Bike lane countdown 2007

I ride on Marlee once every couple of weeks. The "bike lane" there is usable in the summer (it helps that the road has been repaved recently and is pleasantly smooth). Last winter, however, it was not cleared, and frankly, it's so narrow that you can't really clear it - there is nowhere to put the snow. With other bike lanes, of proper width, you can clear the leftmost portion of the bike lane which is not ideal, but leaves enough space to ride. Riding on Marlee, however, is pretty dodgy in winter, since the "bike lane" is exactly where all the snow is. I think that's one good reason not to approve a bike lane that narrow. Really, bike lanes should at the very least meet all the standards. Otherwise we'll soon end up with 1 foot wide lanes and politicians claiming that those lanes are "better than nothing". Actually, subpar bike lanes are way worse than nothing.

The Christie bikelane hasn't made it all the way down to Bloor yet. I was just S. of Dupont yesterday and there were no signs of the bikelane. N. of Dupont maybe?

Let us hope that the bike lanes are much more than just mere spray paint. They also have to be enforced. Having the city park its own vehicles on the bike lanes to take lunch does not have them count for too much. :()

Anyone know what they're doing on Bloor between Yonge and Avenue? It's down to two skinny lanes (very tough to bike there right now). Nice if they fix the potholes, and I'm guessing no bike lane will end up there when they're done.

Not this time around anyway. Guaranteed.

Though if there is going to be a bike lane anywhere on Bloor, I vote for starting it around Spadina and going west. 99% of cyclists who take Bloor between Spadina and Dufferin ride within a foot or less of parked cars. I witnessed a dooring there myself once. It's probably the most underestimated danger in urban cycling, if I judge by the numbers of people who routinely ride in the door zone.

East of Spadina is not too bad though, in my humble. Yeah, the potholes were pretty bad, and it's great that they're getting fixed. But the curb lanes themselves are wide around there.

I wonder if it is just my imagination. I was biking on Davenport between Dovercourt and Ossington where they resurfaced the road and repainted. I seem to recall that previously this section was striped as bike lanes. Now it seems that they've repainted it to be a long dotted line - still in the same position as the bike lane - but allowing drivers access to the space at any time to double park, turn into, etc.

Can anyone confirm this? Maybe it was always like this.

Herb,

I haven't been along that stretch of Davenport for a few weeks. Maybe I'll check it out sometime next week.

In some ways, dashed lines make more sense for bike lanes anyway. Solid lines are supposed to mean that you're not allowed to cross them. Bike lane stripes have to be crossed all the time when passing, turning, parking, etc..etc...

I have no idea why they did this on davenport though. Could possibly be just the temporary paint they put on before they lay down the "real" stuff?

I live right at Dovercourt & Davenport and have used the Davenport bike lane since it was installed a number of years ago. There was never an eastbound bike lane between Oakwood and Ossington due to parking for the shops that are there. It's a short gap, but a gap none-the-less. The road re-surfacing did not eliminate the lane. It simply never existed. Westbound, however, there is a bike lane.

Two years ago I emailed Adam Giambroni (sp?), then the counciller on the cycling committee, now the head of the TTC (wow, helping out our mayor really pays off) about the Davenport bike lane in the winter. The snow plows push the snow into the parking spaces, so the lazy residents, instead of clearing their spaces, were parking in the bike lane, leaving me to do my commute in the same single lane as the car traffic. Of course, Adam was holidaying in the south at the time.

Bike lanes in the winter are just a great place for snow or parking. I was shocked when we moved to Mississauga in December; the little bike path following the stream beside our apartment building is plowed in the winter, and has lighting! I haven't found Mississauga's bike network to be helpful to me yet in getting me where I want to go, but with what they have, they do a great job.

And this problem with bike lanes is why I prefer to ride on main arterial roads (Dundas, Keele, Bloor, Wilson) - they get plowed first after a snowfall. The secondary streets with bike lanes aren't going to be plowed before you need to get to work - and, where will they put the snow? - right where you want to ride.

With all the year-round cyclists in the city (admittedly, more in the downtown core than elsewhere, one would think the city could do a little more. For example, some evening after a snowfall, post letters at all the houses saying to park in the local school parking lot that evening, then bring in the trucks and clear the snow, then the people move their cars back, and lo and behold, we can ride on the bike lane again. And the mayor could get major bucks for his budget crisis by towing any cars that aren't moved, and fining the owner.

Take care, Paul Dicks

Watermain work is being done on Bloor starting from Ave. Rd. and going east. It's in advance of the "revitalization" project on Bloor that the BYBIA has promoted, and it's uncertain if it means we get bike lanes or not, though the merchants did agree to strip off the parking for wider sidewalks - some of us are going "well what about bike safety huh?" The westbound is really dodgy for biking in - take the lane, but the eastbound is wider, likely to be accomodating for those cars that need to stop for a moment vs. bike traffic.
I think it's finished by end of Nov.
The cost of the redoing of that 1km is c. $22M and the City is borrowing it but the BYBIA is repaying it. How much public input and process is "allowed" with this privatization of public space is a question. Councillor Rae is the local councillor.