General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[RC8]

Which is why we restrict them to the roads, built with them in mind, as noted by the lack of bike lanes. What's changed is not that the cars are leaving the roadspace and endangering pedestrians and cyclists, but that cyclists and pedestrians are increasingly entering the roadspace.

I don't mean to state the obvious, but roads in cities like Toronto were not originally built to accommodate cars, and paving them was originally intended to benefit bicycle riders first and foremost. Sidewalks were meant to be places where pedestrians could enjoy a clean and safe environment (whereas streets were constantly dirty due to horse manure, etc), but pedestrians were by no means excluded from streets.

Toronto was built as a city for people to walk or take transit, not to drive. The planners who transformed our streets into car-centric spaces never imagined that they would end up looking like they do today - they assumed (and hoped) our downtown would die and that densities would be kept low while new highways popped up everywhere.

There are cities, like Canberra (see below), which were successfully designed to be car-centric. They can afford to rely on cars for mass transportation. We cannot.

It would be smarter to completely separate the three groups. Dedicated roads for cars and buses, separated trails for cyclists, and dedicated paths for pedestrians (ie, cycle-free sidewalks). We just need to deal with the intersections of these three groups to eliminate or reduce risk.

Cyclists and car users will never get along if they must use the same space.

The problem right now is that in our streets cars are prioritised almost 100% of the time - even though they are significantly less efficient and carry significantly less people than other forms of transportation downtown.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Before the automobile, children actually played on the streets. People set up peddler shops on the streets. Then the automobile came around and claimed the streets for themselves.

Even special streets were built for the automobile where people and bicycles were prohibited from using.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Before the automobile, children actually played on the streets. .

Will no one think of the children?!

I'm speaking of Toronto today, not of yesterday.

 

[RC8]

Really? OK, let's be blunter.

Which is why we restrict them to the roads, built with them in mind, as noted by the lack of bike lanes. What's changed is not that the cars are leaving the roadspace and endangering pedestrians and cyclists, but that cyclists and pedestrians are increasingly entering the roadspace.

Our roads were not built with cars in mind. 'We' tried to refurbish them to accommodate and prioritise cars, if anything... and it didn't work - for giving in to the car required providing all other users with significantly less space than they needed.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Bloor Street bike lanes might get another chance

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/09/bloor_street_bike_lanes_might_get_another_chance/

.....

A new chapter may be about to unfold in the epic saga of the Bloor Street bike lanes. Prompted by emails from residents and advocacy groups, a group of councillors is asking city staff to reume a halted environmental assessment into curb-separated bike lanes on Bloor from Sherbourne to Keele.

- The assessment would delve in to the merits and possible disadvantages of bike lanes on one of downtown's busiest east-west arteries, covering the effects on turning, intersections, businesses, and other elements of the street. Six members of city council whose wards cover Bloor - Ana Bailão, Mike Layton, Pam McConnell, Gord Perks, Adam Vaughan, and Kristyn Wong-Tam - signed the request asking city staff include the lanes on their list of transportation projects for 2014 in May. The item was deferred until after the summer break at city hall.

.....

 

[spider]

I don't mean to state the obvious, but roads in cities like Toronto were not originally built to accommodate cars, and paving them was originally intended to benefit bicycle riders first and foremost

I agree that roads in cities like Toronto were not built to accommodate cars obviously because they had not been invented yet.

As far as the paving of roads being intended to benefit bicycle riders first and foremost we can only assume that the Roman Empire, those famous road builders, must have been up to their breast plates in bicycles yet no evidence of this influence survives in any history. Strange.

 

[the lemur]

As far as the paving of roads being intended to benefit bicycle riders first and foremost we can only assume that the Roman Empire, those famous road builders, must have been up to their breast plates in bicycles yet no evidence of this influence survives in any history. Strange.

The Romans chiefly built and paved long straight roads linking cities. Within cities themselves, it was still the realm of pedestrians and drawn carts and carriages until the advent of the bicycle, and beyond that until cars began to take over.

 

[RC8]

Yeah, 'cause Romans built Toronto and stuff, and Ford is a fiscal conservative, etc.

I don't mean to state the obvious, but roads in cities like Toronto were not originally built to accommodate cars, and paving them was originally intended to benefit bicycle riders first and foremost

Roads in cities like Toronto were originally paved for bikes.

 

[spider]

Transport yourself back to Toronto City Hall sometime in the 1880's.
.......................
The Mayor opens the meeting with a deposition from bicycle riders who demand that the City pave all of the roads in town immediately for their benefit.

