General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[salsa]

Fighting back against the car idiots - a comprehensive guide.

If this ain't working for you, I think I might know the reason why.

 

[andrewpmk]

I can't believe how immature the councillors (both the pro and anti bike lane councillors) are being in this debate.

Putting up a picture of a dinosaur and a video that resembles a Star Wars video is ridiculous.

 

[ADRM]

It's monumentally less ridiculous than the actual positions held by most of those opposed to the pilot.

And there's a key difference: Pictures of dinosaurs might be polarizing in terms of the perceived efficacy as a tool of debate or argument, but they don't hurt anyone. Opposition to policies that are proven to reduce physical injury and death do hurt people.

 

[LNahid2000]

Also I hardly ever see anyone using the bike-sharing system downtown, and I hardly ever see anyone using the bike racks on TTC buses.

I work at Bay and Wellesley and there is a bike share station in front of my office. Every morning the station gets full and every afternoon the station becomes empty. What do you think this means?

Bike share is extremely useful for people taking the GO train from the suburbs with offices between Queen and Bloor since they can bike to their offices in the same time as the TTC at a cost of $90/year instead of ~$1400/year.

 

[ADRM]

It's also a shade cheaper than a new car

 

[salsa]

Motion to install Bloor bike lanes passes 38-3

Bike lanes are coming to Bloor this August!

 

[ADRM]

Thank God. Nasty letters heading the way of Holyday, Karygiannis, and Mammoliti. Maybe two for Mammo.

 

[andrewpmk]

I am not terribly surprised by the outcome, but I would have thought that the vote would be a lot closer.

City council seems to be terribly out of touch with most residents of Toronto. I doubt it if most residents of Toronto have been on a bike for years and doubt it if most people support bike lanes or care about bike lanes. I don't understand why John Tory supports this.

Detailed data needs to be collected about how many accidents occur on this bike lane. If the number of accidents goes up (which could happen if the number of people riding bikes on Bloor goes up) then that would be a good reason to get rid lf this.

 

[LNahid2000]

Detailed data needs to be collected about how many accidents occur on this bike lane. If the number of accidents goes up (which could happen if the number of people riding bikes on Bloor goes up) then that would be a good reason to get rid lf this.

Why would they analyze absolute numbers instead of relative numbers? Wouldn't it make more sense to look at the percentage of accidents?

 

[ADRM]

I am not terribly surprised by the outcome, but I would have thought that the vote would be a lot closer.

City council seems to be terribly out of touch with most residents of Toronto. I doubt it if most residents of Toronto have been on a bike for years and doubt it if most people support bike lanes or care about bike lanes. I don't understand why John Tory supports this.

Detailed data needs to be collected about how many accidents occur on this bike lane. If the number of accidents goes up (which could happen if the number of people riding bikes on Bloor goes up) then that would be a good reason to get rid lf this.

Citizens canvassed in the area overwhelmingly supported the pilot. In other words, most residents in the affected area supported the motion that was overwhelmingly approved by Council, supporting precisely the opposite conclusion to the one presented in the first paragraph in the last comment.

Accident data will be collected as part of the pilot and, if the data follows nearly every other similar study conducted anywhere in the world, it will show that cyclist injuries are greatly reduced where there is protection.

 

[salsa]

andrewpmk, Ward 2 has an opening available for you. Please send in your application!

 

[the lemur]

I think that a lot of people share the same views as me and do not support bike lanes, but this view is not popular on UrbanToronto. If you look at the comments in various CBC articles on Bloor bike lanes I see a lot of anti-bike commenters. Many other people share the view that riding bikes in Toronto is dangerous.

Comments on CBC articles as a reliable barometer of public opinion? Hahahaha, good one.

judging from how many people I see riding bikes in Toronto. From what I can tell, bicyclists are a very small minority of the population with a disproportionate amount of power on city council. .

'I think ... judging from what I see ... from what I can tell'. You really have nothing but anecdata, don't you?

Most of city council doesn't ride a bike regularly.

Maybe you should just move back to Kingston if the idea of people on bicycles in Toronto scares you so much. Bye, Andrew

 

[PinkLucy]

Kingston has been doing a lot to encouraging cycling from what I hear from people who live there. I think andrewpmk needs to go a lot further than that.

 

[the lemur]

Why would they analyze absolute numbers instead of relative numbers? Wouldn't it make more sense to look at the percentage of accidents?

Not only that, aren't the lanes in the pilot project meant to be separated from car traffic (by means of parked cars), which should reduce the potential for conflict?

 

[ADRM]

Kingston has been doing a lot to encouraging cycling from what I hear from people who live there. I think andrewpmk needs to go a lot further than that.

Houston's nice this time of year.