cycling infrastructure

I'd be hard-pressed to put a good spin on this, though mayoral candidate Smitherman is certainly trying his best. Smitherman is jumping on the rhetoric bandwagon and is calling for a 'moratorium' on bike lanes in Toronto. In the meanwhile the 2011 money for bike lanes will go to repaving the bike lanes that are deteriorating such as Sherbourne.

Smitherman is reading the polls and figures that it's better to appease the loud car-centrists who are getting a lot of play in the media, rather than accommodate the needs of 8-years and 80-years old folks on bikes.

One the one hand, Smitherman certainly understand the importance of bike lanes on arterials and isn't promising to remove them, but on the other hand, it becomes increasingly hard to maintain the already very slow progress on bike lanes and infrastructure when a moratorium is put in place. And it certainly begs the question: if this is mainly a communication problem, why not just communicate better (or work better at winning the rhetoric war in the media) while improving the cycling infrastructure?

Someone needs to call Smitherman on this bullshit approach. Mothers, children, elders and all, are you willing to get in the face of Smitherman and Rocco to let them know you exist and want to feel safe cycling on the roads?

I usually prefer to maintain some degree of decorum on this blog, but this pisses me off to no end. So I'll float this slogan as a rallying cry:

Humans, it seems, all love to watch a fight. And our media is only too happy to oblige; this time it's a rematch for Jarvis Street.

In Virginia, R-Braddock District Transportation Supervisor John Cook says "I don't believe a bicycle is a transportation device. I think it's a recreation device. The big problem is people don't want to ride their bike in the rain or get sweaty before work." (Washington Examiner, Feb 21 2010) I think that it is good to know what kinds of attitudes we are up against.

West Toronto Rail Path last night. Somehow I thought it might be free of ice or snow.

Wrong.

Well, it was a lot fun to ride. Kinda like mountain biking on sandy soil.

Nice to see other cyclists as well using the trail on such a nice winter's night.

Mayor Miller got the chance to spin around on a "Copenhagen wheel" while at the global climate change negotiations. The Mayor is reported as saying he'd like to make biking and walking a priority for Toronto. What that means: bike lanes, snow clearing for cyclists, and priority green lights for bikes:

Most of the other mayors are nearly unrecognizable, hidden as they are behind scarves and hats and tightly wrapped coats. But he even wears his Toronto Football Club scarf loosely. “I feel at home in this weather,” he said.

And so do the bikers of Copenhagen. Because the local government clears the bike paths of snow before or at the same time that they clear the roads. Just like they get a green light in crossings before the cars do.

“In Copenhagen, biking and walking has priority, and I would like to take that back to Toronto,” David Miller said. Another thing he wants to take home is the windmills.

Lay down a sewer pipe and there are myriad standards dictating dimension, clearance and placement. Lay down a bike lane and sound design precepts are optional, more often recognized in the breach than in the application. How is it that conduits for sh_t are typically subjected to greater planning rigor than conduits for human beings on bicycles?

If you're apt to such musings whenever...oh...pedalling through an officially designated door zone painted up as a bike lane, you're not alone. A few of us were pondering just how that mystery related to the Bloor Viaduct bikeway, a pillar of Toronto's bike network and, conveniently, right in our backyard.

A generation has been conceived, miseducated, and is now tormenting parents with grating music and delinquency since the inception of the Viaduct bike lanes. Yet the bikeway remains stillborn, its hazards, all too familiar to regular cyclists, unresolved.

It can be better. It should be. Why not try to make it so? That was the motivation behind the The Bloor Viaduct Report. I'll skip the specifics, download the report (attached 2.4 MB PDF) and in about the same time it took to read this article you will be familiar with the details.

Photo illustration by Rick Conroy

Angela Bischoff sends us this update:

"Just wanted to give you an update on our court date yesterday re: cyclists intervening in the case against the city for not doing a proper Environmental Assessment in the Bloor Transformation Project (between Ave. Rd. and Church St.)

"We had a fairly good day in the Divisional Court. Many details are in the coverage linked below, and we are lucky that there are merchants who are sufficiently ticked at aspects of this project that they're willing to risk $50,000 beyond the costs of the legal team of Clayton Ruby, as that's the sum for costs in a "winner takes all" situation as one Judge noted.

"Our pro bono counsel Albert Koehl reduced the foot of documents to a single half page showing the 8 lines of a 2001 email from City engineer Ms. Helen Noehammer that was all the city produced in the way of documenting how they classified this project.

"We don't know how the judges will rule; and it may take several months.

"Thanks to all those who showed up: please consider writing your own letters in to papers and also consider copying politicians with anything that you write. [Ed: See below for links.]

We know cyclists' lives are considered cheap. Jonathan Goldsbie in the Eye Weekly's "Kill a cyclist, pay $110", explains well cyclists' frustration and anger that their lives are worth little once they step onto a bike. And, to add insult to injury we pay $110 if we don't have a bell. Where is the proportion in that?

The combination of lax enforcement and poor infrastructure create a perfect weapon. Why bother get a gun and risk criminal charges? Just get into a car and open the door when your least favorite cyclist rides by. To bring back some sense of justice perhaps the cyclist should be appropriately armed as well (thanks Jonathan for mentioning the scene from Hot Fuzz).

This nonchalant attitude has carried over into municipal politics as councillors continue to stall the advancement of a bikeway network. Something about needing parking in their wards. God forbid we force residents to cross the street to their car. Still, it warms the heart to have some councillors understand our plight:

Only since Metrolinx started calling for secure indoor bike parking at all "Mobility Hubs" has the city and the TTC have finally gotten the message that cyclists would like safe and secure bike parking at subways stations. The fact that it's been in the bike plan for years, and that the entrances to the subways stations are littered with bikes locked to every available surface just wasn't getting the message across well enough for them. So allow me to pass on my thanks to Metrolinx.

Finally we are starting to see the creation of indoor bike parking at some stations, and by this coming summer at Union station. All stations should get this during their next scheduled renovation, whenever that will happen for each them. As many of the stations are old and are in need of refurbishment, I hope that this means sooner rather than later.

In the meantime the city can install bike lockers that cyclists can use at some, if not all, of the subway stations until the next round of renovations can be completed. This is good news for those commuters who use a bicycle for part of thier trip, and use the TTC for the rest of it. I'd like to the TTC and the City take advantage of this opportunity.

According to Inside Toronto, bike lockers are being currently considered for Keele station. If you think that this is a good idea, and if you live in Gord Perk's area, please be sure to send him a note of encouragement.

I'm jealous because, where I live, I'm still waiting for the 501.