News   Nov 29, 2024
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General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

I got curious and indeed allowed. The City of Pickering classifies those sections as MUP even though a very small part is just typical narrow sidewalk.
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It all depends on the rules for a specific municipality.

In general, I think riding on the sidewalk should not be allowed, but more sidewalks in more suburban parts of the city should be widened and designated as multiuse paths.
Where that is done, it's great if there is some delineation between the two modalities -- smooth pavement for riding, for example, and traditional sidewalk for walking. This is done in the urban areas of a number of European cities, and you hear about it if you inadvertently walk on the cycling portion!
 
Those who scapegoat cyclists and support the removal of bike lanes have no moral right to judge them for doing what they feel is safer for them, even if they're doing it out of spite.
If you kill or injure someone. I expect you to be judged.

 
If you kill or injure someone. I expect you to be judged.

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Yeah, there's a death about every quarter-century or so,

Now do cars on sidewalks.
 
If you kill or injure someone. I expect you to be judged.

How many pedestrians are killed by cyclists and how many cyclists are (would be) killed by cars? I don't have the numbers at hand, but I bet one of them is much higher than the other.

Now do cars on sidewalks.
I was gonna link a video from NYC of not one but several cars in a row going on the sidewalk to bypass some kind of road blockage, but of course the one time you're actually trying to find that one post is when it's nowhere to be found.
 
The Star out w/more info on what the latest Cordon Count (Toronto Transportation Survey) has to say about how people commute (including cycling numbers)


Nothing really new here..........but (from the above)

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Also

In her testimony at a provincial committee on this issue, City Director of Transportation Planning, Design and Management Jacqueline Hayward said:

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~10%

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Lastly, it appears we will get to pour over the underlying data soon:

1732738398782.png
 
These numbers are still only people specifically commuting though.

It's not counting the millions of bike trips done to go to a cafe, friends place, drop kids off at school, get groceries, go to a park etc....

It would be like only counting cars who specifically drive to the office and back.

Those additional numbers are available in the article to which I linked. I can't copy/paste the whole thing.
 
As a resident and worker downtown I can say that the number of non-car vehicles has exploded over the last 5 years and these aren’t going away with a reduction of bike lanes, they will simply mix with traffic. We are not just talking about commuters on bikes but food delivery people as well as scooters.

This move by Ford is just a last ditch attempt to halt a trend that is accelerating across the region and I await the law-suits and challenges to come flooding in. That and the first death of a cyclist from a well-connected suburban family.

We will see how businesses react to this.
 
As a resident and worker downtown I can say that the number of non-car vehicles has exploded over the last 5 years and these aren’t going away with a reduction of bike lanes, they will simply mix with traffic. We are not just talking about commuters on bikes but food delivery people as well as scooters.

This move by Ford is just a last ditch attempt to halt a trend that is accelerating across the region and I await the law-suits and challenges to come flooding in. That and the first death of a cyclist from a well-connected suburban family.

We will see how businesses react to this.
Which brings up an interesting point, What is the end goal? We complain about traffic now? what about in 15 years time when theres millions more who live in Toronto.
 
How many pedestrians are killed by cyclists and how many cyclists are (would be) killed by cars? I don't have the numbers at hand, but I bet one of them is much higher than the other.
I was referring to the surprisingly high death toll in Toronto of cars hitting pedestrians on sidewalks. Despite being a rare site compared to bikes.
 
I was referring to the surprisingly high death toll in Toronto of cars hitting pedestrians on sidewalks. Despite being a rare site compared to bikes.
I wasn't disputing that, my comment was in response to Admiral on the subject of having to choose between pedestrians being hit by cyclists (if cyclists take the sidewalk) vs. cyclists being hit by cars (if cyclists share the road with cars).
 
I'm just going to cycle in the middle of the traffic lane, as slowly as possible.

Hopefully I don't become a statistic, but it is an absolute guarantee that many will.
0/10 would not recommend. Tonight I was biking up Don Mills (a wide busy stroad with no bike lanes) hugging the curb at normal biking speed, and had the misfortune of encountering an idiot asshole driver who decided to harass me by deliberately tailgating me while repeatedly honking at me, despite nothing stopping them from passing me in the same lane or changing lanes. As soon as I realized they were honking at me, and caught a glimpse of them riding on my ass through the corner of my eye, I started frantically looking for the nearest opening to hop onto the sidewalk (for all I know they wouldn't think twice about deliberately running me over) in order to be able to confront them from a safer position (if the situation escalated), but unfortunately there was none. Luckily this didn't go on for long. And damn right I took the (99.9% empty) sidewalk down Don Mills for most (but not all) of the way back home, until I reached Eglinton and its bike lane, as I was in no mood to deal with the same BS twice in 1 day.

And riding on the sidewalk sucks. Bump bump bump over every crack.
I've seen roads in less bikeable condition than most sidewalks (northbound Dawes being one of them). "Bump bump bump" doesn't even begin to describe it. At least the sidewalk bump has a nice rhythmic feel to it, rather than that of a never-ending pothole.
 

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