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Cycling infrastructure (Separated bike lanes)

I'm down for the Richmond cross town bike lane, but I'd like to see it go all the way to Bathurst in the West. There's no reason for it to stop before Spadina when it can serve the biking prolific Queen West community by going to at least Bathurst. One step at a time I guess.

As for Jarvis, it is in fact hypocritical to give the excuse that "bike lanes don't belong on major arterials" when they're proposing one on Richmond. There's plenty of room on Jarvis and I haven't noticed any traffic tie ups from losing the central lane that nobody used anyway.
 
bigtony22127 said:
This is a pleasant surprise! It`s about time this city stops painting bike lanes across all kinds of random streets and focusing more on building a cohesive network. I think curbed bike lanes are especially useful on streets with high car traffic. I`ll take the optimistic stance here and commend Minnan-Wong for this one!
Click to expand...

I've heard this a couple of times - which were some of the 'random streets' the previous administration painted bike lanes on?
 
Didn't take long:

Building a separated bike-lane network in downtown isn’t a priority for Mayor Rob Ford now or any time soon, according to his office.

“Right now, it’s just a proposal. It’s just being discussed,” Adrienne Batra, the mayor’s press secretary, said. “We’re trying to stay focused on the bigger-picture issue right now, and that’s the budget.”
Click to expand...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-bike-lane-network/article1862420/?cmpid=rss1

Guess Denzil Minnan-Wong just decided he wanted his picture in the paper again.
 
GraphicMatt said:
I've heard this a couple of times - which were some of the 'random streets' the previous administration painted bike lanes on?
Click to expand...

I'm no bike lane expert and I don't live downtown, but what I'm referring to are the random strips of red lines that are prominent on Toronto's Bike Map. There's evidence of these lines across the city. Some just go nowhere or are not connected to anything else. Others stop once they hit major roadways, since that's where the real challenge in providing bike lanes is. One good example is the lack of connection between the Wellesley street and Harbord/Hoskin bike lanes. Things like that should be worked on so provide a seamless network rather than painting a line on Jarvis Street that stops at Queen Street. How very useful!
 
The network proposed is far bigger than what the Star map shows
The proposal is for four separated bicycle routes across the downtown core
Two east west:
1. Harbord - Wellesley from Parliament to Ossington;
2. Richmond Street from Bathurst to Parliament.

Two north south:

1. Starting at Prince Arthur on St George Beverley to John Street
connecting to new bicycle lanes on Simcoe, via the Richmond Street
bicycle lanes , to the Lake;
2. Sherbourne Street from Elm Avenue in Rosedale just north of Bloor all
the way to Queens Quay.
When Minnan Wong introduced this in the Spring of last year he said he would support snow removal for the core network.
 
I've encountered a couple tiny contraflow lanes in the east end that seem to be there for no reason other than they were someone's project at City Hall. There's a tiny blip of a bike lane on Wellington west of Bathurst that serves no real purpose. After all the arguing about Jarvis, the final result is truncated, stopping at Queen instead of reaching the Market or the waterfront. Many of the major lanes at some point leave cyclists at a spot (often where traffic becomes denser and more frantic) where improvisation becomes necessary. The lanes on the new underpass at Simcoe lead anyone cycling north into a one way street, leaving them to negotiate a messy turn on Front. There are concrete barriers here that separate pedestrians from traffic, but instead of placing the bike lanes inside the barriers and on one side of the street so they could one day continue up Simcoe north of Front, Toronto painted lines, had a grand opening and added them to the kilometre count. The traffic flow through the underpass would now require some tricky, probably impossible, re-engineering if Minnan-Wong's plan were to be implemented.
 
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I think the issue is that in the past bike lanes have been attached to other streetscape projects. Jarvis doesn't have bike lanes south of Queen because there has not been a major renewal project proposed for that part of the street. (It's also significantly narrower.)
 
Support the Minnan Wong Proposal

Minnan Wong's plan could potentially help support the Jarvis lanes.
The Jarvis lanes could be extended south of Queen Street East, where they currently end , one block to Richmond Street East where Minnan Wong is proposing east west lanes through the core.
The Richmond Street lanes could also potentially support the Eastern Avenue lanes in Paula Fletcher's ward.
Currently the Eastern Avenue lanes start east of the DVP and end to what used to be Sandra Bussins Ward who wouldnt support their extension into her ward .
Another bicycle lane to and from nowhere.
The Richmond Street bicycle lanes could be extended east to connect the Eastern Avenue bicycle lanes over the Don Valley.
Hopefully McMahon Bussin's successor who appears interested in cycling will see this opportunity.
Lets hope the Left on Council embraces this proposal and seeks to build on it rather than oppose it because it comes from Ford.
 
The Mayor only has one vote out of 44
I see the glass half full.
Minnan Wong is the head of the Committee that recommends where and when bicycle lanes are installed.
So its the cycling communitys job to convince Council and the Mayor that his should be done.
 
I agree, but I'm a bit cynical as to how successful cycling advocates can be with this administration. Minnan-Wong is a loyal soldier and isn't likely to bring anything to vote if the mayor hasn't given the okay.

I certainly wouldn't discourage any efforts toward advocacy, though.
 
I am assuming the Richmond corridor would be handled like this.

please exuse my awful paint skils

bikex.png


Am i right? Hopefully
 
New on road bike lanes aren't happening during the Ford administration. The official policy statement is "my heart bleeds when a cyclist gets hit but in the end it is their own damned fault" or something like that. The only new bike lanes we will get are off road and if we can get Ford to fund them that will still be a success. There were a number of off road bike routes planned along creeks and hydro corridors which need funding.
 
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