Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[Northern Light]

Bikeshare docks on Don Mills at Godstone Road and Peanut Plaza:

View attachment 596369View attachment 596370

Just a note that we have a dedicated thread for Bikeshare Toronto.

That can be found here:

Toronto Bike Share

Four more stations rolled out over the last two days, all neatly clustered so I can post them all with one screenshot: All clustered in/around Don Mills from Sheppard to Finch. Curious to me that they didn't prioritize the Senecas campus, though maybe that's yet to come.

urbantoronto.ca

 

[Northern Light]

Italy has similar car ownership as Canada too, IIRC. That just goes to show that even though car ownership is brought up a lot in these kinds of discussions, it's a pretty poor metric for determining car dependence, transit or cycling usage, or walkability. In a healthy city people who own cars don't use them for every trip. They get around in other ways too.

I agree that equating ownership w/use is problematic/potentially misleading.

However, I think there's a need to go further. People's impressions/assumptions both about Toronto, but also many other places is simply wrong.

Lets take a look at Modal Share in Rome, Italy (data 2019)

As you can see Rome is rather car dependent.

Indeed, when one compares to Toronto:

You'll see that Toronto has slightly higher rail uptake, and substantially higher cycling uptake than Rome, while we do walk less here, and drive just a bit more.

****

Lets throw in two more just to mess with folks, here's our oft compared peer in North America, Chicago:

Finally, here''s Stockholm, Sweden:

I think what stands out among the 4 cities I selected is that Toronto is doing remarkably well in transit and cycling uptake, with the most pronounced shortcoming in respect of sustainability being walking.

Bonus, here's Montreal:

All Data above from:

C40 Knowledge Community

www.c40knowledgehub.org

 

[crs1026]

As I often say everything is a balance! I think it was a good idea in this case but normally shutdowns aren't as disruptive or if they are it isn't for very long. There was a huge cost in terms of losing parking revenue, as well as the price to paint/create the lanes.

Also even in Japan which is incredibly pro transit and you legitimately don't *need* a car for 95% of trips (same is not true here) car ownership rates are still very similar.

This is the thing..... when you need a car, you need it badly.

A sample of one -but - I commute once or twice weekly from Humber Bay to north Waterloo. The activity in Waterloo begins at 07:30 and ends at about 16:30. There is no venue for such activity in central Toronto, and no non-auto means of transport that will get me there by starting time or matches time and convenience in how and when I get home after a very tiring day, even with the 401 resembling a parking lot.

If I were to give up using my car, I would have to eliminate a lifestyle choice that I dearly enjoy. (I'm a volunteer, so it is not a money issue).

My car sits in the driveway for much of the rest of the week, while I walk, cycle, and use transit.... and believe me I have no love for the now two-hour drive back into the city. I would love to ditch the car altogether and save a lot of money... but the reality is, the auto adds unique options. No doubt this is true for most other car-owning city dwellers. This even extends to owning versus renting per trip.

The reason cars are so prevalent is because most people have found value in tailoring their work and lifestyle practices to leverage individual mobility, in ways that public or active transport cannot practically support. Taking this away from people does narrow their options. At best, it may force big decisions about changing where people live and work, and even what jobs they aspire to.

Our road network won't accommodate everyone's individualistic car usage, there just isn't room..... and we have already given the car an unreasonable share of our roadway space, and we are now quite properly adjusting that. Cars are not "bad" - but they create problems that we need to manage.

I deplore being judgemental or rhetorical about auto use or trying to shame people away from car usage. We ought to be toning down the rhetoric and solving the tensions this creates in a non-judgmental and pragmatic problem solving manner.

Data, please.

- Paul

 

[PL1]

So a friend just broke his collar bone at the St George and Bloor "bump". I don't know all details, but he's an experienced cyclist. I hope this bump gets fixed, but really, we shouldn't have people getting hurt to show some new infrastructure isn't done right. I know this is new-ish to Toronto, but it exists in many other cities.

 

[txlseries4]

So a friend just broke his collar bone at the St George and Bloor "bump". I don't know all details, but he's an experienced cyclist. I hope this bump gets fixed, but really, we shouldn't have people getting hurt to show some new infrastructure isn't done right. I know this is new-ish to Toronto, but it exists in many other cities.

