Sherbourne cycle tracks got cleared. Most of the painted bike lanes in the city? Not so much. (Credit: photos from Jared Kolb, Cycle Toronto)
For all the naysayers who figured that building cycle tracks meant lanes blocked with snow, take a good look at both photos. Just because a lane is painted doesn't mean the City is going to take it seriously. In fact, the reverse seems to be true. The City made a commitment to clear the Sherbourne cycle tracks and it has. Meanwhile it wasn't until a few days later that the City started to clear the bike lanes. And perhaps they'd still be blocked if it weren't for some tweets to 311Toronto reporting the blockage.
A side benefit of the snow bank on Sherbourne is that it's provided enough of a barrier to keep cars from parking in it, at least for the time being. I think we've learned that the cycle tracks need more substantial barriers like this to keep cars out.
Comments
W. K. Lis
A full week after the big
Sun, 02/17/2013 - 13:20A full week after the big snowstorm, the city still has not plowed the bicycle path along Eglinton Avenue West in Etobicoke. The pedestrian walkway has been, however, Which means bicycles will have to share the pedestrian walkway or the motor vehicle roadway.
Brian Huntley (not verified)
Last Friday evening, I took
Mon, 02/25/2013 - 00:32Last Friday evening, I took College across from Spadina to well past Manning, and while the bike lane was cleared of snow, it was full of cars. I saw a parking person ticketing cars west of Manning and suggested he back up a few blocks for some easy pickings. He shrugged.
hamish (not verified)
While maybe it felt good
Mon, 02/25/2013 - 10:20While maybe it felt good seeing the tickets being issued, the real problem is with the inability of the City to maintain with plowings, any design that has indented parking. The straight-ahead of major plows was seen on St. George, College, Spadina and Roncesvalles. The three first eg.s had as a result cars parked onto the bike lanes because they couldn't park in the snowbanks. On Roncesvalles, it likely meant extra streetcar delays along with risks to cyclists in crossing any tracks.
The City has been told about this clash between design and maintenance, a few times - but they still like to think that it's all okay. So cyclists should start fussing about either the maintenance and lack thereof, or the design, and it'd be interesting to see/hear how those motorists who get tickets have felt about them, and what the tickets were for.