General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[Towered]

As per an this report, updating the Yonge Tomorrow plan, the new downtown Yonge will NOT contain any cycling facilities, but will add such facilities to a nearby parallel street, one of Bay, University or Church.

Agenda Item History - 2019.IE8.11

Bay already has bike lanes...

 

[Northern Light]

Bay already has bike lanes...

Not along its full length, proposal here is King to Davenport area initially with an eye to further north.

Bike lanes along any of these streets involves cutting traffic lanes. Bay has TTC service which may complicate matters.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Church makes the most sense to me in terms of adding bike lanes, no buses, doesn't impact the streetcar track in the centre lanes. Could also widen the sidewalks in the Village at the same time if you're cutting street parking to make space for the bike lanes.

 

[salsa]

Church makes the most sense to me in terms of adding bike lanes, no buses, doesn't impact the streetcar track in the centre lanes. Could also widen the sidewalks in the Village at the same time if you're cutting street parking to make space for the bike lanes.

Agree on all points. However I would also include University Ave as well, because why not? It should be entirely doable (8 lanes of traffic, curb lanes are only used for street parking most of the time), and would really help fill in the gap in the central area of downtown.

Here's a map of what this could look like alongside the existing network. New bike lanes shown in orange could go on:
- Yonge street north of Davenport
- Bloor street (closing the gap between Avenue Rd and Sherbourne) - this is already planned
- Church St + an extension of the Davenport Rd bike lanes
- University Ave from Bloor St to Adelaide (anything beyond Adelaide may be unfeasible due to reduced road width)

 

[innsertnamehere]

Church makes the most sense to me in terms of adding bike lanes, no buses, doesn't impact the streetcar track in the centre lanes. Could also widen the sidewalks in the Village at the same time if you're cutting street parking to make space for the bike lanes.

TTC doesn't like running streetcar tracks on 1 lane roads - in service or out of service. This may be problematic for Chuch between Front and Carleton.. but the TTC may have to make an exception.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Agree on all points. However I would also include University Ave as well, because why not? It should be entirely doable (8 lanes of traffic, curb lanes are only used for street parking most of the time), and would really help fill in the gap in the central area of downtown.

Here's a map of what this could look like alongside the existing network. New bike lanes shown in orange could go on:
- Yonge street north of Davenport
- Bloor street (closing the gap between Avenue Rd and Sherbourne) - this is already planned
- Church St + an extension of the Davenport Rd bike lanes
- University Ave from Bloor St to Adelaide (anything beyond Adelaide may be unfeasible due to reduced road width)


View attachment 208279

Since University Avenue is downtown, there is no need for on-street parking, since there are many, many off-street parking garages. Should consider using a common parking garage sign.

From link.

 

[Andy_in_Toronto]

Why not build out Bay St. down to Front St. with well protected bike lanes? Seems to offer the best connection to important locations (Eaton Centre, City Call, Financial District and Union Station)!

 

[smably]

Church also has the disadvantage of not connecting to the MGT and waterfront (unless the city somehow manages to extend it under the rail corridor one day).

 

[reteequa]

I would prefer them on Bay. Its kind of like the middle of what we already have existing. It connects best and could be taken all the way down to queens quay easiest.

A few issues with church, it is pretty close to sherbourne, it doesn't go past the Gardiner so there is no chance in the future to connect to the waterfront. Ryerson is hoping to narrow the street between Gerrard and Dundas to make it safer for students. It is a long time in the future but currently one of the busiest intersections at the school and will only get busy with Ryerson's expansion to Jarvis and Dundas.

The only thing about church I like is it has the least amount of car traffic currently so just remove on street parking and it wouldn't affect that much.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Church also has the disadvantage of not connecting to the MGT and waterfront (unless the city somehow manages to extend it under the rail corridor one day).

The city does actually have a plan to fix this. Not sure when it would happen though, but plans have been made.

