News   Apr 18, 2024
Long Term Care Facility to be Built at Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital
 407     0 
News   Apr 18, 2024
Canada's Tallest Tower to be Taller, Again
 2.9K     1 
News   Apr 18, 2024
Originate Developments Achieves Zoning Approval for Two Ambitious Residential Projects
 2.1K     4 

Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

sche said:
Why does that pilot zone along Finch not go to yonge to get to north york centre or go into York U? seems like a really random low density area for the pilot
Click to expand...

Good question.

Don't know the answer.

Though I know the program was pushed to look at serving suburban Unis, including York and UTSC; so its possible we just shouldn't assume the map to be 100% accurate. But I don't know that to be the case.
 
New report to the next Infrastructure and Environment Ctte on Cycling Network installations/upgrades for early 2020 (this year)


The report requests approval for the following new installations:

- Borden Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Brunswick Avenue (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Dewson Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Douro Street (bicycle lanes/cycle tracks, Ward 10)
- Murray Ross Parkway (cycle track, Ward 7)
- Roxton Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Sumach Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 13)
- Ulster Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Wellington Street (bicycle lanes/cycle tracks, Ward 10)

And

The Following upgrades/changes:

- Blue Jays Way (passenger loading zone along bicycle lane: Ward 10)
- College Street at Borden Street: (intersection improvement: Ward 11)
- Lower River Street (bicycle lane to cycle track: Ward 13)
- Shuter Street (bicycle lane to cycle track: Ward 13)
- Shaw Street (street mazing and traffic diversion: Ward 11)

Map of the changes is from the report, below:

1583335900733.png
 
I'm frustrated that there's no movement on a North-South #minimumgrid in Scarborough. There's no safe way to cross the 401 on a bike between the Don and Rouge rivers. There has been no replacement of the Pharmacy and Birchmount bike lanes that Mayor Rob Ford ripped up in 2010.

What I'd like to see would be a cycletrack along Birchmount from the lake to Steeles. There is already some bike infrastructure on Birchmount in York Region. It has no highway onramps, so no major hazards, and it crosses both the 401 and the 407 unlike Pharmacy.
 
Last edited:
leopetr said:
I'm frustrated that there's no movement on a North-South #minimumgrid in Scarborough. There's no safe way to cross the 401 on a bike between the Don and Rouge rivers. There has been no replacement of the Pharmacy and Birchmount bike lanes that Mayor Rob Ford ripped up in 2010.

What I'd like to see would be a cycletrack along Birchmount from the lake to Steeles. There is already some bike infrastructure on Birchmount in York Region. It has no highway onramps, so no major hazards, and it crosses both the 401 and the 407 unlike Pharmacy.
Click to expand...

As one who bike commutes from North Scarborough to Downtown via Birchmount - Dandforth - Sherbourne on the way South and Dundas - Greenwood - Danforth - Woodbine - O'Connor - Gatineau Hydro Corridor - Birchmount on the way North (only in the spring to fall on this path since Gatineau corridor is unplowed in the winter), I am really desperate for a bike friendly North South corridor that gets me over the 401.

Currently that road for me is Birchmount but it is too busy during rush hours. When riding my bike I need to get going at 5AM in the morning and wait until 6PM to head back from downtown to avoid the rush hours volume of vehicles along Birchmount.

Newly re-paved stretches of Birchmount in Scarborough (Steeles to McNicol, Lawrence to Eglington) have dividers... That could have been a perfect opportunity to put real bike lanes there instead of dividers. Danforth road from Birchmount to Danforth also have these dividers... These should have been made into bike lanes.

Here is a typical commute of mine southbound:

C2s8FKd.png


Northbound:

9TgtrmQ.png


The most stressful part of the commute is when I am along Birchmount. Having bike lanes along this road would be a perfect way to bridge over the 401 from downtown to Scarborough since there are no ramps to the 401 along Birchmount... An alternative would be bike lanes along Midland.
 
MisterF said:
Yeah it's frustrating to see Scarborough left as a gaping hole in the cycling map. There are so many arterial roads with lots of room for bike lanes or paths that would be relatively easy to build. Yet it's left as a cycling desert.
Click to expand...

I even wrote Karygiannis and Metrolinx with proposals on a map how to make the Milliken GO Station station more bike and pedestrian friendly to neighboring subdivisions. I walk 2.5 km to and from the GO Station at Milliken when I am not commuting by bike to work downtown. All I got was a canned response from both... Nothing really happened.
 
Northern Light said:
New report to the next Infrastructure and Environment Ctte on Cycling Network installations/upgrades for early 2020 (this year)


The report requests approval for the following new installations:

- Borden Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Brunswick Avenue (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Dewson Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Douro Street (bicycle lanes/cycle tracks, Ward 10)
- Murray Ross Parkway (cycle track, Ward 7)
- Roxton Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Sumach Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 13)
- Ulster Street (contra-flow bike lane, Ward 11)
- Wellington Street (bicycle lanes/cycle tracks, Ward 10)

And

The Following upgrades/changes:

- Blue Jays Way (passenger loading zone along bicycle lane: Ward 10)
- College Street at Borden Street: (intersection improvement: Ward 11)
- Lower River Street (bicycle lane to cycle track: Ward 13)
- Shuter Street (bicycle lane to cycle track: Ward 13)
- Shaw Street (street mazing and traffic diversion: Ward 11)

Map of the changes is from the report, below:

View attachment 234386
Click to expand...
Woah, no love for etobicoke, north york and scarborough? C'mon. Isn't it super easy to build a multi-use path on any wide scarborough road, and here, they need 5 years of "analysis and feasibility" it's obvious there's a huge gap in scarborough. I also noticed that downtown can expedite building bike lanes but it's much slower outside of that area.
 
H4F33Z said:
Woah, no love for etobicoke, north york and scarborough? C'mon. Isn't it super easy to build a multi-use path on any wide scarborough road, and here, they need 5 years of "analysis and feasibility" it's obvious there's a huge gap in scarborough. I also noticed that downtown can expedite building bike lanes but it's much slower outside of that area.
Click to expand...

I need to control myself from hurling invectives on this forum but I am beyond frustrated whenever I read about the Vision Zero and Cycling Network BS that I have been reading about for the past 20 or so years... All the so called "improvements" have been limited to the core. There is no coherent strategy to really link the core to the inner suburbs like North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke.
 
The pace of infrastructure construction is frustrating enough in the core, I can't even imagine how it must feel to live in the suburbs where it's nonexistent. Condolences!
 
H4F33Z said:
Woah, no love for etobicoke, north york and scarborough? C'mon. Isn't it super easy to build a multi-use path on any wide scarborough road, and here, they need 5 years of "analysis and feasibility" it's obvious there's a huge gap in scarborough. I also noticed that downtown can expedite building bike lanes but it's much slower outside of that area.
Click to expand...
It's not only downtown, but the 905 suburbs are doing a better job than the 416 suburbs. And smaller cities and towns outside the GTA are building bike infrastructure at an impressive pace as well. Like Kitchener and, more recently, Belleville to name a couple.
 
cyclo said:
I need to control myself from hurling invectives on this forum but I am beyond frustrated whenever I read about the Vision Zero and Cycling Network BS that I have been reading about for the past 20 or so years... All the so called "improvements" have been limited to the core. There is no coherent strategy to really link the core to the inner suburbs like North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke.
Click to expand...
It doesn't help that the typical city councillor who represents these areas have not only done nothing to push for improvements, but have often have fought against it. You can also thank councillor Robinson and her colleagues at the public works committee for removing "corridor studies" from the cycling plan, which would have assessed eight major roads for potential bike lanes (Yonge St, Bloor, Danforth, Jane, Kingston Rd, Kipling Ave, Midland Ave, and Lake Shore Blvd W).
 
Last edited:
leopetr said:
I'm frustrated that there's no movement on a North-South #minimumgrid in Scarborough. There's no safe way to cross the 401 on a bike between the Don and Rouge rivers. There has been no replacement of the Pharmacy and Birchmount bike lanes that Mayor Rob Ford ripped up in 2010.

What I'd like to see would be a cycletrack along Birchmount from the lake to Steeles. There is already some bike infrastructure on Birchmount in York Region. It has no highway onramps, so no major hazards, and it crosses both the 401 and the 407 unlike Pharmacy.
Click to expand...

There's no safe route across the 401 between the Don and Humber Rivers either. Bayview, Yonge, Bathurst, Dufferin, Keele, and Jane are disasters; Avenue Road isn't great either. Only Wendell offers a semi-safe route, but it doesn't connect to anything north or south, really.
 
cyclo said:
I even wrote Karygiannis and Metrolinx with proposals on a map how to make the Milliken GO Station station more bike and pedestrian friendly to neighboring subdivisions. I walk 2.5 km to and from the GO Station at Milliken when I am not commuting by bike to work downtown. All I got was a canned response from both... Nothing really happened.
Click to expand...

You have my sympathy.

But perhaps, a tiny bit of good news, if you didn't know; the Steeles Avenue grade separation and the widening of Steeles associated further east will both have bike lanes. (assuming the approved EAs are followed)
 
Northern Light said:
You have my sympathy.

But perhaps, a tiny bit of good news, if you didn't know; the Steeles Avenue grade separation and the widening of Steeles associated further east will both have bike lanes. (assuming the approved EAs are followed)
Click to expand...

Yes I have seen that plan... but, where will those bike lanes lead to? It would be great if the proposed bike lanes to the east connected to those lanes that exist along Steeles from McCowan to HW48 and beyond (hopefully to Taunton) and if the proposed lanes extended at least up to Vic Park or better still, Woodbine in the West. HOWEVER, a better option, and this is what I proposed in my letter to Karygiannis and Metrolinx, is to provide bike and pedestrian friendly towards Passmore Ave which is South of Steeles, either adjacent to the railroad tracks or or via Silver Star. Then put bike lanes along Passmore and Purcell which will actually connect the subdivisions all the way from West of Warden to Brimely and beyond. There is a lot less vehicular traffic on these roads compared to Steeles. I actually avoid walking on the sidewalks along Steeles on my trek to Milliken station even though that route is shorter. This is mainly to avoid boith noise and pollution coming off the buses, trucks and vehicles. The people who are designing these paths / bike lanes have never probably ridden bikes along these roads nor have they walked on the sidewalks beside them.

What I think is infinitely more important however ARE North-South bike friendly streets that make it safe for cyclists to get to and from the core. These could be along Bathurst in the West, Yonge in the Center; O'Connor - Vic Park, Birchmount, or Midland in the East or maybe even improve the path that is beside the DVP so it actually gets one to Drewry-McNicol or better yet all the way up to Steeles.
 
cyclo said:
Yes I have seen that plan... but, where will those bike lanes lead to? It would be great if the proposed bike lanes to the east connected to those lanes that exist along Steeles from McCowan to HW48 and beyond (hopefully to Taunton) and if the proposed lanes extended at least up to Vic Park or better still, Woodbine in the West. HOWEVER, a better option, and this is what I proposed in my letter to Karygiannis and Metrolinx, is to provide bike and pedestrian friendly towards Passmore Ave which is South of Steeles, either adjacent to the railroad tracks or or via Silver Star. Then put bike lanes along Passmore and Purcell which will actually connect the subdivisions all the way from West of Warden to Brimely and beyond. There is a lot less vehicular traffic on these roads compared to Steeles. I actually avoid walking on the sidewalks along Steeles on my trek to Milliken station even though that route is shorter. This is mainly to avoid boith noise and pollution coming off the buses, trucks and vehicles. The people who are designing these paths / bike lanes have never probably ridden bikes along these roads nor have they walked on the sidewalks beside them.

What I think is infinitely more important however ARE North-South bike friendly streets that make it safe for cyclists to get to and from the core. These could be along Bathurst in the West, Yonge in the Center; O'Connor - Vic Park, Birchmount, or Midland in the East or maybe even improve the path that is beside the DVP so it actually gets one to Drewry-McNicol or better yet all the way up to Steeles.
Click to expand...

We wouldn't disagree on your wishlist.

As to the actual plans, to my understanding, bike lanes are contemplated as Kennedy to Pickering.

Anything west of Kennedy is off in the future in terms of specific projects.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top