated," said John Rodgers, a 24-year-old University of Toronto student who came to the Luna Cafe yesterday, and was stunned to hear what had taken place just hours before. "It's an extreme case, but it shows you the tensions."

The bloody incident left local residents traumatized. A woman named Tanya, who asked that her last name not be used, said her sleep was shattered by a loud argument on the street outside. By the time she was fully awake, the arguing had stopped, replaced by the sound of the cyclist yelling expletives at the cab driver. Then she heard an impact, followed by a distinct crunch.

The woman ran to her bedroom window and looked down to see a cab parked on the wrong side of the street in front of her home, facing south. Seconds later, the cab accelerated away to the south, toward Queen Street. When she arrived on the street, the woman found the victim sitting on the pavement in a pool of blood, his leg almost severed and screaming for help and yelling "stop."

"Once I came around the tree, it was pretty obvious his leg was gone," Tanya said. "There was a lot of blood ... His leg was gone. It was shredded. There were basically bones sticking out...."

The man was about a metre away from a steel pole that was bent by the force of the collision. Parts of his shattered bike were scattered around him. Tanya said the man wasn't wearing reflective clothes, and had a beard and long hair pulled back by a bandana.

Paramedics arrived almost immediately, she said, just before the man passed out. Tanya said she was unable to sleep for the rest of the night, and spent yesterday looking at cabs, hoping to spot the one she saw leaving the scene. "This is already burned forever in my memory," she said.

A woman who lives directly above the crash site said she ran to her window after hearing the impact in time to see the cyclist, in a bulky jacket and dark pants, sitting on the pavement. He rocked back and forth while screaming, tried to take his backpack off, and soon after keeled over and stopped moving.

"And then we started seeing blood," she said, miming a rapidly expanding circle with both hands. "The blood just came faster and faster. I've never seen anybody bleed that fast."
 
War of the wheels looms with cross-city bike lane plan

JEFF GRAY
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
May 20, 2009 at 4:12 AM EDT

In a move certain to be seized on by critics who claim the city is waging a war on cars, a study of an Etobicoke-to-Scarborough bike lane right across Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue will soon be unveiled by Toronto officials.

The feasibility study contemplates a city-spanning bicycle lane from Victoria Park Avenue to Kipling Avenue, passing through Greektown, the Annex and Bloor West Village, among other neighbourhoods.

The idea - long demanded by cycling activists who say the city lacks safe east-west bicycle routes - is expected to face a fight from drivers and business owners.

The report is still being finalized but is expected to come before the city's works committee on June 3.

It will outline the options for fitting a cross-city bicycle lane onto Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, such as the elimination of on-street parking or keeping parking but reducing rush-hour traffic to one lane in each direction, said Daniel Egan, the city's manager of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

"There isn't an easy design that can be implemented that is not going to have a big impact on the street," Mr. Egan said, adding that city council will have to decide whether to go ahead with a detailed design and public consultations.

But Councillor Adrian Heaps (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest), the chairman of the city's cycling committee, said he thinks a first stretch of the proposed Danforth Avenue bicycle lane, from Victoria Park to Sherbourne Street, could be installed as early as this year.

Mr. Heaps said the road is wide enough, even along the Danforth's popular stretch of mostly Greek restaurants between Broadview and Pape Avenues, to maintain on-street parking along with a bicycle lane.

"Taking away parking there would have a dramatic effect on the merchants and the restaurants," Mr. Heaps said. "We respect that. The mandate is, how do we get bike lanes in there and retain parking and respect for traffic flow? We're very close."

While he said a conventional painted bicycle lane, running alongside a lane of parked cars, is likely the preferred option, designs under consideration include "dedicated boulevards," or bicycle lanes separated from the street by bollards and which could involve bicycle-only traffic signals.

Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth), who has opposed bicycle lanes in the past, said neither he nor local businesses have been consulted about plans for a Danforth bicycle lane. He said he doubted bicycle lanes could be squeezed onto the Danforth without reducing parking or snarling car traffic.