I would prefer them on Bay. Its kind of like the middle of what we already have existing. It connects best and could be taken all the way down to queens quay easiest.

A few issues with church, it is pretty close to sherbourne, it doesn't go past the Gardiner so there is no chance in the future to connect to the waterfront. Ryerson is hoping to narrow the street between Gerrard and Dundas to make it safer for students. It is a long time in the future but currently one of the busiest intersections at the school and will only get busy with Ryerson's expansion to Jarvis and Dundas.

The only thing about church I like is it has the least amount of car traffic currently so just remove on street parking and it wouldn't affect that much.

IMO we should have them on both Bay and Church. It's funny how there's a common belief that bike lanes are a thing we can have too many of in an area, unlike road lanes or sidewalks (which are things that obviously make sense on basically every street). As for Ryerson, if you were to remove the street parking lane, there should be space to both widen the sidewalk for students as well as include bike lanes, plus I'm sure students who bike to campus would appreciate being able to use the bike lanes.

 

[Andy_in_Toronto]

I’m in favour for Church and Bay St. to implement protected bike lanes. Who is starting a conversation with the city councillor?

 

[innsertnamehere]

Bay street does have the waterfront connection, but my one concern is the amount of auto traffic on it, especially through the financial core. It's only a 20m ROW between Queen and Front Street, and that stretch is absolutely clogged with cars. If you reduce it to 1 lane each way, as well as pedestrianize Yonge, you are really going to significantly reduce auto capacity into the core. A bit of capacity reduction is fine, but I'm worried that would be "catastrophic".

Church is relatively lightly traveled comparitively, and would be a much easier conversion because of that. But maybe I'm just biased since I live on Church

 

[salsa]

Bay street does have the waterfront connection, but my one concern is the amount of auto traffic on it, especially through the financial core. It's only a 20m ROW between Queen and Front Street, and that stretch is absolutely clogged with cars. If you reduce it to 1 lane each way, as well as pedestrianize Yonge, you are really going to significantly reduce auto capacity into the core. A bit of capacity reduction is fine, but I'm worried that would be "catastrophic".

My thoughts exactly. And for the waterfront connection, you can use the existing bike lanes on Yonge street and use The Esplanade to go between Church and Yonge Street.

That being said, I generally detest these kind of choppy, indirect cycling routes that are forced on us and are so common all over this city. But since someone decided we cant have bike lanes on Yonge for some reason.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Admiral Beez]

Bay street does have the waterfront connection, but my one concern is the amount of auto traffic on it, especially through the financial core. It's only a 20m ROW between Queen and Front Street, and that stretch is absolutely clogged with cars. If you reduce it to 1 lane each way, as well as pedestrianize Yonge, you are really going to significantly reduce auto capacity into the core. A bit of capacity reduction is fine, but I'm worried that would be "catastrophic".

Church is relatively lightly traveled comparitively, and would be a much easier conversion because of that. But maybe I'm just biased since I live on Church

I used to ride Bikeshare every day from Parliament and Richmond, down Bay to Union. The annoying thing wasn't the moving cars, but the illegally parked cars and especially buses sitting in the curb lane outside the buildings. I wish Toronto had a much more aggressive tag and tow policy and TPS force.

 

[ShonTron]

Bay street does have the waterfront connection, but my one concern is the amount of auto traffic on it, especially through the financial core. It's only a 20m ROW between Queen and Front Street, and that stretch is absolutely clogged with cars. If you reduce it to 1 lane each way, as well as pedestrianize Yonge, you are really going to significantly reduce auto capacity into the core. A bit of capacity reduction is fine, but I'm worried that would be "catastrophic".

Church is relatively lightly traveled comparitively, and would be a much easier conversion because of that. But maybe I'm just biased since I live on Church

The problem with Church is the streetcar tracks between Carlton and Wellington Streets. This limits the ability to play with the road configuration, such as what was done on Bloor, allowing for parking and left turn lanes in sections.

It's a lot easier to play with Yonge Street.