Toronto Bike Share

[Tuscani01]

The report clearly shows that riding a bike is much more dangerous than walking. Keep in mind that there are orders of magnitude more pedestrians than cyclists. In most parts of the city pedestrians are everywhere but there are only a handful of cyclists; only a tiny minority of the population rides a bike on busy roads in Toronto. Sure most bike accidents aren't actually fatal but the number of people who end up in the hospital is pretty large. Also you can clearly see from the map showing dots for bike accidents that bike lanes are unsafe, there are many bike accidents on roads like College St and Harbord St that have them. The statistics clearly show that riding a bike is the second most dangerous method of transportation (only motorcycling is more dangerous).

We need to spend money on real methods of transportation (i.e. subways and GO train electrification) not this nonsense. Bike lanes and bike sharing are a fad. Until 5-10 years ago they are pretty uncommon in North America even though bicycles have been around for a lot longer, and now we seem to have this craze where large numbers of cities all over the world are wasting money on this nonsense. In practically all of them, only a tiny minority of the population rides bikes because the vast majority of the population is too scared to ride a bike and practically all bike share systems have gotten into financial trouble because few people use them.

You have clearly never used a bike before. I hop on a bixi before I even think about using transit, and only do so because I live by numerous bike lanes. More lanes = more safety = more cyclists.

Say what you want, but the stats out of Richmond/Adelaide's pilot show that bike usage has significantly increased while traffic has not been affected at all, and in some cases now moves faster than before. The Sherbourne lanes are pretty busy all day too. Bloor Street, which doesn't even have bike lanes is also packed with cyclists.

And not 'practically all' bike share systems have faced financial difficulties. You cant just make up stories to suit your narrative. Decisions aren't made based on 'andrewpmk's stories'. Just because you are too chicken to use a bike and choose to live in a bubble, doesn't mean everyone else is going to follow suit.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Apparently 6M gets you GO electrification and subways. No luck for buses either, because it isn't "real". And apparently 10 years ago the core area isn't the most desirable locale to work and play in most North American cities either...I suppose it's just as "fad".

AoD

 

[dowlingm]

If the plan is to extend the network principally west towards GO Exhibition and GO Bloor along with some expansion of the existing catchment, that seems like a win-win for Metrolinx and the City. Where would the best place to put a bikeshare node in the 905 be?

 

[LNahid2000]

On Thursday I met a friend downtown and he wanted to go to a few places downtown using the TTC. I didn't have a Metropass so I used Bike Share to meet him at various subway stations. We did:

Queen/John to Dundas Station
Dundas Station to Union Station
Queens Quay/Spadina to Bloor Station

I got to the subway station using Bike Share before he got there using the TTC every time. So saying Bike Share isn't real transportation is completely invalid.

 

[andrewpmk]

You have clearly never used a bike before. I hop on a bixi before I even think about using transit, and only do so because I live by numerous bike lanes. More lanes = more safety = more cyclists.

Say what you want, but the stats out of Richmond/Adelaide's pilot show that bike usage has significantly increased while traffic has not been affected at all, and in some cases now moves faster than before. The Sherbourne lanes are pretty busy all day too. Bloor Street, which doesn't even have bike lanes is also packed with cyclists.

And not 'practically all' bike share systems have faced financial difficulties. You cant just make up stories to suit your narrative. Decisions aren't made based on 'andrewpmk's stories'. Just because you are too chicken to use a bike and choose to live in a bubble, doesn't mean everyone else is going to follow suit.

I tried riding a bike about 10 years ago, but stopped when I realized it was too dangerous and that bikes get stolen too often. Riding a bike in Toronto is way too dangerous particularly with the streetcar tracks everywhere, construction constantly blocking lanes, bike lanes that have parked cars in them, etc. So yes I have ridden a bike in Toronto years ago, but the idea of doing it again just scares me.

The Richmond/Adelaide bike lanes are used by a few thousand people a day. This is a rounding error compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who live and work downtown. The 2% of Toronto's population which rides a bike to work is a tiny minority that has a disproportionate influence on city council. Outside the downtown core bikes are a rare sight in most neighbourhoods. The bike racks on buses are hardly ever used. Pretty much the only places where you see large numbers of bikes are off road bike paths and the Toronto Islands (pretty much the only safe places in Toronto to ride a bike).

I would say most bike share programs have gotten into financial difficulties. Bixi (which used to run the bike share in Toronto and many other cities) filed for bankruptcy in 2014. These bike share programs will disappear once big sponsors like TD pull out.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

If the plan is to extend the network principally west towards GO Exhibition and GO Bloor along with some expansion of the existing catchment, that seems like a win-win for Metrolinx and the City. Where would the best place to put a bikeshare node in the 905 be?