"We keep doing these things on an ad-hoc basis without taking a look at the overall traffic situation," Mr. Ootes said, citing other city transportation initiatives such as the proposed narrowing of Jarvis Street, which is before city council next week. "... That's sadly lacking, and I think it's irresponsible."

A spokeswoman for the Greektown Business Improvement Area, which represents businesses along the Danforth, said the group's board has heard nothing about the bicycle-lane plan.

"Your call is the very first time that we have heard anything about the suggestion of bike lanes on Danforth Avenue," said Faiza Ansari, the BIA's director of operations. "So at this point, we don't have any comment but we are obviously going to find out what the heck is going on. It does concern us."

Glyn Laverick, chairman of the Danforth Business Improvement Area, said he has heard about the proposed bicycle lane but believes the city will have to consult businesses before going ahead. Restaurant owners say the area suffers from a shortage of parking now, he added.

"I know from a business point of view, I can't see it being met with open arms," said Mr. Laverick, owner of the Danforth Music Hall.

Albert Koehl, an environmental lawyer and co-founder of Bells on Bloor - a group that has been fighting for a Bloor Street bicycle lane - said that even if parking has to be sacrificed, a bicycle lane will attract new customers - on bicycles. He said he will be watching the city - long criticized for failing to deliver promised bicycle lanes - to see if it follows through.

"Given the city's track record ... we won't be celebrating any proposals or announcements about bike lanes until we are actually cycling on them," Mr. Koehl said.

Mr. Heaps said he does not think the Bloor-Danforth lane will be a massive council fight, since only a handful of councillors have opposed recent bicycle-lane measures.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to a council vote and harnessing public opinion," Mr. Heaps said. "I think public opinion is strongly in favour of seeing cycling infrastructure expanded."

***

NORTH-SOUTH, TOO

It's not just Bloor Street. In addition to a study of a city-spanning lane across Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, the city's cycling committee chairman, Councillor Adrian Heaps, says council will debate proposed bicycle lanes on University Avenue and encircling the Ontario Legislature on Queen's Park Crescent.

"We have to make a definite statement and go around our provincial counterparts," said Mr. Heaps. "There is ample room to respect traffic flow."

The proposed University Avenue lanes would start at Queen Street West. City transportation planners have been looking at "protected" bicycle lanes separated from automobile traffic by bollards or other barrier. But Mr. Heaps said such a plan might pose problems for ambulances serving University Avenue's hospitals, meaning the new lanes will likely be conventional ones.

The University Avenue lanes are part of a proposed package of new downtown bicycle lanes expected to come to the city's works committee on June 3. The new lanes are aimed at beefing up cycling routes before the planned 2010 launch of Toronto's bicycle-sharing service, modelled on similar services in Paris and Montreal. Jeff Gray
 
Awesome news, let's just hope it happens. Does anyone else find it kind of incongruous that merchants are complaining about lack of parking while at the same time objecting to making the area more accessible to bikes. If you make an area easier to cycle to, you can get customers who don't need to worry about parking.
 
Wow, a north-south bike route? I thought I'd never see the day. I know so many who travel from Y&E to downtown or likewise. Everyone seems to take Yonge since on Avenue Rd the traffic moves much too fast. I personally think Yonge is a better option, unless they can separate the lane, at least on Avenue Rd.
 
Awesome news, let's just hope it happens. Does anyone else find it kind of incongruous that merchants are complaining about lack of parking while at the same time objecting to making the area more accessible to bikes. If you make an area easier to cycle to, you can get customers who don't need to worry about parking.

My experience working at a BIA was that merchants feel that customers in cars are more frequent, numerous, and likely to spend money than cyclists, or transit users. Their lived experience dictates their attitude, and it is highly unlikely they will change their opinion. The only thing that will likely shift policy in this regard will be the aging of the population - as younger business owners take over who are either more disposed to cyclists or transit-users, or are less rigid in their thinking.
 
