• • Recovered hoard of bicycles overwhelms police facilities [ CBC.ca ]
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• ‘Toronto Chicken’ gains allies [ National Post ]
• Mayor won’t be caged by zoo debate [ Toronto Sun ]
• Mayor sides with board in zoo spat [ Toronto Sun ]
• Soaker summer too much for city’s sewers [ Globe and Mail ]
Wednesday’s headlines
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Bike advocates riled by lack of lanes in Bloor St. redesign:
So does this leave hope for the South Kingsway/Queensway plan to continue using bicyclists and pedestrians as road fodder? Will the narrowing of Roncesvalles also be questioned? Building for transit and autoholics is one thing. Building for the exclusion of other entitled road users quite another.
To clarify the above, Roncesvalles is not really being narrowed. They might be shifting the curb line slightly with reconstruction, but it will still have the same number of through lanes and parking lanes while adding bike lanes. The difference is that the parking lanes will be full time (compared to the peak hour southbound parking restriction) when they put in the transit stop curb extensions, allowing for passengers the get on and off without being challenged by cars trying to get around the streetcar. It will also help TTC meet some of their accessibility issues.
The big issue here is how to accommodate bikes in this arrangement. The transit stop has to get as close as possible to the streetcar for wheelchairs (its a Provincial mandate to make all transit accessible-hard to argue with that). This doesn’t leave much room for bikes between the tracks and stop, which will no doubt lead to lots of complaints. How will the bike lane get around the stop?
Roncesvalles is the first test of this arrangement. The TTC are trying to figure out how to make their existing lines accessible and think this might do it. If it does, then we’ll likely get this on King, Queen, College, Dundas…all the mixed traffic streets where they don’t have room for platforms.
An EA is going on right now conducted by the City for Roncesvalles. If you’re interested, visit the City’s website for more info and how to get involved in the process.
a year ago the bloor street redesign would definitely include bikelanes according to Kyle Rae. Hmmm ..
Roncesvalles seems to be about sidewalk widening. There are no bike lanes presently. I’ve noted an increased intolerance of bicyclists on the streetcar beds this year including where streets narrow to the point there is nowhere else to ride that is not in the door zone. Complaints to TTC seem to fall on deaf ears when the same operators repeat similar actions.
I don’t buy it. The city bears contempt for cyclists. Its acceptance of Igor for his years of activity stands as a testiment to that.
I am willing to bet my bike is there as it was stolen from Queen and Ossington, but I have no way of proving it’s mine, and I can’t even really describe it. It’s grey. Oh well!
With respect to accomodating bikes on roncesvalles…
The Roncesvalles BIA presented the options on its website. Here is a direct link to the PDF with the illustrations.
Option #3 creates a bike path THROUGH the middle of the streetcar bump-out. This is probably the best option for cyclists. However, for everyone else, its probably a terrible idea.
I can tell you from my own personal experience that I’ve been sworn at and insulted by other cyclists for stopping for streetcars and waiting for the doors to actually close. The more “polite” ones just whizz around me and the crowd of people boarding/exiting the streetcar. Most cyclsts simply do NOT respect the “stopping-for-streetcars-with-open-doors” rule, and that option is just recipe for a self-absored cyclist mowing down a few people trying to board a streetcar because they crossed through “his” bike lane.
i guess since so many bikes will lay unclaimed, there will be the mother of all police auctions within the next year. bittersweet perhaps, but maybe a real bonanza for those in need.