Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[mdrejhon]

I have an idea for Bloor Bike lanes in the granite-sidewalk section.

A raised bike lane, with almost no modifications,

The areas behind the flower beds is almost wide enough for a bike lane.

People often don't walk in these areas. Some minor stuff might need to be moved half a meter to clear the room. If it is slightly too narrow, curb could be moved deeper into road by about twenty or thirty centimeters to round-out the lane - Bloor in this section could be slightly narrowed because the sharrow-space is no longer needed (it is super-wide curb lane), combining the existing sharrow-space and the raised area behind flower beds.

Resulting in raised bike lane like Sherbourne (between Bloor flowerbeds and the road).

If a few inches of widening is needed - Drains can stay and simply become ordinary side-drains rather than straight-down drains! The raised bike lanes will just go above existing drains and the drains become side-intake drains.

Some bike racks will simply need to be shifted to free the curb area.

To reduce foilage/garden spillage into new bike lane, simply install half-meter-tall lovely fancy luxury metal latticework/ornamentals on the lane-facing side to keep the bike right-of-way clear and to protect gardens from zooming bikes. More space!

70% of width allotment from existing raised curb.
30% of width allotment from narrowing Bloor (and removing sharrow-lane).
As little as a mere 6 inches.

Raised Sherbourne style lane!

 

[amnesiajune]

Markham and Vaughan are doing something interesting like that on parts of Highway 7 and Centre Street. Essentially they have a bike path that comes up to the sidewalk level in between intersections, but goes down to the road level at intersections. There are some trees being planted in between the road and the bike path, and in between the bike path and sidewalk. Some people posted pictures of it in a thread that I can't find right now.

They could do it on Bloor but it would probably require some construction, since the curb would need to be moved out a bit, with the curb lane becoming narrower.

 

[ADRM]

Markham and Vaughan are doing something interesting like that on parts of Highway 7 and Centre Street. Essentially they have a bike path that comes up to the sidewalk level in between intersections, but goes down to the road level at intersections. There are some trees being planted in between the road and the bike path, and in between the bike path and sidewalk. Some people posted pictures of it in a thread that I can't find right now.

They could do it on Bloor but it would probably require some construction, since the curb would need to be moved out a bit, with the curb lane becoming narrower.

It's been mentioned on here before, but similar scenarios are found all over some western European cities and I've found many of them work very well. I think there's lots of potential for some outside-the-box thinking to expand the network in Toronto.

Unfortunately, in all my dealings with City Transportation staff, I've found them extremely reticent to venture outside of their comfort zone or seriously consider adding new tools to their toolboxes.

 

[Avenue]

Even before starting to discuss the western suburbs, Bloor gets narrower around Ossington. I don't know how it'll be possible to extend the bike lanes past Shaw to Dufferin and Lansdowne (beyond Lansdowne isn't that realistic short term anyway) without doing away with streetparking. Businesses in the Annex made a stink about losing a couple of parking spots here and there but it'll be a lot more in Bloorcourt.

 

[WislaHD]

Well, only six of them. For something billed as controversial, this is a surprisingly lopsided result. Shows that the tired War on the Car arguments aren’t so relevant anymore.

I think it is clear here that Tory whipped the vote to pass.

 

[amnesiajune]

I think it is clear here that Tory whipped the vote to pass.

A whipped vote would've had 25-30 in favour at most. People like Carmichael Greb, Shiner and Kelly wouldn't have been whipped. There's no use burning political capital on votes that aren't needed.

I don't get the incessant need to play Me vs. Everyone in this thread. This was not controversial at all. It may not have had universal support but it had no real opposition.

 

[ADRM]

This was not controversial at all. It may not have had universal support but it had no real opposition.

Just because it wound up being a landslide doesn't mean it was preordained, and it's just plainly not true that there was "no real opposition". One of Toronto's largest circulation newspapers ran numerous front page stories decrying the pilot, it was the frequent subject of vitriol from the Newstalk-type chattering class, and two Deputy Mayors were among the most vocal higher-profile critics, among others.

Sure the efficacy of that opposition can be called into question (especially given the result), but it's just strange to deny its existence.

 

[amnesiajune]

Sure the efficacy of that opposition can be called into question (especially given the result), but it's just strange to deny its existence.

There's a difference between made-up opposition and real opposition. Media talking heads are not real opposition on their own. Real opposition is when people are actually going to do something about their opposition - in other words, when they'll vote against politicians who don't join their opposition. Every councillor whose opinion is controlled by the ballot box (as opposed to guys like Mammoliti, Ford, Minnan-Wong et al. who normally vote based on their ideological agenda regardless of public opinion) voted for the Bloor bike lanes.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I’m sure many here are sceptical of the theory I posted that this kind of separated infrastructure is inflationary. I’ll give you a recent personal example: I had to pay an extra $600 to have a commercial sign installed on Bloor because the lift couldn’t access the building.

Ultimately, as I mentioned, I’m agnostic on the trend as it has positive and negative impacts. Businesses and demographics adapt to change. However, I’m not sure cycling advocates or pedestrianization advocates appreciate that the restricted access has a potential inflationary component to it.

 

[ADRM]

There's a difference between made-up opposition and real opposition. Media talking heads are not real opposition on their own. Real opposition is when people are actually going to do something about their opposition - in other words, when they'll vote against politicians who don't join their opposition. Every councillor whose opinion is controlled by the ballot box (as opposed to guys like Mammoliti, Ford, Minnan-Wong et al. who normally vote based on their ideological agenda regardless of public opinion) voted for the Bloor bike lanes.

I'm totally with you on the latter point, and it's definitely a relevant and I think probably underappreciated one, but I just think it's a strange assertion to suggest that media discourse doesn't affect the planning or decisions of councillors and the Mayor. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your argument, though.

It's pretty interesting to notice how often the Mayor refers to how he's perceived in the media (especially as it pertains to criticism) -- he mentioned it a number of times yesterday alone in his public comments on the Bloor bike lanes.

I also think if the Sun/Newstalk/Deputy Mayor nexus were less overtly hostile towards bike infrastructure, you'd see a real commitment to a city-wide network of it rather than the current middling state of affairs -- looping back to the matter of public opinion, there's polling to suggest strong citywide (and very strong downtown) support for building out a real network of protected bike infrastructure.

 

[amnesiajune]

It's pretty interesting to notice how often the Mayor refers to how he's perceived in the media

I also think if the Sun/Newstalk/Deputy Mayor nexus were less overtly hostile towards bike infrastructure, you'd see a real commitment to a city-wide network of it rather than the current middling state of affairs -- looping back to the matter of public opinion, there's polling to suggest strong citywide (and very strong downtown) support for building out a real network of protected bike infrastructure.

John Tory has no ideology. He's just a steady hand at the tiller. That was his real appeal in the 2014 election (contrast his code of conduct promise with Rob Ford's term as mayor), and probably will be in this election too. He doesn't do anything that's unpopular or controversial within Toronto, he just does whatever will face the least criticism. He doesn't have some grand vision for the city, but he'll push for improvements that have no significant or strong opposition. Support helps, but he'll push proposals that don't have much support as long as there isn't much objection to it - ranked ballots, for example.

 

[aquateam]

John Tory has no ideology. He's just a steady hand at the tiller. That was his real appeal in the 2014 election (contrast his code of conduct promise with Rob Ford's term as mayor), and probably will be in this election too. He doesn't do anything that's unpopular or controversial within Toronto, he just does whatever will face the least criticism. He doesn't have some grand vision for the city, but he'll push for improvements that have no significant or strong opposition. Support helps, but he'll push proposals that don't have much support as long as there isn't much objection to it - ranked ballots, for example.

Maybe he learned his lesson about not standing his ground with unpopular ideas after the whole faith-based school fiasco.

 

[smably]

In other news, the Adelaide / Bathurst intersection was receiving its final coat of asphalt last night when I biked home from work. We'll see what it looks like tonight.

I rode the newly paved bike route this morning. Lines haven't yet been painted, but otherwise it seems ready to go. While it's a vast improvement over what was there before, there's an unfortunate conflict point where the south-side crosswalk across Bathurst crosses the bike channel. Could possibly be resolved with a dedicated signal cycle for bikes -- anyone know whether signal changes are coming?

 

[steveintoronto]

Just because it wound up being a landslide doesn't mean it was preordained, and it's just plainly not true that there was "no real opposition". One of Toronto's largest circulation newspapers ran numerous front page stories decrying the pilot, it was the frequent subject of vitriol from the Newstalk-type chattering class, and two Deputy Mayors were among the most vocal higher-profile critics, among others.

Sure the efficacy of that opposition can be called into question (especially given the result), but it's just strange to deny its existence.

This reminds me of Houlihan's Law. What's that? Houlihan thought Murphy was an optimist.

It has to be assumed that this is an uphill fight. That battle was won, not necessarily the war. It's going to take a *lot* of sustained and intense pressure to get this anywhere close to the standards of other cities. Consider that most of those that don't cycle don't 'get it'.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I rode the newly paved bike route this morning. Lines haven't yet been painted, but otherwise it seems ready to go. While it's a vast improvement over what was there before, there's an unfortunate conflict point where the south-side crosswalk across Bathurst crosses the bike channel. Could possibly be resolved with a dedicated signal cycle for bikes -- anyone know whether signal changes are coming?

There is a dedicated bike signal installed that hasn't been activated yet - we have yet to see if it will be timed separately from the pedestrian crossing signal however.

I too rode through last night - but a cop had conveniently decided to park in the new channel, so I was still forced onto the sidewalk.