I can't believe how many negative news stories there are about the bike lane studies for a N-S and E-W route.

Let's take the Bloor-Danforth as an example. This route already has the highest concentration of cyclists anywhere in the city. It also has the highest number of injuries/accidents involving cyclists. So according to the people writing these articles, an 2-5 extra minutes on your car trip (which I doubt anyway since cyclists already take the right lane today on B-D) is worth more than someone being injured or potentially a life lost? When did Canadian's get their priorities so mixed up.

Toronto should be embarrassed about its cycling infrastructure. I'm not talking about council, I'm talking about the citizens.

Safety should always trump. It is not a war on the car, it is a war on the unsafe conditions the planning for the car in the 50's has done to our streets.

If a pedestrian walks into another pedestrian is there a death or injury? No.
If a cyclists hits a pedestrian is there a death or injury? Potential Injury.
If a car hits a cyclist or pedestrian is there a death or injury? Most likely.

Those three simple facts dictate that pedestrians have #1 priority. Cyclists have #2 priority, and cars #3 priority. It's not about commute time, it's not about convenience. It is about SAFETY!
 
More than anything, Toronto business owners have this infatuation with maintaining on-street parking everywhere that stymies any plans to unroll bike lanes.

When I think about it, the number of spaces that can be accommodated by on-street parking is pretty minimal given how much they interfere with attempts to widen sidewalks, build transit ROWs or implement bike lanes. Then there's the time and space wasted by drivers backing into parallel parking spaces blocking traffic, streetcars, bicyclists and emergency vehicles behind them. When you factor in that a fire hydrant has to be located no more than 90 m from any property along the street, you realize there really aren't that many on-street parking spaces to begin with and whatever is there is a lot of pain for little real gain.
 
Danforth businesses divided over bike lane

As council prepares to debate the issue, some say they are already hurt by lack of parking on the popular strip

JEFF GRAY

From Thursday's Globe and Mail, Thursday, May. 21, 2009 03:31AM EDT

In the calm after the lunch rush subsides at Omonia Restaurant on Danforth Avenue, apron-wearing owner Toula Agelopoulos comes in from the sunny patio to share her views of a proposed bike lane for her street.

"No bike lane" she tells a reporter. "No bike lane because they kill us with the [parking] tickets. We lose business with the tickets, so they are going to cut spots too?"

Hers echoed the comments of many canvassed yesterday on the vibrant strip anchored by long-established Greek restaurants. Many business owners said they feared losing scarce on-street parking spots to a bike lane and were quick to complain about what they say are the area's notoriously overzealous parking officers.

The idea of a city-spanning bike lane on Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue all the way from Kipling Avenue to Victoria Park Avenue is to surface next month at city hall.

On June 3, city council's works committee is expected to debate a feasibility study of the idea, long called-for by cycling activists, who say the city lacks safe east-west bike routes.

The study has yet to be finalized. But city councillor Adrian Heaps, chairman of the city's cycling committee, said the bike lane could be installed without sacrificing parking spots and that the eastern stretch, from Victoria Park to Sherbourne Street, could go ahead as early as this year if council approves it.

The city's manager of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, Daniel Egan, says any bike lane on Bloor/Danforth would involve a "big impact" on the street, either by cutting parking spots or slowing rush-hour motor traffic.

Currently, on the popular stretch of Danforth Avenue between Pape and BroadviewAvenues, parking is allowed on both sides of the street except in rush hour, when it is banned on the westbound side in the morning and the eastbound side in the afternoon, to allow for an extra traffic lane. Painting conventional bike lanes on the road while maintaining the parking would make this alternation impossible, reducing rush-hour traffic to one lane in each direction.

Despite the concerns, some businesses said they favoured a bike lane.