Just thinking of Mississauga - Port Credit, Cooksville, Erindale.

Outside the downtown core bikes are a rare sight in most neighbourhoods. The bike racks on buses are hardly ever used. Pretty much the only places where you see large numbers of bikes are off road bike paths and the Toronto Islands (pretty much the only safe places in Toronto to ride a bike).

Said who? Bikes racks are definitely quite well used on Mississauga Transit.

AoD

 

[PinkLucy]

The 2% of Toronto's population which rides a bike to work is a tiny minority that has a disproportionate influence on city council

The last stats we have are from 2006; bike riding has increased since then. Also, at that time 17% of people living in the downtown core bike commuted, so that's a pretty significant number of people requiring proper infrastructure. As noted earlier, improvements in infrastructure bring about an increase in ridership, so places like Richmond & Adelaide saw cycling numbers increase three fold. By making it safer, numbers of cyclists are increasing. More cyclists means less people in cars which means less gridlock. It's a win win.

Also, the StatsCan stats only count bike to work trips -- they don't include people running errands, going shopping, etc. The StatsCan form also only allowed people to make one choice to report their commuting -- so people who commute some of the time aren't included.

 

[grey]

The report clearly shows that riding a bike is much more dangerous than walking. Keep in mind that there are orders of magnitude more pedestrians than cyclists. In most parts of the city pedestrians are everywhere but there are only a handful of cyclists; only a tiny minority of the population rides a bike on busy roads in Toronto. Sure most bike accidents aren't actually fatal but the number of people who end up in the hospital is pretty large. Also you can clearly see from the map showing dots for bike accidents that bike lanes are unsafe, there are many bike accidents on roads like College St and Harbord St that have them. The statistics clearly show that riding a bike is the second most dangerous method of transportation (only motorcycling is more dangerous).

Let me save you some time and trouble: you're not going to find a receptive audience to this here, or pretty much anywhere online unless you're willing to toil in newspaper comment sections with Ford Nation types.

 

[Tulse]

These bike share programs will disappear once big sponsors like TD pull out.

The same could be said for almost all large cultural events in the city.

 

[Tuscani01]

Just thinking of Mississauga - Port Credit, Cooksville, Erindale.




AoD

If Cooksville were to get Bixi, it would make sense to disperse a few stations around MCC also. It would be a nice way to get from Cooksville GO to MCC and back. Though with the majority of Cooksville GO trips being by bus, via Square One, I guess it wouldn't be that useful until RER service can be implemented on the Milton line.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

If Cooksville were to get Bixi, it would make sense to disperse a few stations around MCC also. It would be a nice way to get from Cooksville GO to MCC and back. Though with the majority of Cooksville GO trips being by bus, via Square One, I guess it wouldn't be that useful until RER service can be implemented on the Milton line.

Totally agree with that - in the long run there should be Bixi stations along the entire LRT route as well.

AoD

 

[wopchop]

If the plan is to extend the network principally west towards GO Exhibition and GO Bloor along with some expansion of the existing catchment, that seems like a win-win for Metrolinx and the City. Where would the best place to put a bikeshare node in the 905 be?

With the limited parking situations at Port Credit, Long Branch, and Mimico GO stations, I believe that bike sharing would be popular.

 

[wopchop]

These bike share programs will disappear once big sponsors like TD pull out.

Stupid argument. The problem is that bike sharing programs are being designed to fail. They should be considered public transit.

Without public funding, would any of our transit systems still be running? Probably not. Would you suggest that we shut them all down?

 

[Tulse]

How about an east end subway station? Broadview? Pape? Greenwood?

 

[Napoleon]

Sure most bike accidents aren't actually fatal but the number of people who end up in the hospital is pretty large. Also you can clearly see from the map showing dots for bike accidents that bike lanes are unsafe, there are many bike accidents on roads like College St and Harbord St that have them. The statistics clearly show that riding a bike is the second most dangerous method of transportation (only motorcycling is more dangerous).

Just a friendly reminder that correlation does not imply causation:

https://xkcd.com/552/
There are lots of bikes on streets with bike lanes, so it's not much of a surprise that there are more accidents on streets with bike lanes.

We need to spend money on real methods of transportation (i.e. subways and GO train electrification) not this nonsense. Bike lanes and bike sharing are a fad

P.S. My bike is a real method of transportation. It gets me to and from work almost everyday for free without polluting the environment.