Lawrence

The essay below is from Veronica, a cyclist active in Bike 25, a group working towards implementing the bike plan in Ward 25.

On Wednesday March 10, 2010 the City of Toronto will be holding a Public Open House to discuss planned bike lanes for Lawrence Avenue East, from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue.

At first glance, it would appear that this is another 'bike lane to nowhere'. But viewed in the larger context of the Bikeway Network, this is the first piece of a planned bike lane on Lawrence Avenue stretching from Avenue Road to past Port Union Road. While it's unfortunate that this bike lane is being assembled in pieces, I think that its important that cyclists keep their eye on the prize.

Even in its truncated version, this piece of bike lane links Lawrence subway station with the Toronto French School, York University's Glendon Campus and intersects Bayview Avenue quite close to Sunnybrook Hospital, the destination for a large commuter cycling contingency. If one continues further east along Post Road, it links to the existing Don Valley trails.

As for the argument that money should not be wasted on bike lanes in the suburbs because nobody cycles there, consider the following:

• residents do cycle in the inner suburbs, often under much more hostile conditions. Getting buzzed by a vehicle is not pleasant. Getting buzzed by a vehicle traveling at 70 kph, is even more unpleasant. Cycling infrastructure is even critical in these neighbourhoods;

It seems like such a long time ago (December 17, 2008 - last year!) when the Toronto Star reported that the City is considering adding rumble strips to the Lawrence Ave. bike lanes when they are installed. My apologies for taking so long to post something on I Bike T.O. about it...

Anyway, I'm glad that folks at the City are looking at new ideas and considering different types of infrastructure that haven't been tried yet in Toronto. I'm sure Toronto's bikeway planners are constantly bombarded with suggestions that in reality might not be so easy to implement (Bollards! Grade-separation! Velotubes! Car-free everything! One-way exceptions!), but this rumble-strip idea should actually be a pretty simple one.

However, before we get all excited, I think we need to take a look at a few things about this idea.

What problem(s) does this solve?
According to the article, the purpose of rumble strips is to warn motorists that they are veering towards the bike lane, due to inattention (good jabs at cell-phone talkers and coffee-sippers!), thereby preventing the dreaded "hit from behind" type of collision.

What problems does it NOT solve?

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.