Linda Falagario, manager of Blackstone Organic Meats on the Danforth, said she thought it would encourage cycling.

"I think we need a bike lane," Ms. Falagrio said, adding that many of her customers arrive on foot from nearby neighbourhoods.

Even if on-street parking had to be eliminated, she said it would make little difference to her store, adding that those driving in can park in the area's Toronto Parking Authority "Green P" off-street lots.

"There's Green Ps here everywhere," she said. "... If you're driving here from south Rosedale, you probably have a couple other places [on the Danforth] you want to go, so you park in the Green P."
 
While I'm sure the opinion is not popular here I must say that I don't think I support bike lanes on the continuous stretch of Bloor-Danforth. I just don't actually see the benefits weighing in favour.

On safety, I still don't see the justification. All infrastructure is designed keeping public safety in mind but there are no absolutes and dedicated lanes will not eliminate hazard or necessary lead to any appreciable increase in safety. In my opinion road safety boils down to one simple mental state, sense of entitlement. All users of public rights-of-way seem to have this attitude in equal measure. To reduce this everyone needs to be aware of their surroundings at all times and recognize that regardless of the law or division of space they must be read to act to either forfeit their given right-of-way or take the right-of-way of another if the situation demands.

I incidentally bike, walk and drive in the areas in question. I drove today on Bloor, as well as cycling from Bloor and Ossington to Jarvis and back via College.
 
Bloor Bike Lanes

As a regular bike/subway/car user living in the Bloor West area, I can say that bike lanes along this major east-west corridor is an excellent idea. I'm not a huge fan of many of Toronto's bike lanes (the ones that put bikes in the door zones or act as parking for delivery trucks etc etc), but if done properly, Bloor street would be the perfect east-west street.

After cycling all over Ontario and Quebec (where the bike infrastructure is incredible), I hope Toronto takes a serious look at Montreal. Imagine a bike lane like this stretching from Kipling to Vic Park:

090411-302.jpg


I'm not sure if that's what they mean by "Dedicated boulevards" in the Globe article, but if it is, I hope it gets some serious consideration.

These may very well not work on Bloor (road width issues, car turning, snow plowing) but there are better options then what Toronto normally does with its lanes. A quick look at Flikr shows the good and ugly of bike lanes around the world....

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bike+lanes
 
Effort to make the street more bike-friendly expected to meet tough resistance

Showdown over Jarvis lane change

"Members of council who have aspirations for the next election are turning it into the 'war on cars,' " he said with disgust. "What I am doing on Jarvis is asking drivers to share that road with pedestrians, cyclists and transit."

Meanwhile, car drivers and cyclists rev up for perhaps the tightest vote since last October when Mr. Miller and his allies, by a one-vote margin, held off calls for the province to declare the Toronto Transit Commission an "essential service."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/showdown-over-jarvis-lane-change/article1148061/
 
As a regular bike/subway/car user living in the Bloor West area, I can say that bike lanes along this major east-west corridor is an excellent idea. I'm not a huge fan of many of Toronto's bike lanes (the ones that put bikes in the door zones or act as parking for delivery trucks etc etc), but if done properly, Bloor street would be the perfect east-west street.

After cycling all over Ontario and Quebec (where the bike infrastructure is incredible), I hope Toronto takes a serious look at Montreal. Imagine a bike lane like this stretching from Kipling to Vic Park:

090411-302.jpg


I'm not sure if that's what they mean by "Dedicated boulevards" in the Globe article, but if it is, I hope it gets some serious consideration.

These may very well not work on Bloor (road width issues, car turning, snow plowing) but there are better options then what Toronto normally does with its lanes. A quick look at Flikr shows the good and ugly of bike lanes around the world....

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bike+lanes

I saw bike lanes like this when I was in Amsterdam. Lots of folks moving about quickly. The lanes even had their own signals, synchronized with vehicular traffic. It's should be a case study reference for Toronto.
 

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