Shopping List of Priorities for Cycling in T.O.

What kind of recommendations are you looking for? My suggestion would be to finish the damn bike plan and expand on the scope of it.

I commute to work as weather allows (I try to avoid rain and snow!). So, my wish list is shaped primarily by my commute from Jane/St. Clair area to near Queen's Park.

High on the list -- fix the roads! The quality of pavement in the worst section makes riding in low light (even with bike lighting) a bit of a white knuckle experience. The pavement on St. Clair in the Keele Street, for example area is terrible. Fixing this benefits all road users -- but would make me especially happy!

Restrict on-street parking in designated bike routes. In my experience, a wide (and hopefully pothole-free) curb lane is essential to safe cycling -- bike lane or not. On street parking really takes that away and creates the risk of the dreaded "door prize". When I lived in the west end, I was amazed how bike-friendly the Danforth was during rush hour, when on-street parking is prohibited. This may be completely impractical -- but getting cars off the street wherever possible (which would obviously require more Green P lots and such) would likely open up a lot of bike routes in the city.

Find ways to support multi-modal transportation. Again, living in what is effectively the inner suburbs, I have access to transit, but trips take a really long time. If I bought a folding bike and could take it with me whenever I wanted on transit, I could easily make the majority of my trips in the city without using a car. Again, this may not be practical (there is barely room for people on most TTC vehciles, never mind people carrying stuff). But, I do think this should become part of the city's long-range planning ... and would extend the feasibiity of transit in lower density areas.

I think the bike racks on busses is an interesting idea, but it seems like if it became a little bit popular, it would be difficult to plan trips (how long will I need to wait for a bus with rack space available?). And, as a pilot project, it isn't really useful for actually getting places right now. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem capable of supporting a lot of users ... it seems to view multimodal transport as remaining a rather fringe activity.

Encourage more office/commercial buildings to include shower/bike storage through building codes. Adequate car parking probably wouldn't exist if it wasn't required ... so why not require the infrastructure for cycling? For the first time in my life, I do have access to showers at work and it makes commuting vastly less complicated (especially during the summer!).

A bit of a wish list, I know, but I do think these are the things that need to happen to better integrate cycling into the transportation mix.

What is the city doing to encourage getting more kids to ride thier bikes more? (besides the Kids CAN-BIKE camp?) Without getting lots of kids learning to ride tere will be only a few adults who ride, or know how.

I've written to a number of city councilors and the Mayor about this issue, having noticed that during the past number of years my son was one of very few who rode his bike to school. Even on the best weather days, last year there were only six or seven bikes seen at his junior high with a student body of just over 400. Back in my day, almost half the kids rode to school.

In spite of living within blocks of the school, many parents drive their kids to school and I find that distressing. His junior high is located in a quiet residential on a one-way streets that is ill-equipped to handle the influx of traffic every morning and every afternoon. I have watched as kids spilled out of the school and had to dodge a parade of sedans, SUV's and mini-vans as moms and dads picked up their kids for the two or three block journey home.

And they wonder why there's an obesity epidemic among kids. The $7.00 they gave their kid for lunch at McDonald's and the ride to school and back just might have something to do with it, eh.

Some have said they fear bikes will be stolen or vandalized at school and don't want their kids on dangerous roads. Rather than fix the problem, they become part of the problem. The parents then join the ranks of the dangerous car traffic that endangers the cyclists for those few brave souls who do risk riding to school.

Parents need to teach their kids to ride early and encourage them to ride rather than succumb to whining and pleading and chauffering them everywhere. But the city should install bike lanes on every street that has a school on it, giving young, inexperienced riders a safe area to learn and practice their rising skills while going to and from school.

It doesn't help that teachers reflect the driving population. I teach, but I ride: http://www.ibiketo.ca/node/420

The school-boards reflect the 'automatic' attitude also. Mine has no cycling policy for staff or students, to the extent that shower facilities are unavailable in elementary.

1. Millwood Road underneath the CP rail tracks. Currently if you want to cycle to/from the Leaside Bridge bike lane to/from Laird Road, you have to go under the rail bridge. The way the road is configured here creates a death trap for cyclists. It gets potholed very quickly and is prone to flooding. I take the full lane when I go under the bridge, but because its dark, I worry about being hit from behind. Note that its marked as a "connection" on the city's cycling map.
2. Bay Street underneath the gardiner expressway. Would be nice to do that last bit to the ferry docks without having to take my life in my hands.
3. Bayview Avenue underneath the 401. There's good side street routes running parallel to Bayview north and south of the 401, but the only way to cross the 401 is to use Bayview. Yonge street is even worse.

By now you should be seeing a pattern - crossing over and under rail lines, ravines and highways. That's my biggest/most dangerous dilema at the moment and that's where I think the city should give priority.

1. Mount Pleasant between Bloor Street and McRae should have bike lanes. This would offer another north-south route for cyclist who are on the east side of Yonge. Its an almost ideal location because there is no on-street parking in this stretch, there are very few lights and no lights on the uphill climb part and there are few side streets/intersections which typically are the most dangerous parts for bike lane users. It would connect a Bloor Street lane (whenever that gets approved) with the existing Route 20, beltline multi-use path and Moore Ave suggested route. All in all a good connector route for those of us travelling to and from the north.

