Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[txlseries4]

Notable that no councillors or the Mayor were at the ride & rally, I wonder if that was coincidental or deliberate... I'd like to think behind the scenes the Mayor's staff are working on a strategy.

About an hour ago Mayor Chow posted this to social media:
"Ripping up our roads will make people less safe, make traffic worse, and put lives at risk. Full stop. I challenge the Premier to talk to people who have lost loved ones on our roads and hear their stories.⁠
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It might be hard for the province to do two things at once but, as leaders we have to —tackle congestion AND keep people safe at the same time!⁠
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As I’ve said before – the congestion in this city is partially the result of the province’s failure to deliver transit projects on time and has led to long construction delays and years of road closures. Stay in your lane, open the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs and fix the chaos at Metrolinx."

 

[Admiral Beez]

Who's to say city staff haven't provided the province with data/studies,

I am, until we see otherwise. Had they existed studies on bike lane impact on vehicular flow would have been in Olivia Chow’s immediate rebuttal. But maybe it’s all going on behind the scenes.

 

[kotsy]

Notable that no councillors or the Mayor were at the ride & rally

It was a great turnout none-the-less!

 

[txlseries4]

I am, until we see otherwise. Had they existed studies on bike lane impact on vehicular flow would have been in Olivia Chow’s immediate rebuttal. But maybe it’s all going on behind the scenes.

Cool, ignore the part where I give you the traffic study the province ignored too

 

[TTCdinosaur]

It was a great turnout none-the-less!

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Meh, barely critical. Unfortunately, the lanes will be gone and this thread will go back to the bottom of the forum lol.

 

[TheGrimSweeper]

I am, until we see otherwise. Had they existed studies on bike lane impact on vehicular flow would have been in Olivia Chow’s immediate rebuttal. But maybe it’s all going on behind the scenes.

If i were her I'd be making a plan to assemble as much evidence and allies as I could.

Get the Bloor BIA folks who show business has increased since bike lanes.

Get those store/ restauraunt owners who have benefited,

Get the fire chief, hospital folks and local responders who have seen either no difference or benefit.

Get mayor's of other cities (Newmarket) who think this is provincial overreach.

Assemble them all and have them speak all at once in front of every news station.

 

[rdaner]

I suspect she will need to handle this kind of like the Therma Spa / Ontario Place. A give and take type thing. Give Ontario place, get DVP/Gardiner off Toronto's books.

She likely knows she needs to give Doug some sort of "win". Personally I would be most willing to give up the Bloor W bike lanes. As much as losing bike lanes sucks, when they are just painted lines in the road its different. In return, she could bargain for keeping University but removing on street parking or something to appease. Out of all the ones mentioned, ripping up University would be the most insane since they actually redesigned the whole streetscape.

I agree though, she needs to put a very strong foot forward.

I live on Bloor and can say that they are heavily used! And I doubt that the elimination of several bike lanes will reduce the number of cyclists as they will just mingle with traffic like they do in many cities. And scooters and those one wheeled things.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I live on Bloor and can say that they are heavily used!

What bugs me about the Bloor lanes are the obstructions. I regularly ride on Bloor from Sherbourne to Christie Pits and return, and I can’t think of any instance where on that 4 Km ride I was not forced onto the roadway by construction. If you want bikes out of your way, keep construction out of mine.

 

[ImmenselyMental]

I suspect she will need to handle this kind of like the Therma Spa / Ontario Place. A give and take type thing. Give Ontario place, get DVP/Gardiner off Toronto's books.

She likely knows she needs to give Doug some sort of "win". Personally I would be most willing to give up the Bloor W bike lanes. As much as losing bike lanes sucks, when they are just painted lines in the road its different. In return, she could bargain for keeping University but removing on street parking or something to appease. Out of all the ones mentioned, ripping up University would be the most insane since they actually redesigned the whole streetscape.

I agree though, she needs to put a very strong foot forward.

Considering the vast power disparity between the municipal and provincial level that is allowing this to happen, it probably would make sense to sacrifice the Bloor West lanes for the University lanes, even though it would be less than ideal. That being said, as users have pointed out, the University lanes are still underway and are unlikely to be removed.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

Meh, barely critical. Unfortunately, the lanes will be gone and this thread will go back to the bottom of the forum lol.

That would likely more happen if Doug just left this one alone.

 

[txlseries4]

Get the Bloor BIA folks who show business has increased since bike lanes.

Earlier today Bloor Annex BIA put this out in support of the bike lanes on Bloor. Hopefully we see more follow

They were also interviewed: BIA warns removal of bike lanes would be 'disastrous'. A few excerpts:

The BIA said removing the lanes on Bloor “would be disastrous to the neighbourhood”.
After bike lanes were installed on Bloor following a pilot project in 2016, both the number of monthly customers served by local businesses and monthly spending increased, Brian Burchell, general manager of the BIA said in a release.
“Are we building highways or are we building main streets?” Burchell said in a release that invited Premier Ford to visit the Bloor Annex area to see the community's success for himself.

 

[chrisw]

I also find the separated bike lanes at various points to be quite unnecessarily wide. There are places where I feel even as a biker, cycletracks for both directions would have easily fit in even one of the single direction lanes.
Then the other side could be given back as street parking, lane etc.

Cycle tracks are much more useful on both sides as there are destinations on both sides. They also have more throughput and allow for safe passing.

University bike lanes are very wide but they also allow for emergency services to be able to use the bike lane.

 

[afransen]

Meh, barely critical. Unfortunately, the lanes will be gone and this thread will go back to the bottom of the forum lol.

Troll much? Doug isn't forever. I suspect the bike lanes aren't going anywhere.

 

[ghDany1]

It was a great turnout none-the-less!

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EPIC Drone Shot, I loved that people were kind of keeping personal space boundaries

 

[allabootmatt]

The public outcry will happen with or without Chow. This is putting people's lives in real danger, for nothing but silly culture-war antics.

It's a wedge issue. I imagine that getting (some) people angry is the idea.