General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[salsa]

Highway 7 - How not to design bike lanes for a high speed suburban road


No physical protection.

Disappears at major intersections.

 

[MisterF]

But the bike lane doesn't disappear at that intersection. It's right there in the photos you posted.

 

[LNahid2000]

I've ridden on highway 7 and it's not bad actually. Feels safer than Bloor at least.

 

[Fred.S]

It really irks me when they totally rebuild a street and put such substandard bike infrastructure on it.

I get painted and protected on-street bike lanes when they're just adding them to an existing or repaved street. But when they have a chance to rebuild one, where they're actually redesigning the road width, moving sewers, etc, then there's no excuse. There should be curb-level cycle tracks, away from the road. Now they'll potentially be there for the next 60 years. It was the same thing with the Dufferin St rebuild. I don't cycle in Vaughan much, but when I do, I usually just ride on the sidewalk, it's less hassle and worry.

In Mississauga they're moving to boulevard trails and will have cycle tracks on the Hurontario LRT, so there's a better example of how to do things in the suburbs. Proper protected intersections need to be on the radar for everyone though.

 

[salsa]

But the bike lane doesn't disappear at that intersection. It's right there in the photos you posted.

Not the best wording, but here's a Vancouver example of what I'm talking about.

Except on Hwy 7 there's no green paint where it crosses the turn lane, and the transition is extremely long. This is unacceptable.

 

[11th]

Not the best wording, but here's a Vancouver example of what I'm talking about.

View attachment 105152




Except on Hwy 7 there's no green paint where it crosses the turn lane, and the transition is extremely long. This is unacceptable.

View attachment 105153

More about inconsistency on how they build the lanes. If you go back a few hundred metres in your second photo, you will see they do have green painted lane when Highway 7 branches out to the 404 SB on-ramp.

 

[ADRM]

A similarly poor example of a new cycle route without adequate safety measures; stupid, dangerous, and completely unnecessary. Dixie Rd. today:

 

[steveintoronto]

[/i]
Association between active commuting and incident cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality: prospective cohort study
BMJ 2017; 357 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1456 (Published 19 April 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;357:j1456

This will be in the Canadian press Thursday. Here's the full study from the British Medical Journal, no paywall or subscription needed:

http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1456

This forum software is truly buggy. Even formatting HTML in another program, rebooting this page, and pasting back in, I can't defeat the italics tab. I give up...

One last try, I'll use the bracket end 'i' command...

 

[PinkLucy]

Or you could just highlight and italicize?

 

[steveintoronto]

Or you could just highlight and italicize?

Doesn't work. Even tried tags to invert the command, doesn't work either. I've come across the problem prior with capitals, font style and size. The tags seem to 'latch' until tagged off to force them to revert.

First time I've tried a rogue tag like that, and it worked. The problem is in pasting in, when the tags are acting as being embedded.

In all fairness, I'm using a Linux OS, and the HTML, although supposedly universal, might lose some bulletin board language integrity with the UT server. Firefox browser might also be partly to blame, they're dropping support for a number of functions that Chrome still supports.

Next time it happens, I'll switch to Chrome to see if it repeats.

 

[Momin]

Increasing Transit Usage: Making the 'Last Mile' an Active One

 

[Waterloo_Guy]

http://torontoobserver.ca/2017/04/2...aining-about-bike-lanes-on-bloor-street-west/

Some businesses are saying that the bike lanes on Bloor are hurting business. Is this still a pilot project? If it really is hurting business, I hope the City will have the courage to remove the bike lanes. Or redesign them to permit parking also as they do in some other cities.

 

[steveintoronto]

Some businesses are saying that the bike lanes on Bloor are hurting business. Is this still a pilot project? If it really is hurting business, I hope the City will have the courage to remove the bike lanes. Or redesign them to permit parking also as they do in some other cities.

I can't follow the logic of your points, as the very article you link states that it's an ongoing study, and what results are available are actually predominantly pro:
[According to the city’s interim report on the area, of 150 local business representatives, opinions are split between support (53%) and opposition (41%) to the bike lanes from the online survey.]
So are you suggesting that a minority win over the majority's wishes?

Myself, I think the whole Bloor charade is little more than that, a terribly set-up and implemented half-measure that's both dangerous and non-compliant with Ontario HTA and other standards. It's *so* Toronto...albeit Toronto has far better examples of bike-lanes elsewhere in the city. They're not being used (gist) "as a study to determine further bike lanes in the City" however.

Meantime, Toronto Council, being the jellyfish that they are, and in that respect, representing their spineless constituents, are clueless about how others do things vastly better.

But that's a whole other topic in itself...

 

[Waterloo_Guy]

I can't follow the logic of your points.

Then you have very poor reading comprehension, because I didn't make any points. I simply asked a question, and said that if it is hurting business I hope it is modified or removed. And it is not an issue of minority/majority. If that many businesses really are hurt by it, then it is clearly a problem.

 

[steveintoronto]

Then you have very poor reading comprehension, because I didn't make any points. I simply asked a question, and said that if it is hurting business I hope it is modified or removed. And it is not an issue of minority/majority. If that many businesses really are hurt by it, then it is clearly a problem.

Well sir, perhaps you could tell me what the following are?

Some businesses are saying that the bike lanes on Bloor are hurting business.

I hope the City will have the courage to remove the bike lanes.

Or redesign them to permit parking also as they do in some other cities.

But I trust you on your word. Indeed, you don't make any points.

And this proves it:

And it is not an issue of minority/majority. If that many businesses really are hurt by it, then it is clearly a problem.

Goodness gracious me! Is that how representative democracy works? I'm sorry, I must have the wrong nation....And btw, they do have parking still. I trust you don't drive?

Here's a pic and a diagram from the City:

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=18ccded2f6711510VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD