Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[ADRM]

I am quite underwhelmed with the newly rebuilt Bloor bike lanes. Check out this detailed twitter thread by Anton.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1200553712286085120

Yep, was thinking pretty much exactly the same walking along today.

Good:

Good:

Good:

Good but the curb beside the parking isn’t high enough and folks are mounting it:

Bad — the City still fails to understand that bike infrastructure is only as good as its weakest links, and this design has a load of weak links; this is on the “protected” side:

And a few more; some good, some bad (I find it difficult to cut and paste images on mobile on this site):

 

[salsa]

Yep, was thinking pretty much exactly the same walking along today.

According to staff, the street is too narrow to build proper bike lanes (sorry but you still could have done better). So lets see how they do next year when they rebuild the segment between Spadina and Avenue Rd. The ROW there is significantly wider, so I better not hear any excuses for screwing this up too.

 

[TossYourJacket]

According to staff, the street is too narrow to build proper bike lanes (sorry but you still could have done better). So lets see how they do next year when they rebuild the segment between Spadina and Avenue Rd. The ROW there is significantly wider, so I better not hear any excuses for screwing this up too.

Ugh, it's only not wide enough because they insist on having street parking on a major road with a subway under it, because it's too politically challenging to do anything else.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ugh, it's only not wide enough because they insist on having street parking on a major road with a subway under it, because it's too politically challenging to do anything else.

...and with Green P off-street parking available on north side.

 

[Northern Light]

Zero Maintenance, Zero Vision.
Maybe they'll get plowed away.

Crushed bollards on Woodbine Ave. have cyclists fearing they’re next

Many of the bollards meant to protect cyclists on Woodbine Avenue have been knocked down by vehicles, writes Jack Lakey.

www.thestar.com

"Gim Ardal described the lanes on both sides of Woodbine, south of Danforth Avenue, as “in a woeful state,” adding that “many of the bollards have been knocked down and left to clutter the bike lanes, and this is before the season of the plow.
“I would understand if it was spring, but they’ve been like this for months,” said Ardal in an email. “Since the lanes went in the city has done zero maintenance or clearing.

“Bollards meant to protect cyclists are left in the lane to impede and imperil cyclists. If the city creates infrastructure meant to reach their target zero of cyclist deaths — it would sure be nice if (it was) more than lip service."
View attachment 217579

Follow up article from 'The Fixer' on this.............

Column about Woodbine bike lane bollards stirs strong opinions from readers

Readers were scathing in their criticism of a Fixer column about broken bollards along the Woodbine Avenue cycling lanes, writes Jack Lakey.

www.thestar.com

From said article, on reader chimed in arguing the posts aren't visible enough............

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you are going to put a line of posts five feet onto the road from the curb, you might want to make them a day-glo colour with night reflective coating.”

Sounds like a great idea. We’ll be asking the city why it hasn’t been done. Stay tuned.

Not sure I think that's the issue.......but I have an open mind.

 

[salsa]

Follow up article from 'The Fixer' on this.............

Column about Woodbine bike lane bollards stirs strong opinions from readers

Readers were scathing in their criticism of a Fixer column about broken bollards along the Woodbine Avenue cycling lanes, writes Jack Lakey.

www.thestar.com

From said article, on reader chimed in arguing the posts aren't visible enough............

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you are going to put a line of posts five feet onto the road from the curb, you might want to make them a day-glo colour with night reflective coating.”

Sounds like a great idea. We’ll be asking the city why it hasn’t been done. Stay tuned.

Not sure I think that's the issue.......but I have an open mind.

On twitter there were some comments suggesting that garbage trucks are responsible for damaging the bollards. There are a lot of houses along Woodbine.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Whether it's snowplows or garbage trucks, it's clear that this design of bike lane doesn't work, and we should just use concrete barriers/curbs like we have on other roads. Yet for some reason the city really seems to hate building those kind of bike lanes.

The weirdest one for me is Wellesley, which has lanes separated by concrete curbs on Wellesley West, but then is just paint and flexi-poles on Wellesley East

 

[Northern Light]

On twitter there were some comments suggesting that garbage trucks are responsible for damaging the bollards. There are a lot of houses along Woodbine.

Entirely possible; but disappointing if true.

The reason for the use of flexiposts was to allow garbage trucks (or taxis) to pull-in.

The posts are flexible and can bounce back up, if you pass over them with a bumper.

What they cannot do is withstand being run over by the wheels.

If you operate a vehicle that has 'approval' to go over flexiposts, you should have been trained on how to do so in a way that preserves them.

 

[salsa]

Why?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1200855832184999937

 

[PinkLucy]

Is it possible that jersey barriers or something similar will be installed? Hopefully not flexible bollards!

 

[TossYourJacket]

We really can't do anything right in this city when it comes to cycling infrastructure can we?

 

[MisterF]

Is it possible that jersey barriers or something similar will be installed? Hopefully not flexible bollards!

lol! So the whole street can look like the mess in front of Union Station.

Just separate the cycleway with a curb. Maybe even with some landscaping. It's not rocket science, Toronto!

 

[PinkLucy]

I was thinking more like the ones on Lakeshore near Royal York. Curbs don’t always keep cars out.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I hear insider information all the time about the bike lanes on Bloor and one funny story is that until recently there was no plan or concept to replace those broken flexible bollards, no mechanism to replace them, and no one responsible or in charge of getting them replaced.

I know I’m poking the bear a bit because this is a cycle advocacy thread but I would argue that the people who designed this have little understanding not only of cycling infrastructure as you guys are suggesting but also little understanding of how a neighbourhood actually functions in general

 

[Northern Light]

I hear insider information all the time about the bike lanes on Bloor and one funny story is that until recently there was no plan or concept to replace those broken flexible bollards, no mechanism to replace them, and no one responsible or in charge of getting them replaced.

I know I’m poking the bear a bit because this is a cycle advocacy thread but I would argue that the people who designed this have little understanding not only of cycling infrastructure as you guys are suggesting but also little understanding of how a neighbourhood actually functions in general

You're not wrong, or at least you haven't been.

The new head of City Cycling unit gives me some hope; but she will have to prove out.

Becky Katz

Meet Toronto's New Cycling & Pedestrian Manager | Cycle Toronto

www.cycleto.ca