urban planning

(Mayor Miller strongly supported Complete Streets concept. Photos courtesy of Yvonne Bambrick.)

Last Friday was the Complete Streets Forum at the Royal York, and it was very well attended with professionals. Mayor David Miller opened the Complete Streets Forum with strong support for the idea. He finished his speech with a caution that complete streets are only possible with strong public transit and pointed to the Save Transit City coalition.

I've misplaced my notes in my weekend move, so I'll just give a teaser of the best presentations.

(Barbara McCann, Executive Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition)

Barbara McCann, first to speak, gave a great overview of the Complete Streets concept and how it is a powerful policy tool in changing the practices of traffic engineers and planners, and how it shifts the priorities of city, state, provincial and national governments away from car-centric views.

(Andy Wily-Schwartz - NYC Department of Transportation)

University Ave bike lane: proposed summer pilot project

Separated bike lanes are planned as a summer pilot project for University Avenue. It should prove to be the new scapegoat for traffic congestion by the media, and a new focus for the so-called "war on cars", despite staff showing that traffic capacity will not be affected at all (just as many cars will flow up and down University as before). But reason be damned.

City staff have submitted a bikeway network report to public works proposing the University Ave project along with a number of other items, including sharrows on Spadina, a short bike lane on Bay, and so on.

The pilot University lane will start at Hoskin's on the north side of Queen's Park and down to Richmond. At the end of summer the bike lane will be removed and the results analyzed. It will then be up to the new city council to approve a permanent bike lane.

The Star reports:

University currently has four traffic lanes in each direction with a centre median, but it could be reduced to three lanes, with one lane given over to bicycles, a staff report says.

Having bikes run in the centre lanes beside the median would allow the curb lanes to continue to be used for stopping, parking, vendors and taxis, the report added.

In case you haven't noticed, it's an election year in Toronto, and right-wing candidate Rossi in a bid to win some right-wing votes has made some bold statements about stopping unsafe and environmentally unsound bike lanes.

Rossi doesn't want bike lanes on arterial roads like University, Bloor and Jarvis. But apparently he's a big fan of bike lanes all the same, so long as they are only installed where they aren't needed: on cul-de-sacs and quiet residential streets, apparently.

“I’m not only OK with bike lanes, I’m a big fan,” Rossi said. “I do believe in an expanded bike lane network, but we need to do it on a grid basis and we need to use safer routes to travel.”

He’d prefer to have a fact-based discussion about bike lanes rather than a mud-slinging fight, and base it on getting everyone around the city safely and quickly.

Of course, Rossi isn't engaging in some sort of urban planning, based on studies and reason; he's engaging in vote winning and he's willing to say whatever it takes. Rossi is trying to shape the conversation with a "father knows best" approach: "You poor cyclists, why do you want to risk yourselves on the all those fast cars? Those city planners are so irresponsible by trying to put bike lanes there instead of quiet side roads."

I found the above illustration on the GOOD website.

According to the City of Toronto (Census) riding to work was up 32,6% between 2001 and 2006 from 1,3 to 1,7. Not bad but too slow for my likes. Wonder what the current stats might be. I think it's up despite everything we face. I am just thankful for everyone on two wheels.

Below is a graph for modal share stats for Ontario. [Editor: Toronto is at 1.7% while the second highest is Orangeville at 1.2%. Metro Toronto would be much, much higher since the burbs pull the numbers way down.]

Update: The Toronto Star has a published a map today with the percentage of commuters who ride bicycles to work, from the 2006 census

A fellow fllmaker Clarence Eckerson, Jr. from NYC send this film with this note:

"Just sending out this quickie new Streetfilm on NYC Bike Lanes:
http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/bike-lanes-in-the-big-apple/

A good video to use if:

• Your city needs bike infrastructure
• Your city needs more or innovative bike facilities and they are not doing experimentation in design
• If you want to show people in your neighborhood and community what is going on in NYC and the benefits to bike amenities.

Clarence

(Photo: Dundas West BIA)

Dundas West merchants really want their rush-hour parking, even as the new businesses readily admit they don't really need it. Their "NOPE" posters villifying Councillor Giambrone are still hanging in the windows of shops along Dundas West. Their campaign "Our Neighbourhoods are Destinations not Highways!" got a bit of press this last spring, and some renewed interest now. A few weeks ago I wanted to find out why the BIA is fighting to keep rush hour parking despite the needs of cyclists and transit users. What I found was a bunch of self-described progressive merchants, some of them even calling themselves cyclists. They are definitely a bunch of nice people, even if their rhetoric is disproportionate to the issue at hand. Lula Lounge's recent fundraiser, "Save the Dundas 71", is a case in point given that Lula isn't open until long after rush hour.

San Francisco is looking at how Toronto cyclists deal with streetcar tracks. The answer: not very easily. Toronto streetcar tracks have been the bane of many cyclists, both experienced and green. Being one of just a handful of North American cities with streetcars, Toronto could provide valuable information.

What can San Francisco learn from the Toronto experience? What ways can cities improve the safety for cyclists crossing tracks?

Experienced bicyclists tend to figure out the best way to navigate the tracks, but what can be done to prevent less-experienced bicyclists from getting stuck in the rail depressions so regularly?

In Toronto, where bicyclists also have to contend with a maze of tracks, several at-grade railroad crossings are equipped with a rubber flange filler that is jammed down into the cracks of trolley tracks. The rubber is firm enough that it doesn't compress when a bike passes over it, but when a streetcar comes it squishes down and doesn't cause the train to derail.

The material is not used for Toronto's extensive network of streetcar tracks in the city's core, however, and bikes routinely get caught in the tracks. "The at-grade railroad crossings do have some of that incorporated, but certainly not the main hazards to cyclists, which are the arterial road streetcar tracks," said Yvonne Bambrick, Executive Director of the Toronto Cyclists Union.

"There’s a lot of places where several tracks meet and turn. They’re trickier to navigate, but folks that have been at it for a while have figured out how to do it. It’s not that hard: you pay attention and learn how to do it, it’s all good. It does catch people fairly regularly."

After at least eight years of dreaming the West Toronto Railpath is officially open! This last weekend an opening party was held. Twitter user, skubie, provided the photo of the path from the south end of the trail where it meets Dundas, just north of College.

It's not a long path right now but there is potential for extending it to at least Dufferin, according to Metrolinx' plans for the rails next to it. After Dufferin it's all up in the air.