CITY HALL
• Defeat a city council incumbent? Fat chance [ Toronto Star ]
• Pitfield ponders a return to the clamshell [ Globe & Mail ]
• Mayoral rivals bob, weave [ Toronto Star ]
• Smitherman, Miller trading political shots [ Metro ]
NEW TTC MAPS
• Mind the map? TTC didn’t [ Toronto Star ]
• Disappearing act [ Metro ]
• Embarrassed by map gaffe, TTC chair takes charge of quality control [ National Post ]
TRANSPORTATION
• Pushing bicycle use comes with high price [ Toronto Star ]
• Projected costs of new stations rising [ Globe & Mail ]
OTHER NEWS
• Fare enough, cabbies told [ Toronto Sun ]
• High-tech guideposts for Nuit Blanche [ National Post ]
• Structures with style [ Toronto Star ]
• Circle the world, never leave home [ Toronto Star ]
• Toronto Life’s logos are scrubbed from 10 Dundas East [ Globe & Mail ]
11 comments
re:Pushing bicycle use comes with high price [ Toronto Star ]
Cyclists will come. But for more usage, we need cycling-safe bike lanes to use when they arrive.
Why are we spending so much on racks to leave bikes at GO stations when there are so many terrific folders available – keep your bike with you all day.
re:Pushing bicycle use comes with high price
I wish the article had given the average cost of a car parking space for comparison.
@8sml:
Especially the cost of a car parking space in the new multi-storey parking garages GO is building at select stations. Those are pricy big items.
If GO had some real smarts, they’d devote a car or half a car on each train to bicycles, to encourage commuters to take their bikes with them. Many cyclists who bother biking to a GO station would probably welcome being able to easily bike away from the GO station at their destination. The current setup is quite cumbersome.
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/8751–harper-mcguinty-announce-plans-to-revamp-go-transit
“About $175 million will be spent on creating about 6,800 new parking spaces at 12 GO Transit stations”
That’s $25,735.29 per spot. Compared to only $1,800 for the
locked/sheltered bike parking spots.
Waaah….we spend too much on bikes.
I ride by the new rack at Port Credit, but won’t use it, and don’t use the Union Bike Station.
I’d like to leave a bike at both ends of my trip (and GO would rather that than I take it aboard) but there is no way I can leave it overnight in Port Credit and not expect to lose it sooner or later. That means I need to take my bike from Toronto on the train to ride in Port Credit, which means I won’t leave it at Union’s Bike Station. Go figure. Some consultants couldn’t figure that out?
Am beginning to think that folding bikes are the only way to go in Toronto: the only bike you can consistently take on transit, take inside where it might not get stolen, and take inside the lobby of your precious condo.
This Victoria (BC) report puts the 24-year amortized cost of an average surface lot parking spot at $19,700 US, or a monthly cost of $68.
http://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0504.pdf
GO transit car drivers currently park for free, subsidized by all GO passengers (and tax dollars).
Which parking “comes at a cost, again?”
And the majority of those GO car drivers are single occupants. That’s pretty pricey for all-day storage of a vehicle that probably doesn’t get much use outside of the daily trip to and from the station. Space on GO trains is very tight at the peak hours with many standees; personal space is at a premium. You’d need to have a “baggage” car just for bikes.
The coming Bixi bikeshare will be ideal for transit commuters, why even bother with a folding bike or worry about theft?
I’m more concerned with how existing transportation infrastructure is going to handle these new parking garages. I regularly deliver blueprints for the Aurora GO parking garage, and while a suburb which is part of Toronto’s urban area, the area still holds a “bedroom community” small town feel to it. Most of the major roads in the area are only 1 lane in each direction, and the area is fairly dense as well. Even with road widening, the vicinity is going to see some epic gridlock and congestion when everyone gets off the train.
I understand the need for increasing capacity at GO stations, but in this case I believe it would have been smarter to improve public transit to the station and/or build a new GO station nearby in an underdeveloped or undeveloped area which can better handle a high volume of cars.
Bike storage is just another way that GO is trying to get people to its stations at lower cost than building more parking. Another is the 50- or 60-cent fare for connecting local transit routes in 905. GO subsidizes the local transit providers the extra fee. In Mississauga this amounts to $1.80 each way, or $3.60 per day, or $900 for someone that uses it to commute every day. It comes at a cost to GO, but it frees up a parking spot for another rider (or lets them delay building a much more expensive parking spot).