bike safety

How can the intersection at Dundas and Sterling (and at Dundas and College for that matter) be made safer? People are thinking about this since Jenna Morrison was killed there recently. City staff have been to visit; The Urban Country and Mez have built a temporary "trash" bike lane and tested it with drivers; and Hamish Wilson has drawn his idea for improving the intersection:

Not so much driver/cyclist, nor the lack of sideguards, but how the City failed to do the intersection for cycling safety. This includes how the short bit of marked by centre line road at the intersection actually creates a pinch point at the rightwards curve, and this combines with normal practices of curve-cutting and then how trucks can kinda shift/occupy more space as they turn eg. signs that mark "Wide Right Turns" on some trucks.

I've put in to Councillor Layton and Bailao and some others this redesign idea for the intersection, ideally to be done this fall, with colour, and I didn't put in the concept of a marked sidewalk for the pedestrians, silly me. I believe there may be a motion arising for this Council meeting, but it won't necessarily be to add 12M of bike lane on the southbound lane, but focussing on sideguards is not the only prevention.

The Chief Coroner of Ontario, Dr. Andrew McCallum, announced this morning that his office would be investigating cycling deaths over the last four years to determine ways to prevent them, reports the Star and CBC (read the announcement). Ten to twenty cyclists die every year in Ontario as a result of injuries on Ontario streets. A coalition of cycling and senior groups - Toronto Cyclists Union, Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists and the United Senior Citizens of Ontario - wrote to the coroner requesting the inquest, and an opinion piece was written in the Star in August by lawyers Albert Koehl and Patrick Brown, along with former president of the United Senior Citizens of Ontario, Marie Smith, explaining why they wanted the inquest.

A similar review of 38 cycling deaths in the city of Toronto over an 11-year period was completed in 1998. That review led to a number of cycling initiatives in the city, including the Bike Plan, the city-wide network of cycling lanes, and the establishment of the cycling advisory committee, which was disbanded earlier this year.

Queen Street may be starting to get its own well-deserved fix-up starting with the sidewalks west of Dufferin, yet it looks like cyclists will have to put up with passing dangerously past construction sites. The photo above by Hamish Wilson shows the typical Toronto construction site with barriers set up to force cyclists into the middle of the streetcar tracks. When they do consider the safety of cyclists, construction companies will illegally place signs that tell cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes. Note how the cyclists above have chosen to actually bike within the construction site where they are able.

In Hamish's own words:

It's truly delightful that some of the roughest road in core TO may finally be getting fixed up, starting with the north-side sidewalks on Queen St. W., west of Dufferin.

But once again, there's a lack of signage and a distinct lack of safety for cyclists, especially with the streetcar tracks.

The use of barricading fencing does delineate, but it seems that it's only as far out as it is for a construction vehicle which is only used for a bit, and surely there might be narrower loaders etc. to help haul the tonnage out, although there is need for room for the pedestrians/public that's true, when the materials are being moved. But the effect of the taking of the absolutely fullest extent of the lane to the edge of the streetcar track concrete is to put cyclists into tight spaces with streetcar track hazards, or to help them feel they can squeeze themselves onto sidewalks or between cars.

Motorists who harass cyclists, by honking, yelling at us, or buzzing us have no excuse. They don't even have the lousy excuse that we hold them up, because we don't. Motorists who harass cyclists do it because they can. They have a steel cage to protect them from the consequences of their behaviour, and an engine to run away. Other people suffer the consequences; often the most vulnerable of road users. To see an example of this, take a look at the accompanying video.

As an idea, you can't argue with it: cyclists shouldn't kill pedestrians. Moreover, cycling culture should take the obligation not to kill pedestrians very seriously indeed, and jurisdictions, from the city to the province, with responsibility for traffic safety should frame a comprehensive strategy to ensure the cyclists who do not understand our shared responsibilities get the message.

So how did the recent Globe and Mail editorial, which tried to make these simple points, do such a bad job? The answer partly lies in the atrocious phrasing the editorial claims cyclists should "know our place". And if we don't, do y'all have a rope, a tree and a bunch of good ole boys to teach us? Some phrases just bring up too many bad memories, and editorial writers should leave such phrases out of their tool boxes. Whoever wrote this particular editorial then added pomposity to their list of rhetorical blunders by writing this: "We do not occupy a planet where cyclist safety trumps all else." I get it: cyclists don't have a right to risk other people's lives to stay safe ourselves.

http://vimeo.com/25991149

Video shooting and editing by Lisa Logan (a big thanks Lisa!). Herb of I Bike TO and Lisa are asking the questions. Produced for the Toronto Cyclists Union and the Save Jarvis campaign. Join the Bike Union and come out on July 12 and 13 to raise your voice in support of bike lanes in Toronto!

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee voted to take out Jarvis bike lanes in a surprise motion today, on top of the motion to take out lanes on Pharmacy and Birchmount. I don't think the councillors realize the blowback of Jarvis compared to Pharmacy/Birchmount (where removal is quite sad, but not much organized local opposition). Jarvis may yet prove to be a lightening rod around which cyclists will gather (to be energized?).

I've collected some choice tweets below. And please read Mez's great piece on why Jarvis is important and why we should defend it:

• goldsbie: Now heading out for a ride up and down the Jarvis bike lanes. Please feel free to join me... #bikeTO
• @meslin: Summary of today: Toronto's cyclists just got run over by amalgamation. Suburban councillors have declared a War on the Bike. #bikeTO
• @m_layton: The Public Works cmt has voted to remove 8km of bike lanes including Jarvis st. Thank Clr Parker, Grimes, Shiner and Minnan-Wong.
• @kristynwongtam: Cllr Parker moves motion to remove Jarvis bike lanes. As the local councillor I wasn't asked, nor was my community consulted.

Portland is tops for cycling in large North American cities, BikePortland.org reports on a new study, Analysis of Bicycling Trends and Policies in Large American Cities: Lessons for New York, by John Pucher of Rutgers University and Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech. Toronto, while still higher up in terms of percentage of cyclists commuting (especially in the core), it seems to be falling behind in other measures. Pucher and Buehler make comparisons among American cities on a number of different cycling statistics, including cycling levels, safety and policies. They then compared the data from the large American cities to three large Canadian cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Canada overall came out looking good in some areas. Even though cycling rates have been rising faster in the US, the percentage of bike commuters in Canada is still double that of the US.

The number of bike commuters in the USA rose by 64% from 1990 to 2009, and the bike share of commuters rose from 0.4% to 0.6%. Over the shorter period from 1996 to 2006, the number of bike commuters in Canada rose by 42%, and the bike share of commuters rose from 1.1% to 1.3%. From 1988 to 2008, cycling fatalities fell by 66% in Canada and by 21% in the USA; serious injuries fell by 40% in Canada and by 31% in the USA.