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New Bike Lanes on University, Bay, Spadina, and Other Roads

Keep it a secret but Eglinton Ave is 5 lanes (not 4 or 6) for miles through central Toronto. God forbid the cycle nazis find out.
 
spider said:
Keep it a secret but Eglinton Ave is 5 lanes (not 4 or 6) for miles through central Toronto. God forbid the cycle nazis find out.
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I hear you, buddy. I never understood what it was like to be a Jew in Germany 1942 until I bought a car in Toronto. Now I understand fully.
 
University doesn't seem like the best biking street because there are no stores. Come to think of it, the lack of merchant opposition is probably what led this one to make it through.

Anyway, it's a pilot project, so we will see how successful it is. This city has a poor track record of following through on temporary pilot projects, though. Remember Queen's Quay?
 
What I don't get is why they are focusing on University when they should really be focused north to Avenue Road. That section past Bloor is not just bad for cyclists, it's practically a death trap for pedestrians too! I would like to see that parking lane given to bikes and pedestrians through that stretch. It's usually only got one or two cars in it anyway.
 
Hipster Duck said:
University doesn't seem like the best biking street because there are no stores. Come to think of it, the lack of merchant opposition is probably what led this one to make it through.

Anyway, it's a pilot project, so we will see how successful it is. This city has a poor track record of following through on temporary pilot projects, though. Remember Queen's Quay?
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What do you mean?

This worked, the QQ project will do exactly what the trial did for the most part.

I think it's a mistake to think lot's of merchants => good cycling corridors ... it may be the oposite in many ways if the street isn't big enough
 
The assertion that removing 1 lane in each direction will not significantly affect traffic on University Ave is true. It's only between Adelaide and Queen's Park where it's 4 lanes in each direction, south of Adelaide to Front it's only 3, and York St going to the Gardiner is only 2. Therefore, there's a funnel effect that happens between Adelaide and Front. All University is between Queen's Park and Adelaide is is a holding basin for streaming onto the Gardiner during rush hour. Anywhere where you have a reduction in lanes, unless the road is significantly below capacity, you will have some sort of a slow-down. So rather than having a lane merge south of Richmond, just eliminate the excess lane on University.

The theoretical maximum for any lane is 1,500 vehicles per hour. For University between Queen's Park and Adelaide, that's 6000 vehicles per hour. However, between Adelaide and Front, the theoretical capacity is only 4,500. The theoretical capacity for York St is only 3,000. Therefore, if only 80% of the people using University at say Queen St are bound for the Gardiner during rush hour (a very generous estimate), that section of University actually has a surplus capacity of 1,800 vehicles per hour, because only 3,000 can effectively stream through York St onto the Gardiner. Therefore, in the grand scheme of things, removing a lane does NOTHING to the actual effectiveness of being able to stream through University Ave down to the Gardiner.

A similar scenario goes for getting up University Ave to Avenue Road. Again, assuming 80% of the northbound people at Queen during the evening rush hour are bound for Bloor St or higher, the roadway changes from 4 lanes to 3 lanes at the north end of Queen's Park circle. Therefore, University Ave still has an excess capacity of 300 vehicles.
 
taal said:
What do you mean?

This worked, the QQ project will do exactly what the trial did for the most part.
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Yes, it exceeded everyone's expectations; it became a celebrated part of the city for those two weeks and very few people were against it. Too bad that was four years ago and we haven't seen any shovels. You can see how I can't get too excited about a pilot project becoming a permanent fixture in this city.

I think it's a mistake to think lot's of merchants => good cycling corridors ... it may be the oposite in many ways if the street isn't big enough
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No, I'm not suggesting that I think that the presence of merchants makes a good cycling street. Nevertheless, the objective of traveling is to reach activities, and streets that have a lot of retail activity tend to generate more trips; in other words, there is a greater demand for cycling infrastructure (for the most part) on streets with retail.

However, merchants have been up in arms about how the construction of a bicycle lane removes on-street parking and these generally scuttle plans to build bike lanes in parts of town where they are more needed.
 
They city of Toronto is planing on putting in bike lanes for the cyclists in the city. I personally feel that it shouldn't' be done. Granted, the cyclists should be just as safe as pedestrians but I feel they don't have to be on the major roads. The city plans to put in European style bike lanes on their major roads such as Spadina and University. I have sat in traffic on both lanes, not in the drivers seat but as a passenger, and I know that is' back up as far as the eye can see. University even has four lanes and even then it's hell on earth.( not really but you get the idea lol ) To take away two lanes from there would cause traffic to be at a standstill and the rest of the motorists would be late for work or would have to get up at ridiculous hours. now I'm not here to talk about motorists, that's a totally different topic, but I am here to discuss what I think on the cyclist lanes. Now, I don't' know about anyone else, unless it's just my misfortune, but i have been elbowed and hit by cyclists that are whizzing by me on the road. I know that not all of them are jerks on bikes but, again, I think it might be just my luck. Anyways, I feel if they think that they are unsafe on the road then they should be allowed on the sidewalk. The only thing with that is that they would have to slow down and watch for pedestrians just like the people in the cars do. If they either don't like that or are not allowed, then they should either take public transit like the rest of the people that don't drive, or they can take the side streets to get to the intersections that they need to get to. Toronto is an ever expanding and ever populating city, means that more and more cars are going to be on the roads. To take away lanes when the population, both in cars and in people, is growing is just, again in my opinion,stupid. Cyclists have been asking for bike lanes, as far as I can tell, for a while now. Now that there is a chance to get one, they are complaining on what side of the road they go on. I think now they are just being ungrateful. Don't' look a gift horse in the mouth, I don't' understand what they have to complain about, the ones that are complaining anyways. They get whole lanes taken away from major roads and holding up traffic even more than it's already held up on it's own right now. Personally, I feel that the cyclists aren't doing enough on their own to keep themselves safe. again this is just my opinion lol
 
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There's a north-south route a couple blocks to the west at St. George/Beverly. I'd prefer to see efforts go toward building protected lanes on this lower traffic street, and perhaps taking it further either down Peter or through the Grange and down John (which I believe is scheduled for some redevelopment). I fear that placing lanes on a high profile street like University will be only serve to repeat the Jarvis debate, where the War on Cars nonsense was flamed to build a route two blocks from an existing route. Especially with candidates in the upcoming election targeting bike lanes as easy way to grab votes, a divisive debate here could set back the cyclist's cause. That said, I'd like to see a protected lane somewhere, and this city needs to break out of EA and political paralysis and just try some things. It's designed to be temporary. If taking a lane away from University gridlocks traffic at the four corners of the GTA and only three cyclists an hour use the route, then it will be handed back to the drivers. Nothing wrong with trying out an idea. Best thing about the Tamil protests last year was being able to cycle down University from Queen to Front without worrying about cars.
 
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