80/20 rule of networks

Anyone who works in IT, or who is a traffic engineer, knows of the 80/20 rule of networks. The 80/20 rule is simple, it states that on any given segment of a network, 80% of the traffic is local. The exceptions for this rule are rare.

Collision studies show that 80% of crashes and collisions occur within 5 miles of one's home, that is they occur locally. That is because 80% of our trips, and therefore 80% of our time, is spent within those five miles.

5 miles is about the same as the upper limit people are willing to cycle from home to shopping and other errands on their bike. We spend 80% of our time driving 5 miles or less. Some of these trips can, and should, be made by bike.

The point of the city's Bike Plan is not to force everyone to make all of their trips bike, but to encourage, enable, and empower more people to ride a bike for at least some of their trips. And the trips which would be most likely to qualify are those in the 80% -- the shorter, local trips.

anthony : 15 years 11 months ago
Tags: advocacy, education, Toronto Bike Plan

Bikesharing for Toronto

Bikesharing is back on the map in Toronto with the City Transportation Services staff recommending the Public Bike System Company as the potential partner in providing a public bikesharing program to Toronto. As mentioned in a previous post, this company is best known for setting up the Bixi system in Montreal, launched this Spring.

This will need to pass the Public Works committee (pdf) June 3 before it heads to City Council soon after. This item and the item on part of the 2009 Bikeway Network Program with the installation of bike lanes and paths this year will be voted on after 1:30pm. If all goes well we'll have a few more kilometres of bike lanes this summer and a report to Council in the Fall on a Spring 2010 launch of Bikeshare 2.0. Come on out and give your moral support!

herb : 15 years 11 months ago
Tags: bikesharing

The Fixer: Sunken grates menacing Dupont cyclists

Jack Lakey, writer of the Toronto Star's "Fixer" column reported today on a dangerous pair of sewer grates on Dupont St., north side between Edwin Ave. and Osler Ave. (map).

"Pietro Taleporos emailed us photos of a sunken storm-sewer grate on the north side of Dupont, just west of Edwin Ave., with a utility cover next to it that caught the wheel of his 14-year-old son's bicycle and sent him sprawling."

Also, according to the article, "a small cone and a much larger, orange-and-black traffic pylon were placed over the rough patch", although this was definitely not the case when I rode by at about 8:40 this morning.

You can view the original article on The Star's website here.

This is definitely a dangerous situation for any cyclist who does not see this chewed up section of road in time to ride around it. Let's hope the City fixes this soon.

This section of Dupont St., between Dundas and Lansdowne, is also scheduled to have bicycle lanes installed, possibly sometime this summer. This will connect to the Annette St. bike lanes, and the West Toronto Rail Path. It will be even more critical to have this fixed before then, as the bicycle traffic will likely increase, while cyclists will be directed to ride right through the roughed-up curbside pavement.

Unfortunately for cyclists everywhere, this type of poor roadway infrastructure happens all over the city. Our bicycles do very little damage to the road, yet we are often stuck riding in the worst pothole-ravaged, debris-collecting, door-zoned sections of the road. Sometimes the "bike infrastructure" even directs us to ride in these awful places. Wellesley bike lanes, or the Runnymede door-zone rollercoaster bike lane, anyone?

Bike infrastructure can be a good thing, but sometimes the roadway itself needs some improvement to make cycling safer.

Update: I checked it out again this evening, and there was some fresh asphalt to help smooth out the bumps. Better, but still nowhere near perfect, and who knows how long it will last after getting beaten by automobile tires all day. I guarantee it won't make it through the winter either. The Fixer got it temporarily fixed pretty quickly.

vic : 15 years 11 months ago
Tags: dupont, Fixer, safety, Toronto Star