traffic

True words by Albert Koehl in Rabble of how Mayor Ford is doing more harm to drivers than good with his archaic, anti-city approach to moving people:

Don Cherry has a lesson to teach Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Cherry has spent a career promoting the hockey fighter, sometimes known as the enforcer or goon. The problem is that the science of brain injuries has caught up with (and passed) his assertion that the violence of these bare-knuckle encounters doesn't really hurt anyone, and helps the game. Indeed, the very fighters whose role Cherry has championed are increasingly turning out to be the game's victims.

The cause that Ford championed most loudly during the election was that of motorists. On taking office he declared that the war on the car was over. He eliminated a small vehicle registration tax, then moved forward on his congestion relief plan by getting transit out of the way of motorists. Two of three streetcar lines approved by the previous administration were shelved and a third line would go underground at significantly higher cost. He even promised to build a new subway line. Cyclists, too, were targeted. The council he leads voted to eliminate three bike lanes at a projected cost of $400,000.

Science, and experience, makes it clear that Ford's solutions won't work -- and the main victim will be the motorist.

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.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong lives in nice, quiet inner suburb of Toronto (not unlike the one pictured above). Note the lack of sidewalks. Note the lack of pedestrians. If you lived there you would likely drive to every place you needed to go. If you drove downtown you'd probably also see a stark difference between your quiet neighbourhood and the hustle and bustle of downtown. On downtown Toronto streets such as Jarvis and Dundas it's not as easy to drive what with all the pedestrians and cyclists. Compare that quiet suburb with the busyness of the pedestrian scramble at Yonge and Dundas:

If you lived in a quiet suburban house where everything was only reachable by car, perhaps you too would assume that all streets are built for cars and then reach the conclusion that downtown streets must also be changed to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists stay out of the way of your private automobile as much as possible. So perhaps it's not entirely surprising that Minnan-Wong sees pedestrian scrambles as a "problem" to be solved, or that cyclists need to be funneled onto certain streets so that other streets can be kept clear for drivers:

NOW featured a letter by the daughter of the man hit and killed by a cyclist on the sidewalk this month. She felt people were quick to blame cyclists when in fact her own father loved cycling but found it hard to bike in the suburbs:

I want to thank Enzo DiMatteo for writing Dundas And Huron, A Complicated Corner (NOW Daily, July 11). Although my response comes almost two months after this article was published, DiMatteo’s insights are still current and appreciated.

My father passed away in the hospital after being hit by a sidewalk cyclist in the Jane and Finch area earlier this month. DiMatteo astutely illustrates the complicatedness of transportation issues. Cycling is an affordable mode of transportation for Jane and Finch residents. Unfortunately, the lack of bicycle lanes and the precarious traffic conditions along Finch West, and other inner suburban streets, for that matter, compel cyclists to ride on the sidewalk.

My father instilled a love for cycling in me since childhood. It is devastating for all of us to see his life being taken away by something we enjoy greatly. As a cycling advocate, I know the complicatedness of the situation that led to my father being killed by a cyclist. As DiMatteo points out, a situation like this in Rob Ford’s Toronto easily calls for blaming cyclists when the issues are far more complex and troubling. Thank you for the insightful journalism.

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.

Asphalt Ribbons makes the case that it is a myth that American drivers are disrespectful and have more road rage than Canadian drivers.

On my last trip I visited Montreal, Quebec; Stowe, Vermont; Jackson, New Hampshire; Portland, Maine; Burlington, Vermont, and 0n other trips have also visited Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York and Boston, Massachusets. What these places in common is that they have embraced the reality that human beings cannot rely on the car alone, and successful cities and towns must find a way to incorporate a variety of transportation methods, if for no other reason than the survival of the planet depends on it. Granted, there aren’t any complex bike networks in these places in the way that they exist in European cities such as Amsterdam, but what does exist there, which is SO ABSENT here in Toronto, is RESPECT for other people and whatever transportation method they are engaged in.

Photo by Tino.

Last Friday an 84-year old man on bike was killed on Greenwood Avenue. Most media reported only a terse report, likely simply gleaned from a police report, suggesting the cyclist "collided" with the car. The difference between this collision and the collision last month between a pedestrian and a cyclist is striking. The media was outraged, the politicians were calling for bike licensing. In that case the cyclist was fined but police found there was no criminal intent (just as in similar cases involving drivers killing pedestrians).

This time nothing.

Well, almost nothing. Today Inside Toronto reported that a few things about Jack Roper. We know he was a World Ward Two veteran; he worked as a mailman; he complained about traffic problems in East York; that Jack and friends would meet every morning at Karma Kafe on Coxwell; that he refused to wear a helmet (though a friend admitted "I don't know if it would've helped him..."); and that he was in excellent shape by cycling every day and working out at the gym.

The "war on the car" is over, so I imagine we will move with steady determination to remove all impediments to automobiles on all streets. We must solve traffic congestion for the sake of all taxpayers in this city. Everything that impedes traffic - bike lanes, speed humps, crosswalks, streetcars, stop signs and traffic lights - will be removed. NIMBYs have for too long pushed for traffic calming on their residential streets. No longer will we allow them to ruin the freedom of driving a car.

Let me single out one group as an example, the Moore Park Residents Association, though merely as a way to demonstrate what should be done everywhere in Toronto. They have been strident in their call for the removal of bike lanes on Jarvis Street, yet have been silent about the unnecessary traffic calming on their own street. If a five lane highway on a downtown street with a high density of condos, schools and houses is a Good Thing, it must also be a Good Thing to increase the freedom of driving on Moore Avenue as well. (Thank you John G. Spragge for pointing this out.)

Moore Avenue is currently only two lanes with a posted speed limit of 40 km/hr and extensive traffic calming. Moore Avenue, like so many similar residential streets, is contributing to traffic congestion in our city and this is costing the city billions of dollars every year. We should expand Moore Avenue into the 4-lane Moore Highway that it wants to be. See image below of how we envision that Moore Avenue can be turned into a highway:

Since cyclists can just drive to the Don Valley if they want to bike; there will be no need for bike lanes. Frankly, the sidewalk is optional as well; the only reason it isn't removed is because removing it wouldn't be enough to add another car lane. The speed limit should be raised to a consistent 60 km/hr to best optimize the time for cars getting to and from Bayview and Mount Pleasant. I'm sure there are many more improvements we can make to Moore Avenue to improve traffic. Perhaps removing the houses or trees? Let's put on those thinking caps!

We should not let the special interests of Moore Park override the needs of hard-working, taxpaying drivers!