Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[Northern Light]

By parallel roads, I think it's referring to Avenue Rd or Mt Pleasant as the alternatives. I recall that these roads were supposed to be part of the study for Yonge street, before the pandemic hit.


View attachment 279440


I also use Duplex a lot, which is useful however I find that it's materially slower compared to the main roads (lots of stop signs, cross traffic, and door zones to watch out for). And once you're south of St Clair, there are no safe alternatives nearby.

I'd been happy to see bike lanes on Avenue Road; and Mt. Pleasant, and Yonge.

In the near-term is 'or' an option?

We all know there are both more origins and destinations on Yonge.

But lets set that aside for one moment.

For a parallel route to be in any way useful, how close do we think it has to be to the primary destination, if we assume the latter were Yonge?

I measured the distance btw Avenue Rd and Yonge and btw Mt. Pleasant and Yonge at Lawrence, Eglinton, St. Clair and Bloor.

The closest point was Yonge/Mt Pleasant at Lawrence, at just ~450m.

That might be viable........not too far out of one's way.

But it was ~625m at both Eglinton and Bloor; and over 900M at St. Clair. That's a pretty big diversion.

Meanwhile, Avenue Road is an even larger diversion, ranging to distances upwards of 1.1km from Yonge at points, and never closer than 600m

Ones' diversion could be even longer if your origin/destination were on opposite sides of Yonge.

I think my overall take is Yonge is really necessary, but if one were to contemplate an alternative, it would require one both east and west of Yonge.

As pointed out, physical separation would also likely be essential (though I'd argue for that on Yonge too!)

 

[W. K. Lis]

Jarvis Street is an extension of Mt. Pleasant Road. They anti-cyclist Ford Nation removed it. It should be brought back, if they put bicycle lanes on Mt. Pleasant.

Remember this, from this link.

 

[Northern Light]

Some upgrades from Bike Lanes to Cycle Tracks are coming:

Report coming to the next Infrastructure and Environment Committee on November 5th

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

app.toronto.ca

From said report:

 

[ADRM]

Some upgrades from Bike Lanes to Cycle Tracks are coming:

Report coming to the next Infrastructure and Environment Committee on November 5th

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

app.toronto.ca

From said report:

View attachment 279582

This is really good (but obviously long overdue); it seems Becky Katz has had a genuinely very positive impact on the Cycling Department (and/or has found a way to work more effectively with the cretins in Transportation). The City has long held that the upgrade of designation is a necessary prerequisite for installing permanent barriers, though it is interesting that they've already gone ahead and installed the concrete barriers on the Lansdowne stretch.

Dundas from Broadview to Kingston (if approved) is actually going to be a new bike lane of genuinely significant length and, one would hope, bodes well for making permanent the Dundas ActiveTO bike lane crossing the Don. The Strachan stretch is the definition of a no-brainer (and it's sort of criminal that physical separation wasn't installed when the lanes were first painted).

 

[W. K. Lis]

Some upgrades from Bike Lanes to Cycle Tracks are coming:

Report coming to the next Infrastructure and Environment Committee on November 5th

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

Agenda Item History 2020.IE17.4

app.toronto.ca

From said report:

View attachment 279582

WOW!!! Runnymede Road between Maria Street and Ryding Avenue. A whopping 190m!! Cyclists will now be able to ride from Jumbo Burgers restaurant to Wal-Mart in less than 2 minutes!

How long did this take to get a decision on this?

 

[H4F33Z]

WOW!!! Runnymede Road between Maria Street and Ryding Avenue. A whopping 190m!! Cyclists will now be able to ride from Jumbo Burgers restaurant to Wal-Mart in less than 2 minutes!

How long did this take to get a decision on this?

I feel like the city's realizing that underpasses are super scary for cyclists, so putting protection on buffers are no brainers!

 

[robmausser]

Jarvis Street is an extension of Mt. Pleasant Road. They anti-cyclist Ford Nation removed it. It should be brought back, if they put bicycle lanes on Mt. Pleasant.

Remember this, from this link.

While I dont think the Jarvis lanes should have been removed, Sherbourne was a much better choice that should have been done in the first place over Jarvis.

Its my opinion that it was stupid to remove the bike lanes on jarvis, but it was stupid to do them in the first place as well, instead of Sherbourne, which was done after they were removed.

 

[afransen]

I feel like the city's realizing that underpasses are super scary for cyclists, so putting protection on buffers are no brainers!

Here is how cycle paths underpasses should work (on the right side, elevated from the road). Making cyclists go down a huge decline and incline so that trucks have enough clearance is bad design. There is a MUP on the right side (combined sidewalk and cycle path).

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

 

[W. K. Lis]

Here is how cycle paths underpasses should work (on the right side, elevated from the road). Making cyclists go down a huge decline and incline so that trucks have enough clearance is bad design. There is a MUP on the right side (combined sidewalk and cycle path).

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

This image is from Australia (left side instead of right side), but the bicycle lanes are RAISED above the traffic lanes.

From link.

 

[afransen]

To be fair, that looks like a highway (or borderline highway) in a natural ravine/valley.

 

[H4F33Z]

If anyone wants to read the full report on the bike lane upgrades for the fall/winter of 2020.

These include:
Lansdowne from Shirley-Rideau (Underpass)
Runnymede from Ryding-Maria (Underpass)
Strachan from Wellington - Lakeshore Blvd.

Dundas East from Broadview-Kingston

I want to specify that the Dundas East bike lanes will not upgrade to cycle tracks on sections where there is parking on both sides. Staff will only install bollards/curbs on sections where there is parking on one side, in which case, the protection will only be on the non-parking side. An extra line will be painted to create a buffer, narrowing road lanes.

Good news! Every signalized intersection will be getting the "Jones" treatment. Advanced stop bars, and curbs that go all the way to the intersection. Cannot confirm if there will be right on red bans, or bike boxes.

Eventually, the city will upgrade the lanes to full cycle tracks in 2022, (and parking protection.) this will involve construction, road reconfigurations, public consultations etc.

Danforth to Cosburn potential options.

The highest ranking routes analyzed and scored that connect the Danforth Avenue and Cosburn Avenue are: 

Broadview Avenue: high suitability 
Coxwell Avenue: medium to high suitability 
Greenwood Avenue: medium to high suitability 
Donlands Avenue: low to medium suitability

Routes were analyzed and scored on nine criteria including current cycling demand, potential cycling demand, trip generators, transit access, connectivity, coverage, barriers, safety and equity.

Suprisingly? Donlands is the lowest. Which is strange. In my opinion, Broadview is really good, but so is Donlands, so why not both, a really good grid of bike infrastructure in Old East York.

 

[Northern Light]

Danforth to Cosburn potential options.

The highest ranking routes analyzed and scored that connect the Danforth Avenue and Cosburn Avenue are: 

Broadview Avenue: high suitability 
Coxwell Avenue: medium to high suitability 
Greenwood Avenue: medium to high suitability 
Donlands Avenue: low to medium suitability

Suprisingly? Donlands is the lowest. Which is strange. In my opinion, Broadview is really good, but so is Donlands, so why not both, a really good grid of bike infrastructure in Old East York.

This seems bizarre to me.

First off, the established demand corridor is between Pape and Greenwood.

That's not to suggest Coxwell or Broadview shouldn't have bike lanes; its to suggest at least one of the streets between Pape and Greenwood is non-negotiable.

Greenwood reads to me as being as narrow as 9M

That means bike lanes are hard capped at 1.5M and there is no room for protection or a buffer.

Donlands is over 13M for the most part, and is much more suitable.

I would love to see the criteria.

 

[salsa]

This seems bizarre to me.

First off, the established demand corridor is between Pape and Greenwood.

That's not to suggest Coxwell or Broadview shouldn't have bike lanes; its to suggest at least one of the streets between Pape and Greenwood is non-negotiable.

Greenwood reads to me as being as narrow as 9M

That means bike lanes are hard capped at 1.5M and there is no room for protection or a buffer.

Donlands is over 13M for the most part, and is much more suitable.

I would love to see the criteria.

It would have been helpful if the study went beyond just Danforth to Cosburn. What about connections to the Leaside bridge for example? In that case, Donlands could suddenly be looking pretty good, at least from a cycling network perspective.

 

[Northern Light]

It would have been helpful if the study went beyond just Danforth to Cosburn. What about connections to the Leaside bridge for example? In that case, Donlands could suddenly be looking pretty good, at least from a cycling network perspective.

It was my understanding that Cosburn had been chosen expressly to make it easier and faster to get approval.

It avoided the need to take out the angle parking in the retail strip at Donlands/O'Connor. (avoids the same issue at Coxwell/O'Connor).

The point of stopping there was simply to 'get it done', then worry about the next bit further north.

 

[Towered]

It was my understanding that Cosburn had been chosen expressly to make it easier and faster to get approval.

It avoided the need to take out the angle parking in the retail strip at Donlands/O'Connor. (avoids the same issue at Coxwell/O'Connor).

The point of stopping there was simply to 'get it done', then worry about the next bit further north.

It's sad that council has to resort to such Trojan horse tactics to expand critical infrastructure just to avoid a NIMBY backlash.