General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[salsa]

@TO_Cycling: Construction of Wellesley CycleTrack w/ barrier curb progressing between Yonge-QueensPark @TO_Transport @CycleToronto

https://twitter.com/to_cycling/status/522050142984470530

Harbord Street was supposed to get curb barriers as well, until they changed the plan .

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Meanwhile in Denmark

 

[salsa]

Meanwhile in Denmark

In Copenhagen, the solution to congestion is to encourage cycling, and it worked.

In Toronto, the solution to congestion is to keep the Gardiner, oppose LRT, and restore the stupid reversible lane on Jarvis.

 

[salsa]

Since the Toronto Parks thread is currently embroiled in a silly debate about whether homeless people should be allowed in parks, I decided to post this here instead.

Chorley Park plans still ‘a work in progress’

http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/5180883-chorley-park-plans-still-a-work-in-progress-/

 

[ehlow]

Toronto Bike Share gets new life with TD sponsorship
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-bike-share-gets-new-life-with-td-sponsorship-1.2865740

So, 20 more stations added to the existing 80. Hopefully they'll be further from the downtown core, to extend the coverage. More to the west of Spadina would be a no brainer.

I'm still hopeful that one day it'll spread to areas further away like Bloor West, Danforth, and up the Yonge & US subway lines so that people can bike to the subway as part of their commute.

 

[PL1]

Excellent news. I recently bought a 1 year membership for short jaunts in the downtown area, where I work about 1/4 of the time. It'd be nice to be able to take a bikeshare bike further east than Yonge Station at Bloor (they have a station at Jarvis, but not Sherbourne that I can see).

I was recently in Chicago, and it was interesting to see how much more prominently their bike share program is promoted in the downtown area than ours (at least to tourists). And the huge bike parking and shower facility at Millenium Park (sponsored by McDonald's, no less) makes me weep for what should have been done here at city hall. At least the Ford regime is gone. I think we'll have a better sense in a few years how much those 4 years have damaged transit infrastructure in Toronto.

 

[DSC]

More info, a bit anyway, at: http://www.blogto.com/city/2014/12/bike_share_toronto_expansion_coming_in_2015/

 

[W. K. Lis]

Councillor Jaye Robinson is now Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, which includes bicycles. Does she knows how to ride a bicycle, before being elected in city council?

 

[the lemur]

Councillor Jaye Robinson is now Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, which includes bicycles. Does she knows how to ride a bicycle, before being elected in city council?

I can understand skepticism, but maybe you should try to research that before throwing out speculation.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Joe Mihevc said a few of those stations will be coming to his ward, north of Bloor.

Anyway, I know this is a bit out-of-scope for the cycling thread, but I was reading this Guardian article today about an electric-car-share program from Paris coming to London. There are some interesting parallels and benefits shared between this program and the bike-share program we are used to discussing.

In a more car-centric city like Toronto, do you guys think such a program would be viable here if it came to Toronto?

 

[the lemur]

Joe Mihevc said a few of those stations will be coming to his ward, north of Bloor.

Anyway, I know this is a bit out-of-scope for the cycling thread, but I was reading this Guardian article today about an electric-car-share program from Paris coming to London. There are some interesting parallels and benefits shared between this program and the bike-share program we are used to discussing.

In a more car-centric city like Toronto, do you guys think such a program would be viable here if it came to Toronto?

Possibly, if the issue of where to put the designated charging points can be resolved.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

My understanding is that London has the same issue and their approach is to add more designated charging points organically with the increase in demand.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I can understand skepticism, but maybe you should try to research that before throwing out speculation.

Denzil Minnan-Wong only got on a bicycle, for the first time, after he was elected Councillor. And he became chair under Rob Ford.

See link.

Denzil Minnan-Wong looks kind of sheepish. He has a confession to make.

The 45-year-old Toronto councillor, and perhaps the most ardent defender of the car at city hall, doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.

Yep, the man who grew up in Don Mills – where he still lives – known for its quiet leafy suburban streets, never learned the skill that most kids master by 6 or 7.

So it is a honest question.

 

[georgevicbell]

So, Bike Share has a number of sources of funds...but they seem to all be one off's...and it's a bit unclear what is going to expansion and what is going to operations....

$9 or $5 Million from Astral (Bathrooms traded for Bixi) - to payoff the debt
$1 Million from TD (Today - 2 years)
$1 Million from section 37 funds
600k from Pan-Am

 

[Tuscani01]

Excellent news. I recently bought a 1 year membership for short jaunts in the downtown area, where I work about 1/4 of the time. It'd be nice to be able to take a bikeshare bike further east than Yonge Station at Bloor (they have a station at Jarvis, but not Sherbourne that I can see).

There's a station at Wellesley/Sherbourne (Behind the community centre). The Jarvis and Isabella station is also steps away from Sherbourne.