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General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

Someone in a Discord server I'm in posted this:
That stupid bike lane caused an increase in emergency response times, noticeably degraded business foot traffic, and serves only a small number of people.
  • Fire response times increased by 20s vs 2s city wide in a 500m corridor around Bloor Street (2020)
  • Paramedic response times increased by 45s (no city wide comparison offered) (2020)
  • Traffic congestion worsened significantly across the corridor (2017)
  • 5000 riders use it per day at its peak (June 2017, yup, that's the most recent data they have -_-)
  • It caused a 23% decrease in pedestrians and a 24% decrease in vehicles (which means a decrease in foot traffic to businesses) (2017)
  • This net means that while a total of 900 bicycles were added to the corridor per day, it lost 4,000 pedestrians and 14,000 vehicles per day (2017)
  • It did net improve 'conflicts' (near collisions and collisions) by 61% (2017), but good intersection design can produce similar outcomes without necessitating the de-utilisation of a major commercial through-fare in the city.
  • Its usership falls to just 30% of its peak usage during the winter (so like half of the year...)
And for all of this apparently being 'data' centered, they haven't measured much of the information cited above since 2017, because
🤷‍♂️


https://tcat.ca/project/bloor-street-west-bike-lane-pilot-economic-impact-study/
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XAKZKXBAV87MIAK4TACP/full?target=10.1080/01944363.2019.1638816
https://www.toronto.ca/services-pay...-pedestrian-projects/bloor-street-bike-lanes/
https://www.toronto.ca/community-pe.../bloor-street-west-complete-street-extension/
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/u...W-BWB-Traffic-Summary-v2.0-2023-10-25AODA.pdf
Click to expand...
Does anyone have any more up-to-date sources/data to support or disprove this? A lot of this sounds like the opposite of what I've heard elsewhere.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Section 33 will make quick work of that, I think.
Click to expand...
Possibly - but the years of delay, and then the optics of new legislation that suspends human rights for ... bike lanes ... would be amusing.

And even then you could challenge the restriction on pre-existing rights that existed before the 1980s constitution.

The goal here doesn't have to be to win. Just to delay a few years.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Section 33 will make quick work of that, I think.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine anyone involved is ignorant of its existence but what a world we'd live in if people gave up before trying.

I think the better question is does Ford want to do this..? While it's thought that the bike lanes are just to distract from the rest of 212 about HWY 413 and the bike protests have briefly flashed in the headlines now and then, invoking the notwithstanding clause would be enormous news and would draw a lot of attention that he may be looking to avoid.
 
Coolibop said:
^ Asking folks to down vote a restaurant (this is what I assume your posts intent) for its political takes is a bit like paying for positive reviews. Both disingenuous to the actual experience/atmosphere in what I understand to be a difficult market.

You're more than welcome not visiting the establishment or leaving honest review without your political take, but down voting because the owner doesn't like bike lanes doesn't help a thing.
Click to expand...
No one asked any folks to downvote anything. You're projecting.
 
www.torontotoday.ca

Toronto bike lane removals to start in March at the earliest

‘Ontario does not intend to make any physical changes … before March 20, 2025’: Ministry of the Attorney General email
www.torontotoday.ca www.torontotoday.ca

A few excerpts:

"We have just received instructions and can advise that Ontario does not intend to make any physical changes to the infrastructure in question (the Yonge, Bloor or University bike lanes) before March 20, 2025," reads a Dec. 12 email from Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General obtained by TorontoToday.'

“That will give us some time so that we could work collaboratively to find a win-win solution,” Mayor Olivia Chow said on Tuesday, after commenting that it's hard "to have cement cure in the middle of a cold winter."

Cycle Toronto executive director Michael Longfield, who is seeking an injunction against the bike lane removals, said the March date is a win.

“This is a pretty good sign that in response to our injunction threat, the government's not going to attempt to move forward right away,” he said.

Our goal is that they don't ever get the chance to start at all,” he said
 
Snap election coming in March / April then confirmed?

More time isn't a bad thing and also this means they wouldn't be starting until after winter when the number of cyclists / usage will be increasing.
 
TheGrimSweeper said:
Snap election coming in March / April then confirmed?
Click to expand...
Likely late February, as the legislature does not return until March (they're currently on a three-month break, after having the summer off as well).

This entire bike lane saga is a distraction from Bill 212 and Ontario Place. Once the PCs likely win re-election in February they'll probably move on from bike lanes as they won't have to worry about re-election for another four years after that.

I consider this delay until March a small win in what little power we seemingly have in this city when it's run by such a horrid provincial government.
 
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