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"Parking Swap": Using street parking spots for bike parking

It's a great idea. That would help take bikes of pedestrian side walks to give more space for walking. Also fits a lot more bikes as well just by removing 2 parking spaces.
 
winters used to be very harsh in Toronto I admit. But if you notice, the past few years have been mild. I'm not sure if it's global warming or what. But the weather has been odd lately. Like Vancouver getting snow when they don't usually. Toronto getting warm when there should be blizzards and snowstorms.
 
Even so, Toronto gets very little precipitation in the winter. Even the past couple of years where we have had "record" precipitation have hardly been anything.

Cycling in Toronto is cold in the winter, but it is dry. Those are ideal conditions.

If Toronto was located where Buffalo is, it would be a different story since they get the lake effect.
 
Count the number of bicycles that would fit into this parking space.
brompton-42.JPG

Not counted is the aisle space above the parking spaces. A lot of real estate is wasted on motor vehicles.
 
CDL.TO said:
Not sure what part of Toronto you live in...?

Maybe if you take both Toronto, Canada and Toronto, Australia there's 8 months of winter combined.
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Lived here my whole life. I put my bike away from about end of October to May. It is either unbearably cold, snowy, or rainy/slushy. Sure, people bike through the winter. They also golf in November. Most don't.

Climate is probably the biggest drawback of this great city.
 
I don't think most people consider May and October to be wintertime.

Don't mean to be pedantic, but it bugs me when people say things like "8 months of winter" when it clearly isn't true.
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AKS said:
But if you notice, the past few years have been mild.
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A shade warmer perhaps ... but the last two winters have both had above average snowfalls. We had 217 cm of snow in 2008 compared to the 30-year average of 115.4. So far in 2009 we've had 91 cm ... so only 14.4 cm before New Years and we'll be above average (last year we had 78 cm before New Years, and in 2007 we had 55 cm before New Years).

It's certainly felt like more snow, as I shovel ... and shovel ... and shovel ...
 
nfitz said:
A shade warmer perhaps ... but the last two winters have both had above average snowfalls. We had 217 cm of snow in 2008 compared to the 30-year average of 115.4. So far in 2009 we've had 91 cm ... so only 14.4 cm before New Years and we'll be above average (last year we had 78 cm before New Years, and in 2007 we had 55 cm before New Years).

It's certainly felt like more snow, as I shovel ... and shovel ... and shovel ...
Click to expand...

don't we usually have a green xmas though? It's not often we have a white xmas. It gets chilly but it doesn't snow much until really late into the year or early next.
 
I'm not a winter cyclist. For the last couple years I've been able to ride until early December and been able to start again in mid-March.

If losing car parking spaces during the winter is really a problem, we could have a system where the city removes the bike facilities for the winter months.
 
Toronto's precipitation is constant all year around isn't it? So I don't see how the snow will be more of problem than the rain during the summer. Sure, the snow covers the road, but at least you don't get all wet from the rain, or from your sweat because it is too hot.
 
AKS said:
It's a great idea. That would help take bikes of pedestrian side walks to give more space for walking. Also fits a lot more bikes as well just by removing 2 parking spaces.
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Unfortunately it wouldn't eliminate those crazies who insist on cycling at high speeds on sidewalks.

I'm not sure that removing street parking spaces for cars is the best idea. In fact, I really find this whole war on cars versus bikes thing a little annoying. That being said, I'm sure there are better ways to accommodate bikes without losing car parking spaces, but I'd prefer to not have to be on a street - in traffic - dealing with the unlocking and moving my bike.
 
gristle said:
Unfortunately it wouldn't eliminate those crazies who insist on cycling at high speeds on sidewalks.

I'm not sure that removing street parking spaces for cars is the best idea. In fact, I really find this whole war on cars versus bikes thing a little annoying. That being said, I'm sure there are better ways to accommodate bikes without losing car parking spaces, but I'd prefer to not have to be on a street - in traffic - dealing with the unlocking and moving my bike.
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Well, it's either bikes vs cars or bikes vs pedestrians. Currently bikes are parked on sidewalks and only 2 are allowed per station. It seems very inefficient. There shouldn't be bikes vs cars and bikes vs pedestrians even when it comes to driving. There should be bike lanes. Why should bikers have to be scared of driving on the street due to cars and why should pedestrians have to be scared of bikers who drive on the side walk? Even cars have a slow and fast pace side for driving. Bikes, roller skates, skateboarders should share a lane. They can fight it out amongst themselves.

As for the locking/unlocking of bikes. if they placed the locks in the backside closer to the pedestrian rather than the car side, wouldn't that solve the problem? There's poles surrounding the bikes as well, so the cars wouldn't be running over them unless they're drunk.
 
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