Bicycle Paths

[k10ery]

Right now, after Finch, Gatineau and a slew of Waterfront Trail projects; proposals call for paving the old Leaside Rail Spur/gravel bike path; completing new trails in the East Don (phase I now under construction); new trails beside the newmarket rail sub through the Downsview Park lands; finishing the West Toronto Rail path; and putting trails in next to the Lakeshore East Rail Line (the Scarborough Transportation Corridor at least to Guildwood GO Station in the east.

According to http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/initiatives/eng/index.asp?mode=8&imode=3&initiativeid=119&id=4175 the Leaside Rail Trail is now funded. And, as we know, all those pojects must be complete by March 2011 or the jobs created would magically disappear!
Seriously, is the Leaside trail less of a near term certainty than I thought?

A lot of that other stuff you list is a lot more speculative though.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Good news or bad news? From www.copenhagenize.com:

The City of Copenhagen issued a press release last Friday about how the City's stash of salt for the roads and bicycle lanes is very low due to the snowstorms of the past few weeks.

Salting: Bicycle Lanes and the main roads have the highest priority

Because of the hard winter conditions of the past several weeks there is a shortage of road salt all over Denmark, including Copenhagen. We must therefore prioritize which roads and paths we salt.

At the moment we are prioritising the bicycle lanes/cycle tracks as well as the main approach roads to the city, so that the police and ambulances can get in.

 

[junctionist]

When it comes to hydro corridor trails, they become more expensive when it comes to grade separation over major streets with bridges or tunnels. We already have a lot of hydro corridor trails without any infrastructure for the user to cross major streets that the trails inevitably intersect. Oftentimes even at quiet side streets there is no sidewalk curb cut to accommodate cyclists.

 

[typezed]

City Hall Transportation held a public meeting Monday to gather opinions on their plans for the bike network. They will be concentrating on the core because that will be where the new bikeshare program will operate. They had four initiatives they wanted to share.

Chevrons will be painted through intersections to make the bike lanes more visible. Bike boxes will be painted onto at some intersections, mostly along the Harbord and College lanes.

Sharrows will be painted in the curb lanes on a number of downtown streets, such as Spadina.

Rush-hour sharrows will be painted on the downtown steets that have streetcar lines.

They're studying bike lanes along University. These lanes will be physically separated. They could be along the curb and separated from traffic by both bollards and parking, or they could be placed next to the median. This received the best response of the meeting. I don't know if that was for bike lanes on University, or for the evolution toward separating the bike lanes from automobile traffic.

I'm quite sceptical about the sharrows. If half the streets in the core have some markings for bikes, some of which are parked upon for a portion of the day, it could lead to further disregard of the existing painted lanes. On the streetcar streets the sharrows will be where cars go when they want to race around the streetcars.

University could be a repeat of Jarvis, another big ugly battle for lanes on a street two blocks over from existing lanes. I'd like to see physical separation, but if they're able to construct separated lanes on University, maybe they should be able to construct them with much less hassle on St. George/Beverly, where the fight for any lanes at all doesn't need to be waged.

At the end of the public question portion of the meeting, Councillor Joe from Wychwood Barns grabbed the mike to give a pep talk telling us that this an ambitious plan that requires us all to stick together and make our voices heard if we want to see it through. I felt disenchanted to hear a politician attempt to rouse the committed to go man the ramparts for what mostly amounts to a whole lot more paint on the streets.

 

[kettal]

Thanks typezed, I wish I could have attended that meeting.

The problem with St. George & Beverley is that they end at Queen, and then you're stranded! But at the same time, University also does not make it any further south than Front Street. The most desirable option from what I can see is to have them continue on Simcoe Street in this southern portion.

 

[k10ery]

I don't believe there is any evidence that sharrows cause motorists to treat cyclists differently, or prevent accidents. They are truly a waste of paint.

Since the best thing for cycling safety is to have more riders boosting driver awareness, it is nuts to try to split the traffic between Jarvis and Sherbourne, or now St George and University. Far better to work on connecting up the existing pieces of the network, like where the Beverley lane Peters out instead of continuing on Peter St.

 

[current]

More bike trails being added and no road space was taken away from cars. InsideToronto.com article:

Work on Bike Path Through Scarborough Hydro Corridors Nears Completion

Path part of Infrastructure Canada program

DANIELLE MILLEY
Dec 23, 2010 - 8:11 AM

Work is almost complete on a bike path that will help make Scarborough more cyclist friendly.

As part of a Recreation Infrastructure Canada program, the City of Toronto is completing work on the Gatineau Hydro Corridor and part of the Finch Hydro Corridor.

In total 30 kilometres of new and four kilometres of upgraded multi-use trails are being added to the city's bikeway network with the bulk of the work being done in Scarborough.

The Gatineau Hydro Corridor runs northeast from Victoria Park Avenue to Ellesmere Road, east of Scarborough Golf Club.

"It will be a fantastic bike route diagonally across Scarborough," said Daniel Egan, manager of cycling infrastructure and programs with the city.

Crews have been busy working for months on the 3.5 metre wide multi-use trail that will be able to be used for cycling, walking, running, roller blading and other recreation activities.

Work is also almost complete on a section of the Finch Hydro Corridor from around Birchmount Road east to Middlefield Road. The Finch corridor runs nearly the entire length of the city and work is also being completed in a section that runs through North York.

The network of bike paths through the city's hydro corridors has been a goal for the city for a number of years, but it lacked the money to do the work until the infrastructure program came along and funding was awarded in July 2009.

The city received $13 million in total from the federal and provincial governments for the project and it earmarked $10 million in its own budget for the work, though Egan said the project should come in under budget.

"It's something that was identified as part of the bike plan in 2001," Egan said.

"It will open the doors to finishing the rest of the hydro corridors."

The pathways through the corridor will make cycling a little easier and safer in the city as they link up with other established trails in Scarborough and the rest of Toronto.

"You can pretty much cross Scarborough without interacting with cars," Egan said.

The bulk of the work is nearly complete, as the plan was to get it done before the worst of winter set in, but the project won't be officially complete until the spring.

The RInC project also includes trails in the CN Leaside Rail Corridor and the Scarborough Pit Spur.

http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/l...-scarborough-hydro-corridors-nears-completion

 

[reaperexpress]

"You can pretty much cross Scarborough without interacting with cars," Egan said.

Sadly, that's not true, since they didn't build any grade separations. The existing hydro corridor trails are great, until you reach a cross street, where there is no grade separation and often not even a crosswalk.

 

[GTS]

I live in Scarborough, not near the hydro corridor, but I use Victoria Park Station almost daily. The VP Station reno is almost done but I haven't noticed any large scale bicycle storage area there. Is there one that I have missed or do you know if they are planning one? Pharmacy Ave. has a reserved bike lane that goes almost from Eglinton down Pharmacy to almost the VP Station- I think the TTC should invest in this type of infrastructure at the station to accomodate the cyclists.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Wonder if Rob Ford will take credit for the new off-road bicycle paths, despite it was started with the previous administration. A bit like Adolf Hitler taking credit for the autobahn in Germany, when in reality it was started with the previous Weimar Republic government.

 

[adma]

Wonder if Rob Ford will take credit for the new off-road bicycle paths, despite it was started with the previous administration. A bit like Adolf Hitler taking credit for the autobahn in Germany, when in reality it was started with the previous Weimar Republic government.

Excusable Godwin there. Though I think there was Harris-era stuff like highway downloadings and mega-amalgamations that had really started getting into gear under the Rae NDP regime...

 

[confusion]

Wonder if Rob Ford will take credit for the new off-road bicycle paths, despite it was started with the previous administration. A bit like Adolf Hitler taking credit for the autobahn in Germany, when in reality it was started with the previous Weimar Republic government.

He'll probably want to replace them with new roads because they would get more use that way

 

[Northern Light]

In fairness our much maligned new Mayor.......

The off-road trail building program was part of his policy vision, indeed, he's proposed a good deal more trail building. Whether that materializes, we will have to see...

There were a few lines on his proposed bike map that will not happen (someone was just wishing).....

But there are several that are on the drawing boards which could be pushed through......

We will watching with interest to see if some of the following trails are funded:

1) Humber Gap
2) East Don (from Don Mills rd to the new trail at Wynford, linking to Lawrence)
3) Highland Creek Trail/Morning side park, link from the main park to SCC@Progress
4) Finishing the Finch Hydro Corridor Trail
5) Finishing the Scarb. Transp. Corridor Trail
6) Waterfront Trail (Bluffers Park to Pickering)
7) Canadian Northern Trail (under hydro lines, from Vic Park Station to Kennedy Stn)

I think we will see some of these, but we'll have a better idea when the Capital budget comes out in a few weeks.

 

[k10ery]

All excellent projects. Of these, I think the East Don trail is already planned and partly funded, as a gravel road has been built halfway up to Eglinton for the Coxwell sewer project.

My guess is we'll hear nothing about the Ford bike plan in the new capital budget but I hope I am wrong.

 

[nfitz]

My guess is we'll hear nothing about the Ford bike plan in the new capital budget but I hope I am wrong.

Which is unfortunate. His proposal to build two bike path bridges to Toronto Island was possibly the only enlightened thought in his entire plan (I can only assume he is so ignorant that he didn't realise that there was water in the way of his bike paths).