General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[Admiral Beez]

Since my trade show ends early at 4:30pm today, I’m going to rent a bicycle and go for a spin around Amsterdam to compare the experience to Toronto. It’ll be strange not to be wearing a helmet, but no one does here.

Here's my ride today. Apologies for vertical video, but was cell phone in shirt pocket.

 

[PinkLucy]

I've seen bicyclists and pedestrians wearing reflective vests. Wonder when reflective vests will become mandatory in Ontario?

Hopefully never.

 

[salsa]

Is the official City of Toronto bike map no longer available on their website as a pdf? I'm unable to find it.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Is the official City of Toronto bike map no longer available on their website as a pdf? I'm unable to find it.

There is a Toronto Cycling App, see link.

There is also a Cycling Network Plan Maps by Ward
see link.

But you're right, there seems to be no PDF version.

 

[steveintoronto]

Here's my ride today. Apologies for vertical video, but was cell phone in shirt pocket.

Very interesting viewing!

And now to flip it around. A friend of mine visiting from The Hague shot this on Bloor street yesterday:

Edit to Add: Watching it, I find it a bit scary. She's using a Bike Share bike, thus the lateral swaying, and clearance on those handlebars isn't good on Bloor absent the bike lanes.

 

[steveintoronto]

Here's my ride today. Apologies for vertical video, but was cell phone in shirt pocket.

Just had late lunch with my Nederlander friend, mentioned this string, and how I posted a link to her Bloor Street vid here, and the 'nuisance' factor the Admiral spoke of in a prior post with the motorized scooters. I'm told that roughly six months ago, there was a change in the 'regulations' disallowing them on the bike lanes/paths. Apparently there's a lag in enforcement. I'll dig for those details and a link later. I think the overwhelming majority of cycling enthusiasts agree on this issue, with exemption for those for whom it is a medical necessity to have motorized assistance.

A point she brought up as invasive as the motorized vehicles is regarding the 'freight bikes' where they have kids or parcels loaded into the area in front of the powering cyclist. They not only block regular cyclists, and the 'dance of flow' of them, they are often not able to be nimble as is required of regular bikes, so cause danger in curves and intersections.

Again, I'll try and find reference to buttress the claim and post later.

 

[steveintoronto]

Keesmaat is featured in today's Grauniad:

We designed Canada's cities for cars, not people – and the people are dying
Jennifer Keesmaat
Toronto’s latest toll of cyclists and pedestrian deaths is hardly unique – cities all bought the myth that cars give us freedom

@jen_keesmaat
Thu 14 Jun 2018 18.19 BSTLast modified on Thu 14 Jun 2018 20.07 BST

Comments
138

Police attend the scene where a woman on a bike was killed by a truck at Bloor Street and St George in Toronto on 12 June. Photograph: Lucas Oleniuk/Getty
In the last two years, 93 pedestrians or cyclists have died violently on the streets of Toronto. Just out running errands. Off to the doctor. On their way to work. Then without warning, human flesh encountered metal. The latest example on Wednesday, in which a woman on a bike was killed in front of the University of Toronto, reflects a state of emergency.

If this sounds like a war zone, well, it can feel that way on city streets the world over. Anxiety has begun to permeate everyday urban life: parents stress about their kids walking home from school; office workers check and double-check the street before rushing to a nearby cafe; cyclists act erratically when their truncated bike lanes dump them into fast-moving traffic. People are on edge everywhere.

Meanwhile, automobile companies brand their vehicles with names like Explorer, Escape, Liberty and Journey. Cars are designed to look like birds and rockets, and are sold to us via multimillion-dollar ad campaigns complete with slogans such as “Hand of the free”, “Choose freedom” and “Adventure is calling”. After 100 years of marketing, we have continued to believe – and want to believe – that the car gives us unfettered personal liberty.

So we designed our cities and our streets for them. And the two-hour commute has become normalized to a public that spends the equivalent of 22 days a year just getting to and from work. Meanwhile, others are seeking a new way to live. It doesn’t take long to expose the environmental, social and health costs of sitting in traffic. It is nothing like freedom. But the power of the idea that cars bring us freedom – despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary – is so pervasive that active resistance to change is fierce.
[...continues at length...]

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-toronto-cycling-pedestrian-deaths-cars#img-1

 

[W. K. Lis]

Before the 1920's, the streets were for people. People walked on the streets, kids played on the streets, adults rode their bicycles on the streets. It was only after the 1920's that laws were introduced for the benefit of the car. By the 1930's and onward, special roads TOTALLY segregated from humans and only for the motor vehicle were built, we call them expressways. See The Middle Road at this link.

The Middle Road in 1917.

The Middle Road in 1937.

Now called the Queen Elizabeth Way.

 

[Admiral Beez]

It continues to be a good point of discussion, but to clarify after reading my original comment, there's a massive difference between *assisted e-bikes* and total electric propulsion. And there are some genuine medically needed cases for whom I have some sympathy.

The onus is on all road and path users to share them wisely.

My hope is that the Ford government forces electric bike users into the same MTO rules as gas powered moped users.

Pedal assist bikes I’m okay with.

 

[W. K. Lis]

My hope is that the Ford government forces electric bike users into the same MTO rules as gas powered moped users.

Pedal assist bikes I’m okay with.

Doug Ford is a disciple of the automobile gods. Would be no surprise.

From link.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Doug Ford is a disciple of the automobile gods. Would be no surprise.

From link.

Once you’re out of the Toronto core everyone is. Ford’s the premier, not the mayor. Once you’re out of the urban parts of the GTA everyone needs a car.

 

[PinkLucy]

I know people who live in Rural Northern Ontario and don’t own cars. And what about places like Ottawa, Kingston, London, etc. Not everyone needs a car outside of urban GTA

 

[Andy_in_Toronto]

With the cap and trade program gone, there is no more money to fund planned cycling infrastructure. All plans to build cycling grids will be stopped as a consequence. Sad!

 

[innsertnamehere]

There is still plenty of local funding, at least for Toronto. But yes, a lot of that money and those projects are gone.

 

[Admiral Beez]

My hope is that the Ford government forces electric bike users into the same MTO rules as gas powered moped users.

Pedal assist bikes I’m okay with.

I sent a text to Doug today asking that the scourge of societal outcasts on e-scooters be reigned in, and put under the same MTO laws covering gas powered mopeds.

So, you can blame me if it gets traction.