"Plowed bike lanes and secure storage at transit stations are vital to persuading people to take their bikes to work in the winter, said Councillor Adrian Heaps, chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee." Toronto Star, January 30, 2008
At this week's Coldest Day of the Year bike ride, Councillor Heaps recognized that plowing bike lanes would make a positive difference for Toronto's winter cyclists. Friday's snow storm gave us a chance to put this to the test: Will the City start doing a better job of clearing snow from the bike lanes, now that we have a councillor and Cycling Committee chair fighting for it?
On Friday afternoon, fellow I Bike T.O. blogger Tino went out and took some photos of bike lanes in the downtown area. The results? Snowy bike lanes, pretty much what you would expect.
The snow storm was still happening when these photos were taken, so let's give the city the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they will catch up and clear all of the bike lanes over the weekend. Tino will be out taking more photos on Saturday and Sunday to measure the city's progress.
What are your experiences so far during and after this storm? Has the city done a reasonable job clearing the snow for you? Let us know by posting a comment.
Photos by Martin Reis. Complete set on Flickr.
Comments
naomi (not verified)
I bike home from work up
Sat, 02/02/2008 - 13:27I bike home from work up Sherbourne St, and today I had no lane. Complete slush! It was a bummer, but still manageable.
Todd Tyrtle (not verified)
My prediction
Sat, 02/02/2008 - 13:55I'm guessing that with the warmer weather and rain predicted, there won't be any active plowing of bike lanes this time around. I figure they'll wait until mother nature takes care of it as they always have.
The true test of their intentions will be to see what they do when we get a storm like that followed by a week of subzero weather.
Aidan
Rely on the weather
Sat, 02/02/2008 - 13:59Don't hold your breath. The city will start clearing lanes after they do a dozen studies which tell them whatever the first dozen did: 2020? Want to start a pool? Rely on the weather: this will be melted by mid-week.
At least on the streets you can find your way, as criminally dangerous as it is. What is the deal with not running a small plow down the Don Valley and along the lakeshore? Throw in the Humber trail. People want to walk as well as ride on these.
The EnigManiac
I wonder...
Sat, 02/02/2008 - 19:53...if one can make a legal claim against the city for not clearing bike lanes. Suppose if one has established that they are a year-round cycling commuter and that is their only means of transportation. Suppose that person used one of the few (inadequate) bike-lane thoroughfares like Harbord or Davenport and that the city's failure to clear their lane created an unnecessary and unreasonable safety risk that jeopardized the citizen's (homeowner/taxpayer) ability to earn a living.
Indeed, bad weather imposes barriers on many people. Many car users take the day off or opt for public transit, but by 9am yesterday, motor vehicle lanes (if we can momentarily agree to regard the left lane as such) were being cleared/salted and that demonstrates a reasonable effort by the city to ensure motor vehicles have a moderately safe path to travel in.
Perhaps a creative, inspired young lawyer should pursue the matter. Appeals to local councillors have proven futile, after all.
I dunno. Just a thought.
hamish (not verified)
yup, sue them
Mon, 02/04/2008 - 23:05While it is a big job to clear all the passages in the City after a big messy dump, and I don't want to have another few tons of salt poured on bike lanes for clearance, the City is still missing the basic point that the bike lanes are to have snow plowed out of, not into them.
And that there are basic inconsistencies in the standards of clearance for cars, pedestrians, transit users and cyclists. They fail on a consistent basis to provide safe passage for bikes in the bike lanes, and the narrow carterials can also be challenging.
While diehards can be die-easies, yes, they deserve a suit or five, and I've been trying over the years to draw attention to the problem, and lay a liability trail.
Simple things shouldn't be impossible to do.
Danielle (not verified)
Another idea is to call the
Tue, 02/05/2008 - 00:45Another idea is to call the snow-removal hotline, from the toronto.ca website..
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/
Request snow removal in a bike lane: 416-338-SNOW
Martino (not verified)
Call the snow removal line
Tue, 02/05/2008 - 10:54True, Danielle. One could try that.
Call the snow removal line? Do drivers have to? Nope.
The issue here is that city is not even trying to clear the bike lanes. But sure, I will call and ask to clear the bike lanes.
All of them.
Can you hear the laughter on the other line?
Tammy Thorne has also writtne about the issue on Spacing.
http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=2737#more-2737
Thank you Vic and Tammy!