University Avenue Bikelane Graphics and Video

April 14, 2010 By Joe T. 12 Comments

Just came across a rendering of the proposed buffered bikelanes for University Avenue:

Buffered Bikelanes planned for 12 weeks this summer.

Want to know what buffered bikelanes are like? Here are some videos of other similar bikelanes in action. First off, NYC just opened up a median bikepath down the middle of Sands Street:

You can also check out another StreetFilm of the Ninth Avenue Bikelane, which has buffered bikelanes along the side of the street, between the sidewalk and parking.

Filed Under: infrastructure, news, photos, video Tagged With: bikelanes, infrastructure, news, photos, video

lukev

What the f*ck??? If I want to turn right on my bike, what do I do?

The bike committee is on crack. This is not only an accident waiting to happen, it is providing ammunition to the anti-bikelane crowd.
B. Ross Ashley

Looks to me like you’d have to dismount, and use the crosswalk. Thousands won’t. Bad idea, as it actually encourages riding in the crosswalk. And how would I stop at Mt Sinai and park if I were still working there? Same thing.
Boss Hog

The right hand turn was my first question. But now my question is what is going to happen when a car wants to turn left and I want to go straight? There is a reason why left hand turns on Spadina and St. Clair have lights, its so that cars don’t stop in the streetcar lane.
lukev

This is plain embarrassing. Trash this idea and start over.
youwho

We should look to Amsterdam / Rotterdam for inspiration for our protected bike lanes. These look to be less than ideal.
http://www.theurbancountry.com James

The city needs to put in traffic signals for cars if they want to avoid the left hook.

Below is a video I made last month while riding down Broadway Ave. in NYC. If you just watch the first 40 seconds, you’ll see how left turns by motorists are prevented using traffic signals, and you will see an example of a cyclist turning right off the protected cycle path.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puLiWav5Wrs
simon

They can put in bike boxes for right turns, looks great!
annied

Lukev – you would wait for the light to change and then turn right, ahead of the traffic from the cross-street, which wouldn’t have made it that far yet, keeping your bike to the left of the crosswalk, and go on your merry way.

B. Ross Ashley, you would turn right at Elm and walk your bike North along the sidewalk to the Mt. Sinai entrance.

Boss Hogg – there are no left turns allowed for cars at many of the intersections, and there’s a crosswalk between the islands for pedestrians travelling down the middle of university, so drivers turning left at the few intersections where this is permitted have to look out for pedestrians anyway.

This may not be perfect, but it’s infinitely better than, say, College street where cars drive across the lane to park and use the lane to drop off people, and delivery trucks block the lane either because they’re sitting right in it or because they’re parked next to it and are too wide for their spot. I suppose you could remove parking from the front of the hospitals, since they all have back entrances too, and then you *could* have lanes next to the sidewalk. I think that would be harder to get through, though.
http://bikingtoronto.com/members/bikeroo/ Bikeroo

@Lukev Most likely (based on speculation and drawing examples from other plans like this) there will either be prioritized signals or a signal system for cyclists to allow them to make right turns and merge onto other streets such as College St. This will eliminate the risk of a collision between a cyclist and a vehicle or pedestrians. Look at the 9th Ave physically separated bike lane in New York on how the light system works.

@Boss Hogg Technically, there are only a handful of intersections in which vehicles may make a left turn on University Ave so there isn’t much concern regarding that. As mentioned above, there are intersection designs that accommodate bike lanes on the inner most lane along mitigated with priority signals to control left turning traffic.
http://bikingtoronto.com/members/joetravers/ Joe T.

Great answers, Annie.

Turning right from these bikelanes would be the same as going left from regular “curb” bikelanes – do it safely.
duncan

Also, if you know you’re turning right you don’t have to use the bike lane. Bicycles are permitted in every lane of moving traffic, we are on vehicles after all. While I’m hoping that a priority signal system and bike boxes are in place, it is still possible to make a right turn from the right-most lane. I make left turns from the left-most lane, even on streets with bike lanes.

I wonder why change always elicits such a negative response? Do we give up on learning once we have a high school diploma?
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