Sherbourne separated bike lane proposal received to strong support

City Transportation staff presented their vision of an improved Sherbourne Street for cyclists. The cyclists were pleased and there did not seem to be much political opposition from any group with the left mostly on side and with Councillor Minnan-Wong on board. You can view all the presentation slides now.

When determining how to best separate cyclists from motorists, City staff needed to take into account that it would still need to be permeable. Their design considerations included:

  • A rolled curb will separate the bike lane from the vehicle lanes
  • Bikes may enter and exit the cycle tracks
  • Emergency vehicles and Wheel-Trans can access cycle track when required
  • Garbage collection maintained as usual
  • Cycle tracks will be maintained all year

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 20:59 - sherbourne-n-gerrard ©sherbourne-n-gerrard
13 years ago ago by IBikeTO.
Sherbourne, North of Gerrard

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 20:59 - sherbourne-intersection ©sherbourne-intersection
13 years ago ago by IBikeTO.
Typical Intersection - the separation narrows bringing cyclists into clearer view with motorists. Note the indirect lefts, which I covered in a previous post..

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 20:59 - sherbourne-x-section ©sherbourne-x-section
13 years ago ago by IBikeTO.
Cross section in mid-block

I believe we can safely assume that most cyclists support the separated bike lanes. There has been, a smattering of tweeting suggesting that the separated bike lanes on Sherbourne were supposed a top down decision in order to buy off cyclists. Nothing is ever so simple, especially when it comes to politics in Toronto. Though there has been a political angle with Minnan-Wong, the push has mainly been by activists such as the Toronto Cyclists Union, but we can also find ruminations of improving Sherbourne as a showcase back in 2010 when Dutch planners came to town for Thinkbike:

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 20:59 - sherbourne-king2howard ©sherbourne-king2howard
13 years ago ago by IBikeTO.
From ThinkBike Team in 2010, dreaming of a better Sherbourne.

As an example of the complexity of cycling politics, the National Post reported Vaughan as now saying that the separation isn't enough where previously he had characterized separated bike lanes as "barricaded bike lanes". Vaughan now criticized the plan as "not a pronounced enough separation.... Unless you make it physically risky to put a car in that spot, you will get cars in that spot. You'll have taxis, you'll have couriers, you'll have vendors."

Can we now count on you Vaughan to support separated bike lanes on Richmond and/or Adelaide?

herb : 13 years 4 months ago
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Clearly define the bike lanes on Sherbourne in redesign

Tonight, Thursday, January 26, 2012 is the open house for "upgrading" the Sherbourne bike lanes to provide better separation between cars and bikes. Please drop by from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, 444 Sherbourne Street (at Wellesley), to provide your feedback.

Back in 2010 Dutch cycling consultants came to our city for ThinkBike, to work with urban professionals to rethink our cycling infrastructure and promotion is done in Toronto. Luckily they chose Sherbourne as one example and one of the teams produced a presentation, which you'd do well to preview before providing your feedback tonight.

A couple thoughts in response to their online notes:

  1. It would be good if they continued the separation north of Bloor. There is really no reason why not since as far as I recall there isn't any on-street parking for the first couple blocks. The first block is a bridge over Rosedale Valley which would benefit from better separation from cars, at least to prevent cars from parking in the bike lanes.
  2. From Bloor to Gerrard (a good portion of Sherbourne), there is no major roadwork scheduled so staff have suggested that more temporary installation take place, including flexible bollards and painted buffers. Likewise the work from Front to Queens Quay will be figured out in 2013 to coincide with road reconstruction.

    It would be ideal to have an obvious separation that doesn't make it enticing for cars to park in the lane. The suggested design from Gerrard to Front is a "rolled curb" with a painted buffer. The rolled curb is presumably being proposed to keep emergency services happy. I'm not sure why it is important for a bike lane to have a rolled curb and not for a sidewalk. In this image from Copenhagen, vertical curbs are used.

    The City should also consider flexible bollards for the entire length of Sherbourne. Emergency vehicles can easily get over them and regular motorists will use them as a guide to stay out of the separated bike lanes. This is particularly true if the City insists in sticking with rolled curbs.

herb : 13 years 4 months ago
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Some new bike parking alongside Loblaws: late and not enough

Thanks to some warm winter weather and possibly to a bit of persuading on my end (by directing some emails to Street Furniture and to Councillor Vaughan's office), City staff have installed post and rings along Portland and Richmond next to the new Loblaws.

As I noted in the other post, Councillor Vaughan and Jennifer Chan of his office were quite helpful in pursuing the case of the missing bike parking to get it solved. Lisa Ing of Street Furniture was also helpful in spelling out the details of this location and the limitations of her office.

It's super that we now have some bike parking for Loblaws. Now what about the rest of the stores along that block on Queen? Short-term bike parking should be no more than 15 metres from the entrance of destinations, according to the Bicycles at Rest design guide. Are post and rings just not "aesthetic" enough to get installed there?

The "season" for installation of bike parking ends in the fall - it gets too difficult to install with lots of snow and the City ends its contract with the company that installs the bike rings. It is remarkable, then, that these post and rings appeared. Who installed them? There were plans in the works to install them but not until the spring. Did public pressure on City staff quicken that process?

Makes me think of what other locations we could identify. For instance, I recently explored and tweeted about the below-ground bike parking at the Loblaws at Church. Who knew about this bike parking - next to the garbage - way below ground? Who is going to bother go there when they just want to pick up a few groceries? Evidenced by the empty rack, apparently no one.

But even at the Church/Carleton Loblaws, according to whoever is tweeting for them there is a plan to install outdoor bike parking in March. It's not clear if its on Loblaws property or City.

If this is true, it's great. It just leaves me thinking that bike parking continues to be an after thought, getting installed long after the store is open and full of shoppers. Doesn't Toronto deserve a better plan for getting convenient and secure bike parking? Something akin to the same reverence we give to cars? Loblaws likely spent $25,000 for each car parking spot and maybe $50 for each bike parking spot, even though only a minority of people will actually drive to Loblaws. And to add insult to injury, cyclists and pedestrians going to the checkout at Loblaws will be asked if they want their parking validated? How about just some validation as an equal human being? How about those few people who drive pay for their own damn parking?

I'm happy about the new post and rings, don't get me wrong. But I keep getting reminded of how far we have to go to change our societal attitude about these things. Bikes shouldn't be an after thought, especially in places where about 1 in 5 people use their bikes to commute, shop, etc.

herb : 13 years 4 months ago
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