King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[Admiral Beez]

That may be true for most areas of the city, but I see all sorts of people on the Adelaide/Richmond bike lanes, which would get you to West King West. Last time I rode them during rush hour, there were people in suits, people with carriages for their kids, and lots of other normal looking people.

I’m a dough bodied 46 year old and manage to cycle from Cabbagetown to Union and back well enough.

 

[junctionist]

Liberty Village will probably get more desirable as the core gets built out. Shiny new buildings fade, but people renovate. The modest workers' cottages and Bay and Gable houses of the core now attract more affluent buyers. These houses now often have luxurious finishes and are exceptionally well appointed. As housing options in the core become scarcer, people become more likely to renovate and improve the existing stock.

 

[Avenue]

I wouldn't live there, but it would be a pretty quick commute to the core if you commute by bike.

Cycling is not a public transit alternative for a large majority of population.

 

[LNahid2000]

Cycling is not a public transit alternative for a large majority of population.

It can be if we take steps to change the modal share of transportation in this city.

 

[UD2]

It can be if we take steps to change the modal share of transportation in this city.

We have snow and -20c weather in Canada. Not everyone will want to bike under those conditions and there really is no way to take steps to fix that.

 

[MisterF]

We have snow and -20c weather in Canada. Not everyone will want to bike under those conditions and there really is no way to take steps to fix that.

"Change the modal share" and "everyone will want to bike" are two very different things. They get cold winters in Ottawa, Montreal, Minneapolis and New York too, but they have all been successful at increasing cycling. Let's stop with the excuses.

 

[crs1026]

We have snow and -20c weather in Canada. Not everyone will want to bike under those conditions and there really is no way to take steps to fix that.

That is changeable, but I don't know if cities have used enough sensitivity to promote this change.

Folks in my neighbourhood have always walked to the subway and to go shopping on Bloor, even in the dead of winter, icy sidewalks and all. There is no logical reason why we would not start using our bikes for that same purpose. It is really no more exposure to the elements, nor (on the network of local backstreets) is it more risky. What might help is if the local merchants shovelled the areas around the bike racks, and if city snow plows didn't leave them buried when they plow the roads.

It's like calling your cat to come in the house. Yell, scream, run around and chase it, nothing works. Takes more patience and you have to make the cat *want* to come inside.

One of the things I have enjoyed about Jennifer Keesmaat's term as Chief Panner has been that she advocated very progressive ideas but didn't sound like she was forcing them on anyone or making judgements. Very unlike, say, David Miller's people who also wanted progress but made it clear that if you were reluctant, it was because you weren't as smart and progressive and deserved to have progress rammed down your throats. JK has made much more happen in a shorter timeframe, it's all how you sell it.

I don't expect to see many cyclists slogging up Huronario or along Derry Road in the slush, dodging transports and making left turns across six lanes of auto traffic. But that's because those roads aren't built with winter cycling in mind. Adjust it, and they will come.

- Paul

 

[Edward Skira]

Changes.

 

[Leo_Chan]

Changes.

View attachment 126699

No left turns or going straight for you cars!

 

[innsertnamehere]

Cycling is not a public transit alternative for a large majority of population.

For a large chunk, sure, but it is a viable form of transport for probably 80% of the population in the terms of them being physically capable of riding a bike. Cities like copenhagen see 50% commute rates by bike. That speaks volumes on how many people are capable of biking.

That said, it of course will never be the "only" mode of transport. A mix of options is key - biking, transit, whatever. I normally bike, sometimes use Car2Go, sometimes use the TTC. A mix of uses.

 

[Avenue]

For a large chunk, sure, but it is a viable form of transport for probably 80% of the population in the terms of them being physically capable of riding a bike. Cities like copenhagen see 50% commute rates by bike. That speaks volumes on how many people are capable of biking.

That said, it of course will never be the "only" mode of transport. A mix of options is key - biking, transit, whatever. I normally bike, sometimes use Car2Go, sometimes use the TTC. A mix of uses.

I get that. It's just that I said "liberty village needs decent public transit to remain economically viable" and the reply I got was "they can always cycle", which doesn't really quite make sense. As you said, Copenhagen's might have a 50 percent bike commute rate but even then that's an upper bound. And it's not like there's any sort of halfway decent cycling infrastructure west of Niagara anyway, making the "well there's cycling" argument even more off.

 

[ADRM]

We have snow and -20c weather in Canada. Not everyone will want to bike under those conditions and there really is no way to take steps to fix that.

This is one of the oddest anti-cycling tropes; it's like your classic Trump lie: easily verifiably false.

To understand how silly it is, really all one needs is a general idea of 1) Latitudes/the general arrangement of countries on the globe and what that generally means about their weather, and 2) A passing knowledge of the cities and countries that have much better bike infrastructure and more desirable modal splits.

Just bizarre.

 

[A Torontonian Now]

Here's King and University:

You can see some new yellow lines, and also the City crew based out of the pickup truck who are doing more work to implement the pilot.

