ADRM
Senior Member
The connectivity issues have been identified, but the 10-year cycling network plan does very little to address them. The plan is a bad, dangerous, irresponsible joke.
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Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)
- Thread starter MetroMan
- Start date
The connectivity issues have been identified, but the 10-year cycling network plan does very little to address them. The plan is a bad, dangerous, irresponsible joke.
smably
Senior Member
Certainly Yonge is a missed opportunity, but Bloor/Danforth, Eglinton, and completion of the railpath will do a lot to improve connectivity. I think there's a lot of good stuff there, though we do need to do more, and sooner. I'm curious -- can you expand on why you feel it's a joke?
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Bike path planning should be like streetcar track layouts, every path is connected to every other path.
This American example of a bike path to nowhere....
...makes as much sense as this TTC track to nowhere.
Omit parking on one side of most main streets and you can have a two direction separated bike path nearly everywhere in the city (see Washington DC example below). This could be done citywide within two years - it's just paint, new signs and some flexible bollards.
Follow this with stage 2, like this
This American example of a bike path to nowhere....
...makes as much sense as this TTC track to nowhere.
Omit parking on one side of most main streets and you can have a two direction separated bike path nearly everywhere in the city (see Washington DC example below). This could be done citywide within two years - it's just paint, new signs and some flexible bollards.
Follow this with stage 2, like this
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andrew1980
New Member
Here's a couple of photos of the Bloor bike lane installation I took earlier this afternoon.
The first photo is from Avenue looking west, the second from St. George looking east.
You can see the old car lane markings are stripped, guides for the new markings are down, and the bike lane lines are painted/covered in reflective powder.
The first photo is from Avenue looking west, the second from St. George looking east.
You can see the old car lane markings are stripped, guides for the new markings are down, and the bike lane lines are painted/covered in reflective powder.
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W. K. Lis
Superstar
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Not with the current suburban auto-addicted councillors, for the next few years.
That's why there is all the construction and plans for GO Transit, Transit City, and other projects are happening at the moment.
Will not happen, until...
salsa
Senior Member
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ADRM
Senior Member
Well, for starters, our Mayor has essentially said that if he concludes - of course without offering any specific evaluation criteria - that the Bloor bike lane pilot is "unsuccessful", he won't support the construction of protected bike lanes anywhere in the city.
Specifically to the projects you highlighted, even after the installation of the Bloor bike lanes and, if it does indeed come to pass, the Danforth pilot, there will still be a gap between Avenue and wherever the Danforth lanes start. Ditto west of Shaw, obviously.
If you're referring to the Eglinton bike lanes that were slated for integration into the Crosstown LRT construction, I believe that streetscaping remains unfunded, even with the increased budget included in the new cycling network "plan."
And, again if I'm recalling correctly, the city deferred funding considerations for the railpath to higher orders of government.
But much more importantly, what's not in the plan is much more important than what is - and that's especially true given that the city's design guidelines for cycle infrastructure suck, meaning even what is included in the plan is likely to be half baked at best. I'm sure others can provide much more holistic accounts of the most obvious gaps that will remain across the city even after this plan is fully implemented, but one very obvious example is the awful lack of downtown north-south routes - there's nothing to speak of between Sherbourne and Roncesvalles, essentially, and that's woeful (don't try it with the sorry excuses for bike lanes on Shaw, Bay, St. George, etc.).
innsertnamehere
Superstar
All those projects without funding are subject to provincial and federal grants. Most of the plan is just what to do with the cities portion of the money - meanwhile the province and Feds are tossing money into bike infrastructure too. It's not like that money is going to completely miss Toronto - it just hasn't been specifically allocated to projects yet. I fully expect the rail path extension to get federal and possibly provincial money in the next year or so.
North south has less of a need for lanes than east west as that direction is generally easily navigatable by residential side streets. Shaw and st George are generally pretty comfortable streets to bike on and there are many more than that in the west end. The one major missing gap is Yonge street and that's supposed to start next year.
North south has less of a need for lanes than east west as that direction is generally easily navigatable by residential side streets. Shaw and st George are generally pretty comfortable streets to bike on and there are many more than that in the west end. The one major missing gap is Yonge street and that's supposed to start next year.
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
How many cars are we going to see over the next several weeks pull over in those cycling lanes to grab a coffee or drop someone off?
With the excuse of "I was just stopping for 5 minutes"
Admiral Beez
Superstar
I though they were supposed to have bollards?With the excuse of "I was just stopping for 5 minutes"
I'm not sure but that would certainly help
smably
Senior Member
Sadly, staff weren't bold enough to remove all street parking and make the pilot fully buffered. There will be portions where the lane on one or both sides is just paint on the road.