On that topic, I biked through the intersection today and that curb transition really is quite a jolt and fortunately I knew to expect it. Clearly it has the attention of someone (probably the city) because there are crude signs with "BUMP" printed on them taped to pylons at each corner

 

[afransen]

How about some orange paint on the curb. Yeesh. The white of the crosswalk makes that curb non-obvious.

 

[Northern Light]

On the Bloor/St. George intersection, I don't have the details, but I am told there will be work on the issue(s) this week.

 

[slicecom]

On that topic, I biked through the intersection today and that curb transition really is quite a jolt and fortunately I knew to expect it. Clearly it has the attention of someone (probably the city) because there are crude signs with "BUMP" printed on them taped to pylons at each corner

That bump is a real ball-buster. I hope they fix it ASAP. They should have have at least ground it down by now if they're not going to re-pour it.

 

[UntitledCyclist]

I agree that equating ownership w/use is problematic/potentially misleading.

However, I think there's a need to go further. People's impressions/assumptions both about Toronto, but also many other places is simply wrong.

Lets take a look at Modal Share in Rome, Italy (data 2019)

View attachment 596441

As you can see Rome is rather car dependent.

Indeed, when one compares to Toronto:

View attachment 596442

You'll see that Toronto has slightly higher rail uptake, and substantially higher cycling uptake than Rome, while we do walk less here, and drive just a bit more.

****

Lets throw in two more just to mess with folks, here's our oft compared peer in North America, Chicago:

View attachment 596443

Finally, here''s Stockholm, Sweden:

View attachment 596444




I think what stands out among the 4 cities I selected is that Toronto is doing remarkably well in transit and cycling uptake, with the most pronounced shortcoming in respect of sustainability being walking.

Bonus, here's Montreal:

View attachment 596445

All Data above from:

C40 Knowledge Community

www.c40knowledgehub.org

These are some interesting charts, though the fact Montreal has NO bike modal share makes me wonder about the data overall.

Also Toronto & Rome have no bus riders? Are buses included in rail/metro/tram, or just unavailable? Normally those categories are exclusive of buses.

No on you to justify the specifics in the charts, as I think they are likely based on whatever data were available, and not meant to dig too deeply into. It's nice to see we are doing better than it might seem on the surface!

 

[Northern Light]

These are some interesting charts, though the fact Montreal has NO bike modal share makes me wonder about the data overall.

That's a definite omission.

Also Toronto & Rome have no bus riders? Are buses included in rail/metro/tram, or just unavailable? Normally those categories are exclusive of buses.

No on you to justify the specifics in the charts, as I think they are likely based on whatever data were available, and not meant to dig too deeply into. It's nice to see we are doing better than it might seem on the surface!

C40 would be data submitted by the respective cities I imagine. I'd have to go back and delve into it further.

Its tough getting accurate data from the same or every adjacent years across many cities.

 

[Carpe Diem]

Update on the lower Don Trail (south of Eastern). Pavers are working today repaving the trail at the south end near the old Eastern Ave. bridge. I think this may just be temporary for construction work as no other work has progressed this summer on the trail other than new barriers at the bridge across the Don River at the north end. Hopefully it is progress on the trail itself.

 

[downtownordinary]

Update on the lower Don Trail (south of Eastern). Pavers are working today repaving the trail at the south end near the old Eastern Ave. bridge. I think this may just be temporary for construction work as no other work has progressed this summer on the trail other than new barriers at the bridge across the Don River at the north end. Hopefully it is progress on the trail itself.

It's paved under Queen Street as well and looks like the fence separating the rail line has been fully replaced. Not sure how far north the paving goes, I only saw it going south.

 

[randomTOplanner]

I noticed at Brunswick and Harbord the bike signals now activate at the same time as the pedestrian advance. Such a nice sight to finally see!

 

[Bojaxs]

Not a cyclist, but just curious as to UT's opinion on people who use bike lanes for jogging?

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

 

[PL1]

Not a cyclist, but just curious as to UT's opinion on people who use bike lanes for jogging?

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.ca

As a runner, I will step into the bike lanes for short periods (like 10-15m) if I need to pass pedestrians on the sidewalk. I only do this when I'm running against traffic, so I know I'm not going to step in front of a cyclist. I think that's ok. I don't care for runners using the bike lanes as their personal paths. Note, this doesn't apply to the Martin-Goodman Trail, which is explicitly a multiuse trail and ok for use by runners as well as cyclists.