Who are these bicycle riders asks an alderman? Are they voters, are they taxpayers, are they pillars of society, are they bankers or members of the Clergy?

No replies the Mayor, they are none of those esteemed groups, they are children.

A vote is taken. How do you think it turned out?
.......................

 

[the lemur]

Transport yourself back to Toronto City Hall sometime in the 1880's.
.......................
The Mayor opens the meeting with a deposition from bicycle riders who demand that the City pave all of the roads in town immediately for their benefit.

Who are these bicycle riders asks an alderman? Are they voters, are they taxpayers, are they pillars of society, are they bankers or members of the Clergy?

No replies the Mayor, they are none of those esteemed groups, they are children.

A vote is taken. How do you think it turned out?
.......................

A nice fanciful story, but bicycles were initially used by adults first, and as a means of transportation. So yes, taxpayers, people needing to go about their business ... later on bicycles were considered a tool for the (limited) emancipation of women. Furthermore, there probably wasn't that kind of 'bicycle activism' in those days.

On top of that, road paving (with various materials) had already begun to a limited extent and it was not considered necessary to pave every single thoroughfare. People in wealthy neighbourhoods did not necessarily want paved roads making it easier for vendors and other riffraff to approach their homes, whatever the mode of transport (an attitude that persists in some areas of Toronto that refuse to maintain their streets).

 

[the lemur]

Do these look like children to you?

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2012/03/2012322-bike-storage-1898.jpg

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2012/03/2011322-1899-Cyclist_passing_city_hall.jpg

 

[ShonTron]

A nice fanciful story, but bicycles were initially used by adults first, and as a means of transportation. So yes, taxpayers, people needing to go about their business ... later on bicycles were considered a tool for the (limited) emancipation of women. Furthermore, there probably wasn't that kind of 'bicycle activism' in those days.

On top of that, road paving (with various materials) had already begun to a limited extent and it was not considered necessary to pave every single thoroughfare. People in wealthy neighbourhoods did not necessarily want paved roads making it easier for vendors and other riffraff to approach their homes, whatever the mode of transport (an attitude that persists in some areas of Toronto that refuse to maintain their streets).

Henry Ford commutted from his Midtown Detroit home to his Piquette Avenue plant by bicycle in the first decade of the 20th century!

 

[the lemur]

Henry Ford commutted from his Midtown Detroit home to his Piquette Avenue plant by bicycle in the first decade of the 21st century!

The 21st century, you say? Even Henry Ford II didn't live that long

 

[Wrenkin]

Transport yourself back to Toronto City Hall sometime in the 1880's.
.......................
The Mayor opens the meeting with a deposition from bicycle riders who demand that the City pave all of the roads in town immediately for their benefit.

Who are these bicycle riders asks an alderman? Are they voters, are they taxpayers, are they pillars of society, are they bankers or members of the Clergy?

No replies the Mayor, they are none of those esteemed groups, they are children.

A vote is taken. How do you think it turned out?
.......................

See here:

Cyclists' organisations, such as Cyclists' Touring Club in the UK and League of American Wheelmen (LAW) in the US, lobbied county surveyors and politicians to build better roads. The US Good Roads movement, set up by LAW, was highly influential. LAW once had the then US president turn up at its annual general meeting.

The CTC individual in charge of the UK version of the Good Roads movement, William Rees Jeffreys, organised asphalt trials before cars became common. He took the reins of the Roads Improvement Association (RIA) in 1890, while working for the CTC.

He later became an arch motorist and the RIA morphed into a motoring organisation. Rees Jeffreys called for motorways in Britain 50 years prior to their introduction. But he never forgot his roots. In a 1949 book, Rees Jeffreys – described by former prime minister David Lloyd George as "the greatest authority on roads in the United Kingdom and one of the greatest in the whole world" – wrote that cyclists paved the way, as it were, for motorists. Without the efforts of cyclists, he said, motorists would not have had as many roads to drive on. Lots of other authors in the early days of motoring said the same but this debt owed to cyclists by motorists is long forgotten.

The author of that article went on to write a book.

 

[RC8]

Transport yourself back to Toronto City Hall sometime in the 1880's.

...No replies the Mayor, they are none of those esteemed groups, they are children.

Oh, the ignorance...

1880s bicycles looked like this, and children's bicycles were not made until more than 30 years later:

Although some children did ride adult bikes, these were generally used to get to work.

Here's a storage facility in late 1800s Toronto: