Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

[W. K. Lis]

The charter challenge will go on.

Ontario will not begin removing bike lanes until March 20 at the earliest, the Transportation Ministry has said. The cyclists sought the injunction to prevent any biking infrastructure from being removed between that date and the court hearing on April 16.

See https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/court-injunction-ontario-bike-lanes-court-challenge-1.7483871

 

[Midtown Hank]

"The evidence also suggests that if the lanes are removed, the volume of cyclists using these roads will decrease significantly, such that the raw total of cyclist collisions will be largely unaffected," he wrote.

So as per the judge it's a valid argument to claim that it's okay to make the road less safe for cyclists as long as it becomes so unsafe that it scares the cyclists away from using it?

Perhaps I am not quite understanding the context of this quote.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the judge is saying that the number of cyclists using these routes will decrease for safety reasons, but rather for convenience reasons.

 

[W. K. Lis]

In Ontario, cyclists should generally ride on the right side of the road, at least one meter from the curb or parked cars, but can use any part of the lane for safety, including the centre, and must obey bicycle traffic signals if present.

In Toronto, traffic lane widths generally range from 3.0 to 4.3 metres. Subtract 1 metre for a cyclist from the curb or parked car, and allowing ~1.5 metres clearance for motorists to pass the cyclists, and allowing ~60-75 centimetres width for a two-wheeled bicycle, that means a bicycle could use an ENTIRE traffic lane.

 

[UntitledCyclist]

I may be wrong, but I don't think the judge is saying that the number of cyclists using these routes will decrease for safety reasons, but rather for convenience reasons.

Why would it be more convenient to take longer routes, not on the main road, where everything is?

 

[bearcat]

Why would it be more convenient to take longer routes, not on the main road, where everything is?

well the one explanation I can see is without bike lanes it may take longer to bike along these streets as now there will be cars in gridlock in the way, so the removing bike lanes make the road more unsafe AND more inconvenient (with respect to time spent) for people on a bicycle, so even more hardcore cyclists who feel comfortable riding with cars will avoid these streets since now the gridlock of cars will slow those cycling down too mich

so it's not that longer routes will become more convenient, rather where the roads where the bike lanes will be removed will become less convenient

 

[W. K. Lis]

You can either use road space efficiently, or you can have cars.Transporting 200 people: in busses (0:31 minutes) in trams (0:32 minutes) walking (0:38...

3.8K views · 145 reactions | You can either use road space efficiently, or you can have cars. Transporting 200 people: 🚌 in busses (0:31 minutes) 🚋 in trams (0:32 minutes) 🚶 walking... | By Urban Cycling Institute | Facebook

You can either use road space efficiently, or you can have cars. Transporting 200 people: 🚌 in busses (0:31 minutes) 🚋 in trams (0:32 minutes) 🚶 walking...

www.facebook.com

 

[UntitledCyclist]

Yeah that's a safety issue flat out.