Toronto Queens Quay & Water's Edge Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

Megaton327 said:
The final stretch of the MGT West Extension, from Bathurst to Stadium (consisting of moving the traffic lanes to the north side of the street, and changing the bike lanes to a bidirectional bollard-separated cycle track on the south side) is mostly complete--the only thing left is the installation of the bollards/flexi-posts in the white line to separate the track from the traffic lane:
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Ok, so I'm not a huge fan of these bollards, especially for bi-directional cycle tracks. On the Wellesley and Harbord cycle tracks, vehicles regularly pull over into the cycle track. Just yesterday even, I saw a large truck just directly run over two of the bollards so he could park in the lane.

If a uni-directional cycle track is blocked by a vehicle, I can just go around in the traffic lane with the flow of traffic. But what if a bi-directional cycle track is blocked? That's going to be considerably more difficult for an oncoming cyclist. They should just make a permanent barrier here. I've seen almost no incursions on the permanent barriers on Wellesley Street...it works much better than the gentle barriers on Sherbourne.
 
Miscreant said:
Interesting. Thanks for that. I'm not sure about what moves you had to make because of the bike lane being closed, but at a few points you had to cross streetcar tracks at only a slight angle, and if cyclists have to do that regularly there will be accidents, some possibly very serious.

In fact, when you crossed them at only a slight angle, a car passed you, which is inconsiderate because the car should see the hazard and give you some space.

Anyways, interesting video. It really is a huge site, and it's nice to see it coming together. Especially when the fences are down around York. I am a bit skeptical they'll get it all cleaned up by the 19th, though...
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I had to get off the bike track at Yo-Yo Ma and then I got back on again at Rees/Robertson. The road/ROW crossover does involve only a slight angle to the tracks, although it didn't bother me since I have fairly chunky tires and the groove where the rail is doesn't seem particularly deep.

The pass didn't really bother me though. Once the entire bike track is open I wont have to deal with that sort of thing - at least not on QQW.

(Edit: just realized I conflated the driver of the silver Hyundai with the driver of the silver Nissan later)
 
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fc000 said:
One thing's for sure, streetcar drivers are fed up with the constant blocking of the ROW, either by cars, pedestrians, or cyclists on the tracks, it's constant streetcar horns and bells all day down here, even more so on the weekends with all the activity.
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I'm guessing it's because people think that the middle of the streetcar tacks is a safe place to be because they don't see one coming and they want to be close to the road to cross it.
 
the lemur said:
Haha, no way, I don't really like those. Just a pedal bike ... does it sound like an electric scooter?
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I think the GoProp video was speeded up...that might have been confusing for him. Going to go check it out in a few minutes myself. I'll report back.
 
Tuscani01 said:
Ah! Didn't realize it was just on-street lanes!
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Everyone's confused to be honest. Part of it is that the province needs to revisit its definitions. Even the city of Toronto webpage isn't super clear:
http://www.toronto.ca/311/knowledgebase/29/101000047129.html

There's a hell of a lot of difference between a normal bike with a pedal-assist for going up hill, and one of moped like devices that you see around town. They're much faster and heavier than bikes, and I would actually like to see them banned from any bike lanes. Right now, they're just banned from parks and cycle tracks.
 
Just did a fun test ride of the trail. Except for the same part where lemur had to detour it's really great.
I attached a photo of the bollards section west of Bathurst. It's actually pretty good as the spacing is much tighter than I had expected.

Definitely some pedestrians that are not clued into the fact that there is both a bike path and streetcars. Some slightly close calls. Also a little strange...I noticed a streetcar driver eating what looked like soup while driving. I mean I guess he didn't have to steer...
 

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wopchop said:
So what's the deal with this signal at Rees? Is it a malfunction? Are people running the red? Are they looking at the wrong signal?
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The issue in general is that people are disobeying turn restrictions and protected turn signals, either because they are incompetent or inconsiderate. But these negative attributes are amplified by the placement of the turn signals, which while consistent with the Ontario Traffic Manual, are not intuitive.

The westbound left-turn signals at Rees are both positioned over the ROW, not over the roadway, which places them out of mind for drivers along the road. There is an absolute forest of signals along Queens Quay, so drivers could be at least somewhat forgiven from tuning out the ones on the periphery of their vision.
 
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For those wondering, the electric switches at Spadina/Spadina Loop are waiting for Toronto Hydro to turn on the power, as they won't let the TTC do it even though they're the ones who trained them how to. TTC crews have already wired the switches/antennae.
 
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