TRANSPORTATION
• So, this is a cycling city? [ Toronto Star ]
• Traffic cops powerless to enforce bike lanes [ Toronto Star ]
• The fault with at-fault accident rules [ Globe & Mail ]
CITY HALL
• Groups, councillors scramble for slice of surprise budget surplus [ Globe & Mail ]
• David Miller’s $100M defence [ Toronto Star ]
• Miller deserves praise. Seriously [ National Post ]
• Retirement sparks fight for key ward [ National Post ]
• Coun. Walker won’t seek re-election [ Toronto Sun ]
OTHER NEWS
• Annex resident devastated giant oak tree cut down [ Toronto Star ]
• Banned from city property? You can soon appeal [ Toronto Star ]
• Forget winter activities this March Break [ Toronto Star ]
• Oakville temporarily blocks new power plant [ Toronto Star ]
• OMB decision a victory for opponents of tower [ Globe & Mail ]
• Bottle Water Free Day [ Toronto Sun ]
• Do you know Toronto’s washrooms? [ Toronto Sun ]
8 comments
The city will show it means something about the safety of its residents, by the stick it uses against drivers who put people in danger: cyclists, pedestrians, drivers and disabled. That the Star can point out it still has little stick to use, shows they city does not care. Bike lanes matter little without enforcement, and wouldn’t be needed at all with proper enforcement: ironic, that.
Enforcement does not work, never has, never will. Arguing about it is a waste of breath. In downtown areas, where cabs and delivery trucks and buses and cars turning right have legitimate and desirable reasons to pull up to the curb you will never be able to stop lane blocking with enforcement. Same goes for “dedicated” painted bus lanes – here is a New York example of such failure:
http://bit.ly/cTPBMn
The push should be for physical separation or at least relocating the bike lane off the curb. Those vehicles want a curb? Fine, here’s your curb:
http://bit.ly/asMKm9
Why was this not done on Simcoe, where there was obviously a use conflict with the convention centre? Get some paint and solve the problem today. Long-term, start building protected bike lanes like this:
http://bit.ly/bgLRET
Toronto’s new bike trip planner, Ride the City http://www.ridethecity.com/toronto recommends Simcoe Street as the safest route to the waterfront and downtown from areas to the north and west. If the pro-car Jarvis folks really believe bikes belong on non-arterials (I don’t agree, but it’s a defensible position), then they should be fighting to keep roads like Simcoe Street clear for cyclists.
Denzil? Case? Rocco?
Of course enforcement works, that’s why we don’t have a lot of hit and runs. Does it always work? No. If a cabby gets enough tickets to eat up his profit though, he’s going to stop driving like a tool.
Ban BMWs. They seem to be magnets for douchebags who have no intention of sharing the road with other users.
Re: John
Just noticed that Google Maps now has a bicycle layer, with routing directions for many US cities. I can safely say that most Spacing readers will cream their pants when this comes to Toronto…
One feature about Manhattan is the abundance of one-way streets. One way might have been a bad thing as it allowed the cars to travel too fast in the past, but now it is giving NY a lot of opportunities and means to do progressive things, such as dedicated bike lane or bus lanes, expanded sidewalk, plus I found those one way streets very friendly to jaywalker. Maybe Toronto should start looking at turning some of those arterial roads one way. In this regard, I think Adam Vaughan well-intentioned “two-way” fight was dead-wrong.
Couldn’t agree more with Yu’s comment. One way streets are not always appropriate…but in New York and in parts of Montreal… they’ve provided a lot of possibilities for solutions to problems that Toronto is struggling with.