Anonymous wrote:

I take the full lane when I go under the bridge, but because its dark, I worry about being hit from behind

I do this too when going under the rail underpass on King Street, but I'll turn on my rear blinking taillight before I go under. It makes a big difference to visibility!

Well, 680 News announced this morning that the City scrapped the Bike Plan last night. The 230km of bike paths promised will remain at a dismal 70 km until Council and the budget can get their house in order. Way to go T.O.!! I'm sure the Province will be happy with this given that they're trying to entice more people to get on bikes.

Yet again, this city's decision makers fail a simple test of common sense. Tsk tsk!!

I have scoured the news, no mention of scrapping the bike plan... though I would not be surprised in the least.

680 News is probably just a little bit stupid....

AFAIK, the Bike Plan hasn't been scrapped. In this morning's "Metro" they mentioned that the budget committee scrapped the idea of adding $18M to the bike plan.

So the bike plan is still there, crawling along as slowly as usual.

Toronto Star article: http://www.thestar.com/article/276686

"The Bike Plan hasn't been scrapped... So the bike plan is still there, crawling along as slowly as usual."

That is a fine nuance, no? We are supposed to get excited by poorly thought out sharrows on Lansdowne, and a few km on Christie and the Queensway this year? That clever group did more on Bloor in a couple of hours at no cost to the city.

Ok - That's good news... in some sense. 680 news should've been a bit more accurate in their story. I guess that's the downfall of a newscast that repeats the same story every 10 minutes claiming every time that's its "breaking news" lol. Its a bloody shame though that the city wasn't more forward thinking on this issue. Even protecting bike lanes would be nice. I was hit by a 26' foot truck yesterday on Queenes Quay on my ride into work. The driver passed me and cut into me to pull in Loblaws. He ended up driving into the bike lane and pushing me into the curb. I hit the side of his truck with my fist, got his attention, yet he continued to push me over even after looking at me in his side mirror. I called the police with the plate number, because the guy didn't stop. They suggested that as I wasn't hurt beyond a scrape on my left forearm, nor was my bike, I should just drop the issue. I'm not about to fight with the cops on this one. Its kind of sad though. Separated lanes or an extension of the MGT trail along the waterfront would fix this issue all together on this strip.

I am now going to carry a can of spray paint in my bottle holder. Screw any more cars or vehicles who try to blindside me. My mark will be bright red paint symbolizing the potential blood that could've been on there car.

The bike plan makes good PR during elections and for bike week. After that I agree with Aidan.

Did an officer attend the scene? This is so wrong on so many levels.

The spray paint will buy you a mischief charge. If you are caught.

You don't want to get nailed for paint, since the job of police is to protect property, not us, after all. I am sure this is not legal either, but I have heard a rumour some messengers spray bear-spray into vehicle vents...

That driver should be in jail, and the cop should be out of a job.

Did you happen to note what kind of truck it was? Was it a Loblaws truck? I would suggest calling the company that owns the truck to issue a complaint about the driver.

But separated lanes are not going to help, unless they are on the south side of Queen's Quay AND you remove all parking lots on the south side. Turning traffic across a barriered lane with no space for either bikes or motor vehicles to properly merge is going to create a whole lot of right hook accidents.

Unfortunately, there were no distinctive markings on the truck at all. (which probably made the driver a bit less cautious). A motorist did see it all and did pull over and give me the thumbs up as I was calling police. He was on his cell phone too (hopefully calling TCP too.) I may hold off on the spray paint, but I do like the bear spray idea. That stuff is downright horrid smelling and is tough to wash off. I know from my good ol' days growing up in rural New Brunswick.

I tried to confront the truck driver by going up to his window when he slowed down. Guy wouldn't even look at me. I had a 9am meeting as well so I had to keep going. I did what I could on the fly. I wasn't about to chase him through loblaw's parking lot, but if I had the spare time ...

This is all too common of an occurence lately and I see it all the time. Its so frustrating when so many of us obey the laws and are courteous. Argghhh! I am an avid supporter of partitionned bike lanes away from traffic. This keeps traffic from parking in the bike lanes as well. I can't even count how many of the "don't park in my lane" posters I've put on people's car and trucks to date. I'd love to take council on a bike trip someday around town.

Now that is a fine idea, 'AaronM'. I say we refuse to vote for anyone who wouldn't join; support those who did. My suggestion is from Sunnybrook to the Humber Bridge without going into the Don Valley: that ought to be a dose of reality. I'd even let them try to pick a good route.

...joining that ride. I invited Councillor Rob Ford out last year after I wrote to him and rebuked him for his published remarks that cyclists deserved to get hit by cars. To his credit, he called me and apologized personally, and after accepting his apology I corrected many of his misconceptions about cycling and safety on the road. He mentioned he occasionally (and it must be really occasionally) rode his bike over in a park near where he lives. I informed him that recreational cycling and bike-commuting are two different things and that if he thought of bikes only as toys or recreational tools, he needed to come out on a ride with me. He refused, saying ti was simply too dangerous. I asked him if he ever walked around City Hall and noticed the hundreds and hundreds of bikes parked there or if, when he's barreling down the road making the road unsafe for everyone else in his SUV, that he seemed to pass hundreds and hundreds of cyclists. I asked him that if it was so dangerous why would thousands upon thousands of people bike to work every day. He still refused to go on the ride, stating 'cars will hit me.' I couldn't believe how moronic he sounded, but then it made sense.