News   Mar 28, 2024
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Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

Sooooo close!

Medians, properly separated cycle tracks, even protected intersections! This is amazing.

Only a few more small details to fix:
- 2.1m sidewalks should be reduced to 1.8m (minimum AODA requirement) in favour of 2.0m cycle tracks
- There's sometimes a weird buffer between the sidewalk and cycle track which is unnecessary and should be eliminated in favour of wider cycle tracks and/or wider buffer between the cycle track and road
- As others have mentioned, narrowing the median slightly to increase buffer for the cycle tracks
- Swapping the new cycle track and trees, so that the trees are between the cycle track and roadway instead of between the cycle track and sidewalk
- Removing the curb where the cycle tracks intersect driveways or other roads. The cycle track should be continuous, not the curb, so cyclists have a smoother surface
- Coloured asphalt! Makes everything so much better!
- Eliminate the on-street parking and put trees. It's like <10 spaces, and there's parking off-street and on side streets.
Any guardrails should be placed between the roadway and the sidewalk and cycling lanes. Currently, we see guardrails protecting cyclists and pedestrians from falling into valleys, obstructions, etc., but not protecting them from the motor vehicles.

From 2019, at this link.

tire_tracks.jpg


Has anything changed from 2019 at Progress Avenue at Markham Road?
 
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Not sure if this has been shared already, however, here's a Cycling Network Plan Update from the city:

Cycling Network Plan Update

It has been shared, a couple of pages back:

 
Good to see these improvements, but man, do these things move slowly.

Road reconstruction every 50-100 years--I can't be the only one who finds that timeline beyond ridiculous?

Sheppard between Allen and Willowdale needed to be resurfaced since at least 2016.
Reconstruction is different from resurfacing, reconstruction is pretty much rebuilding the entire road. Resurfacing is just replacing the top layer of asphalt, and happens much more often (25-35 years in Toronto).
 
Reconstruction is different from resurfacing, reconstruction is pretty much rebuilding the entire road. Resurfacing is just replacing the top layer of asphalt, and happens much more often (25-35 years in Toronto).
I understand, but I think both of those are done too infrequently.
 
From link.

Needless to say, places that actually care about human life have devised ways of safely handling pedestrian and bicycle traffic through construction sites. Here are some videos of such access:



And sometimes a temporary bridge is built to get people through construction sites. see:


When I watch videos from places that routinely do things right I experience a variety of emotions. Those emotions start with eye-rolling and face-palming, but soon escalate to a fairly high level of anger. There are well-known ways of doing this construction safely. So I get angry at those people who have such a callous indifference to human life that they choose to do things in a way that is grossly unsafe.
 
For those of us that are concerned that bike lanes and Complete Streets aren't part of every project, this is why...
Screen Shot 2021-12-10 at 9.13.05 PM.png

As part of IE26.10, Councillor Mike Layton made a request to fix this problem...
Screen Shot 2021-12-10 at 9.24.31 PM.png

I hope it gets approved by Council, so that we can build Complete Streets by default!

Report: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ie/bgrd/backgroundfile-173663.pdf (2021 Cycling Network Plan Update)
 

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For those of us that are concerned that bike lanes and Complete Streets aren't part of every project, this is why...
View attachment 368281
As part of IE26.10, Councillor Mike Layton made a request to fix this problem...
View attachment 368283
I hope it gets approved by Council, so that we can build Complete Streets by default!

Report: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ie/bgrd/backgroundfile-173663.pdf (2021 Cycling Network Plan Update)
This is what happens when Tory, year after year, makes the city poorer and poorer because he keeps taxes below inflation. We need to fund the city properly so it can actually be a great place, but our elected officials are too stuck on the "taxes bad, no taxes = votes" train to realise the catastrophe they are causing (or more likely, they do realise, but they're all rich enough that they don't care)
 
This is what happens when Tory, year after year, makes the city poorer and poorer because he keeps taxes below inflation. We need to fund the city properly so it can actually be a great place, but our elected officials are too stuck on the "taxes bad, no taxes = votes" train to realise the catastrophe they are causing (or more likely, they do realise, but they're all rich enough that they don't care)
I feel it's also important to note that more funding doesn't necessarily equal better city design. Need to have the right policies and city leadership in place that promote good design in conjunction with funding.
 

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