lansdowne

Proposed Lansdowne Bike Lane: Bloor St. to Davenport Rd.

As part of the Bike Plan, the City of Toronto is proposing the installation of bike lanes on Lansdowne Ave. between Bloor St. and Davenport Rd. This 1.5km stretch of new bike lane might not seem like much, but it will end up being a key connection between the Davenport Rd. bike lanes, Dupont St. / Annette St. bike lanes, and Lansdowne Ave. sharrows (black squiggles on the map). These all lead into other significant pieces of local cycling infrastructure such as the West Toronto Railpath (green line on map) and parts of the proposed West End Bikeways.

There will be a public meeting about this proposed bike lane on Thursday:

Thursday March 25, 2010
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Wallace Emerson Community Centre
1260 Dufferin - Ambrico Room

In the recent past, there was some significant opposition to the narrowing of Lansdowne Ave. south of Bloor St., so there may be some community opposition to the installation of these bike lanes. It would be extremely helpful if cyclists, especially locals, came to this public meeting to show their support.

The approval and installation phases of this looks like it may happen rather quickly:

Following this consultation, City Staff will review any comments received. We plan to submit this project for consideration to Public Work and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) meeting on April 20, 2010. We anticipate the Lansdowne Avenue bike lane project will be considered by City council on May 11-13, 2010. If approved, bike lanes on Lansdowne Avenue are planned to be installed in summer 2010.

If you can't make it to the consultation, be sure to the following addresses with letters of support and comments: bikeplan@toronto.ca, councillor_giambrone@toronto.ca, pwic@toronto.ca

More information about this public consultation can be found at:
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/public-consultations/lansdowne.htm

The map is the City of Toronto's 2009 Bike Map, with some additions made with my own mad graphix skillz

The Toronto Star has a couple of bike infrastructure related stories today:

In THE MINUTES: City Council the Star reports that the Lawrence Ave. East. bike lanes between Victoria Park Ave. and Rouge Hills Dr. have been approved by City Council. We reported on this earlier, but now it's official.

You probably though that the whole Lansdowne Residents vs. Adam Giambrone kerfuffle was over, didn't you? Well, there was a public meeting about it last night, and it sounds like everyone is still angry at Giambrone (personally, I love the new Lansdowne Ave. streetscape). The Star has all the details in their article, Giambrone taught lesson by residents.

The City has finally installed the sharrows they promised on the freshly re-designed section of Lansdowne Ave. between Bloor St. and College St.

Although this was a very controversial move by the city, in particular for local councillor Adam Giambrone, I feel this has made the street much better for cyclists.

Looking closely at the photo, it appears they have done a good job with the placement of the sharrows. They are not completely in the gutter, and they are placed well outside the door-zones.

The questions for me are: 1) Will cyclists be confident enough to follow them, and 2) Will motorists respect the cyclists who ride in that position? I already ride approximately in the same position as the sharrows, and it feels comfortable enough. But I hope the added markings make sharing this stretch of road easier.

I'll have to check it out this evening.

Photo courtesy of Martin Reis.