I also took a shot of King and York. Not much happening there at the moment, but a good "before" shot. I'll post again if there is any change:

 

[steveintoronto]

We have snow and -20c weather in Canada. Not everyone will want to bike under those conditions and there really is no way to take steps to fix that.

Rather than address the others, you're the only one (besides myself in the cycling forums) realistic enough to view this pragmatically. I'm an avid cyclist who hasn't had a driver's licence in this jurisdiction for about three decades now. (I had taxi, truck and motorbike categories on my then "Commercial" licence) Other than transit and walking, cycling is my only means, and I love it, live it, and can out-cycle most anyone I know save for the younger cohort, and even there, I outdo many for distance.

But I'm not going to cycle through the winter. Most cyclists don't, for good reasons. And it's not the cold per-se, it's the dangers that come with that. I cycled all winter (save for a few days that were dangerous) in Europe when I lived there, and for obvious reasons, all winter in San Diego, where even two decades ago they had racks on buses for bikes, and sensors in the bike paths to change traffic lights, and bike lanes paralleling most highways. (SD has since been superseded by many other US cities, especially the upper North West Coast.) SD, by the way, was one of the first cities in North Am with a modern street car transit corridor. (Edmonton may have been first)

A note of caution on getting carried away with dreams of all year cycling in Toronto and getting numbers up to match the number of motorists :

Mapping America's Bike Commuters

1. Richard Florida

May 19, 2017

(Disclosure: I’m an avid cyclist who owns both serious road bikes and Dutch-style urban commuter bikes, including a refurbished Raleigh Tourist DL-1.)

Bicycles in cities are one of the very hottest of hot-button urban issues—right up there with gentrification itself,which isn’t unrelated, as we’ll see. On the one side are the urban biking optimists, who extol the benefits of bikes in cities and argue that two-wheeled transport is the source of many good things, from less pollution and energy use to more walkable neighborhoods and happier, healthier people. On the other are the urban biking pessimists who see bikes, bike lanes and bike share systems as symbols and promulgators of gentrification, housing unaffordability, and deepening urban divides.

For all the talk about how bikes are taking over cities and even getting the upper hand in the fabled War on Cars, the reality is that bikes are far and away the least common way people get to work. We seem to be arguing about bikes a lot more than we ride them. (Detailed data on more general bike use is skimpy, so we used commuting data compiled by the Census through theirAmerican Community Surveyfrom 2011 to 2015 is the best we have—though the League of American Bicyclists hassome data for city cyclingfrom 2014).

Here’s a mapshowing where bike commuters make up the largest percentage share of commuters and the largest raw numbers of riders, made for us by the geospatial technology company,Esri.

[...]
Here’s a reality check: Even as the number of regular bike commuters has skyrocketed by more than 60 percent from 2000 to 2013, nationally, less than one percent of commuters (0.6 percent) bike to work at least once a week.

By comparison, 86 percent of commuters drive to work. Think of it this way: There are roughly 800,000 people pedaling to work across the United States, lined up against some 120 million Americans behind the wheel. The War on Cars, if it exists, is very asymmetric.
[...continues at length with many links and charts...]

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/05/mapping-americas-bike-commuters/526923/

And the author of the above?
About the Author
Richard Florida

• @Richard_Florida
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Richard Florida is a co-founder and editor at large of CityLab and a senior editor at The Atlantic. He is a University Professor and Director of Cities at the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute, and a Distinguished Fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.

This is one of the oddest anti-cycling tropes; it's like your classic Trump lie: easily verifiably false.

The stats state otherwise. I suggest you aim for the attainable, not lambaste those who do.

 

[aquateam]

This is one of the oddest anti-cycling tropes; it's like your classic Trump lie: easily verifiably false.

To understand how silly it is, really all one needs is a general idea of 1) Latitudes/the general arrangement of countries on the globe and what that generally means about their weather, and 2) A passing knowledge of the cities and countries that have much better bike infrastructure and more desirable modal splits.

Just bizarre.

You shouldn't be so dismissive of the impact of weather. I am an avid cyclist and it saves me a lot of time when getting from point A to point B, but I generally retire my bike in the winter. The problem isn't so much temperature, since I can layer up for that. The problem is the loss of traction with icy/slushy roads, especially when many of the routes I would take involve unavoidable steep inclines/declines. Other concerns are 1) if I could park the bike when the usual posts are buried in snowbanks 2) the amount of salt/traction dirt that I would track indoors and 3) the impact of all the road salt on the bicycle. Generally this means switching to public transit in the winter, or just making fewer/shorter trips.

"Latitude and the general arrangement of countries and what it generally means about the weather"

Latitude and the "general arrangement of countries" is a very poor predictor of whether the climate favours cycling.

Amsterdam: 52.4 degrees North

Toronto: 43.6 degrees North

Vancouver: 49.3 degrees North

Montreal: 45.5 degrees North

But when it comes to mode share, warmer cities have no excuse. California, especially southern California, would be absolutely perfect for year-round cycling. And yet LA is choked with traffic and coated in highways.