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Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

ADRM said:
You're absolutely right to suggest that the protected bike lanes are included in the plan, but whether they are constructed as planned is a different question. As I understand from people who are also tangentially involved, the entire streetscaping portion of the plan remains unfunded as of today - and that includes the protected bike lane component.

The greenery on the elevated portions of track are another such element that are planned but not funded.

Two things are also important to remember:
1. This is Toronto Council, so figuring out how to pay for anything that isn't a direct and obvious exercise in perpetuating the single occupancy vehicle as the most important mode of transportation is a royal, epic struggle; and
2. Even if the streetscapes/bikelanes were funded - or if they come to be funded in the future - there's nothing preventing Holyday or Mammoliti or Nunziata or Robinson (or the Mayor, for that matter) from motioning to kill the protected bike lanes. And, after the Bloor bike lanes pilot, because there's no unanimity on evaluation criteria, those such anti-progress folks will potentially have the ammunition to kill such a project. Sucks.
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As far as I can tell, bike lanes (but not necessarily protected) along the entire corridor are part of the Project Agreement, so they're "funded" and there's nothing council can do to stop them.
 
andrew1980 said:
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.
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I was out on Bloor late on Tuesday night. The machine that strips the old markings was still going and they were doing a first pass for the new ones.

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mdrejhon said:
For the upcoming Bloor bike lane options --
I prefer Bloor Option C which appears to be chosen -- parking-protected bike lanes, but it's totally an alien concept in Canada (at the moment).

Hamilton, Ontario gained one of GTHA's first parking-protected bike lanes on Herkimer/Charlton this summer, and it still feels a little weird to motorists to park in the middle of the road.
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Am I imagining it or did we use to have angled parking in the middle of Spadina before the streetcars came back? Or was it just at the sides?

There's floating parking on Hoskin right now - it doesn't feel weird to me, but then I haven't encountered many parkers coming and going along there.
 
PinkLucy said:
Bollards are generally removeable so they get taken out during the winter season. I've seen a number of bike lanes outside of Toronto where this is done. Particularly since this is a pilot project, I wouldn't think any bollard installations would be permanent.
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I seem to recall that the bollards stayed on Adelaide, Richmond and Simcoe this past winter.

And now I've heard someone complain that the bollards the city uses are too pointy. :rolleyes:
 
Zach6668 said:
As far as I can tell, bike lanes (but not necessarily protected) along the entire corridor are part of the Project Agreement, so they're "funded" and there's nothing council can do to stop them.
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I mean, Council can vote to do more or less whatever it pleases. They could vote to remove all bike lanes everywhere in the city if it so desired (and we may get there, at least on the protected ones, depending on how the Bloor pilot unfolds).
 
mdrejhon said:
Hamilton, Ontario gained one of GTHA's first parking-protected bike lanes on Herkimer/Charlton this summer, and it still feels a little weird to motorists to park in the middle of the road.
Click to expand...

the lemur said:
There's floating parking on Hoskin right now - it doesn't feel weird to me, but then I haven't encountered many parkers coming and going along there.
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Haven't the bike lanes on Simcoe had this for a few years now, between King and Richmond?
 
the lemur said:
Am I imagining it or did we use to have angled parking in the middle of Spadina before the streetcars came back? Or was it just at the sides?

There's floating parking on Hoskin right now - it doesn't feel weird to me, but then I haven't encountered many parkers coming and going along there.
Click to expand...
I believe that in the days of the Spadina Bus, it was angled parking on the sides of the road. Similar to Lake Shore in Long Branch.
 
I thought I'd have to take Harbord today to get from Yonge/Bloor to Roncesvalles/Queen but to my surprise the bike lanes on Bloor are essentially done, and they are fantastic. Avenue to Shaw is the most congested part of Bloor and my trip was so much faster than usual (a 20 minute trip). From my observations I also noticed that motorized traffic was moving better than before. This may be because cars are currently avoiding Bloor, but the bike lanes also stop drivers from trying to pass slower vehicles on the right, getting stuck behind a parked car, and then slowing down the left lane to get back in. I wouldn't be surprised if they find that motorized vehicle throughput is the same with the pilot project.
 
LNahid2000 said:
I thought I'd have to take Harbord today to get from Yonge/Bloor to Roncesvalles/Queen but to my surprise the bike lanes on Bloor are essentially done, and they are fantastic. Avenue to Shaw is the most congested part of Bloor and my trip was so much faster than usual (a 20 minute trip). From my observations I also noticed that motorized traffic was moving better than before. This may be because cars are currently avoiding Bloor, but the bike lanes also stop drivers from trying to pass slower vehicles on the right, getting stuck behind a parked car, and then slowing down the left lane to get back in. I wouldn't be surprised if they find that motorized vehicle throughput is the same with the pilot project.
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And, what's more, is that the bike lanes are actually far from complete; the flexi posts (a crucial part of the pilot) have yet to be installed.
 
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