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  Non-Arterial Bike Lanes – Where would yours go? (10 posts)

• Todd Tyrtle said 5 months ago:

  It seems as if when any mayoral candidate talks about bike lanes there's a talk about removing routes from arterials and putting them on roads that are lower-traffic. Frankly I don't care where my lanes are whether they're on a street like Queen or one like St. George. Just give me some and don't make me take some circuitous route to get where I'm going and please don't put me through a residential neighbourhood with traffic calming stop signs every block. I'm trying to get to work just as diligently as a driver is and no more want to go on a roundabout way to work than a driver does.

  That said, I bet there are at least a few places we could put bike lanes that might actually make a difference. So here's my question: where do we put bike lanes in Toronto that are not on arterial roads but that still can serve us well?

  I don't have too many ideas but maybe I'm not thinking hard enough. Here's what I've come up with:

  - Push to get rail trails completed
  - Hydro right of ways

  Streets:
  - Dovercourt might be a good one – I use this fairly often and it isn't too busy.
  - Shaw might benefit from a contraflow lane
  - Palmerston
  - Manning (Contraflow)

  East/west seems a bit harder, though:
  - Wellington?

  Any other ideas? I'm really trying to see how to make this work but I'm not coming up with much.

• Frank Lecky said 5 months ago:

  In my area, Shaw makes a ton of sense. Unfortunately right now it's one way between Dupont and Dundas meaning cyclists can and do have to break the law to use it.

  Getting residents on Shaw ("we pay taxes, we want street parking") to agree with a bike lane would be next to impossible given their love for street parking in spite of them all having garages in the back alleys (alleys that were designed specifically to keep parked vehicles off the road).

• Todd Tyrtle said 5 months ago:

  Yeah, I don't know which is harder to get support from – businesses or residents.

  Of course given a report like this: http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/bike-lanes-parking.pdf – perhaps businesses may be the answer. I think we need more studies like this, particularly along streets like Bloor/Danforth. Something tells me that as much as the BIA on the Danforth opposes bike lanes, much of their business comes to them by bike…

• AnnieD said 5 months ago:

  Shaw was approved for a contraflow bikelane nearly two years ago. I know there's supposed to be a stretch S. of Dupont, N. of Bloor (in the door zone of the parked cars) but I think there might be another stretch much further S. They didn't go in the first year because speed humps had to go in first, and then I guess they got delayed some more because of the strike last year. I sure hope they go in this year…

  I would love to see a path along the tracks that run parallel to Dupont – going as far as Mt. Pleasant at least. My son goes to Northern Secondary and I work up by Eglinton and Laird and we live near Christie Pits. This would be a great connection between SW of Yonge and NE (relatively speaking).

  I'd like to see contraflow lanes on Sussex/Lennox – can never remember which one but it's East of Bathurst, a street where the direction of traffic changes at every block. Lots of cyclists use it.

  I also use Dovercourt and would love to see lanes on it, although the drivers there are quite civil even without dedicated space. Road repair would be better than a painted line. Right now, the boundary between parked cars and the lane of traffic is a mess, but it's wide enough that there's a strip that keeps you out of the traffic lane and out of the door zone and would be perfect if not for the state of the road.

  I ride on College a lot and hate the fact that the lane is in the doorzone and that cars are constantly pulling across the lane to park or leave a parking spot, not to mention the cars that double park in the bikelane to let people out or to just run in to get something. That said, traffic on College when I ride on it is so slow that I don't feel particularly unsafe, even in the door zone which is usually something I hate.

  Everyone complains Sherbourne is a mess, and it is, but I don't really mind it. Wellesley has this bad turn where the lane narrows and cars encroach in the bikelane – hate that part. I think that's something Hamish has mentionned too.

  I'd like to see sharrows on all bike routes. I find bike routes tend to be filled with bumper to bumper traffic backed up sometimes for more than a block (eg: Tichester at Avenue) with some cars hugging the curb to prevent cyclists from filtering to the front.

  I'd like to see a connection between Rosedale Valley Drive and the Don Valley path, and between Rosedale Valley Drive and the bikelanes on Dovercourt.

  That's it for now, though I'm sure there are more!

• HiMY SYeD said 5 months ago:

  My home is on Shaw Street.

  Some years back, the neighbourhood became active and petitioned the ward 19 councillor for speed calming.

  Eventually, speed bumps were installed between Dupont and Harbord Streets, completing a gap in traffic calming along this corridor.

  Thereafter, the community spirit for any further changes in and on Shaw Street dissipated from that original ad-hoc collective.

  Outside of the Christie Pits Park being used as a dump last summer during the Civic Workers' Strike, not much else has rallied the Street long neighbourhood .

  In understanding my neighbours' concerns about more parking along Shaw Street, and without a long drawn out repetition of those points, Shaw remains the preferred bike highway at Rush Hour and the reverse-flow bike lane two blocks east on Montrose doesn't seem to get as much use as it should.

  Shaw remains the desired bike path.

  HiMY

• michael holloway said 4 months, 4 weeks ago:

  Hmm that's interesting about Shaw and Montose, I used to live and work in the west end, those were my corridors. As I've stated here before in response to the Ricco media grandstanding, Non-arterials are my favourite way to get around.

  Towards that I've been hoping to bring a Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki into BikingToronto. With Joes approval we can create a portal here, and work in conjunction with others building efficient and safe cycling route maps through-out the city/region.

  Here's the start of it in OpenStreetMap.org:

  http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Michael%20Holloway/diary/9716

  Michael Holloway

• Joe T. said 4 months, 4 weeks ago:

  Of course you have my approval, Michael. I think all of us are open to the idea of sharing information and fostering discussion, including great MapWiki features.

• Amy Cooney said 4 months, 4 weeks ago:

  I've only been cycling in the city for a year – Michael, your Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki is an excellent idea and exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for.
  From a newbie's perspective – this would be a great resource from more experienced city riders.

• Todd Tyrtle said 4 months, 4 weeks ago:

  Thank you, Michael, for starting this, it's a fantastic idea.

  I often say that one of the things that I think sets this city apart from others is that when people here get frustrated with something that a city is failing to do they just up and do it themselves (witness things like the TPSC and similar projects). :Looking at the political climate now it seems like this is likely to be another situation where people will need to "take care of their own." And in this case, "our own" is new cyclists getting out on the roads.

  The challenges I have when trying to use non-arterial lanes are twofold. The biggest one is that signals are few and far between on many of them so when I get to a major street, crossing it can be a bit of a white-knuckle experience. The second challenge are the one-way streets. Often what makes a secondary street so quiet is the fact that the traffic direction alternates frequently making it impossible to travel through. Not much we can do here and remain law-abiding though with a little help from the city, a contraflow lane would fix that nicely.

  As a side note, though, I find it interesting that Rossi is referring in the media to Sherbourne as a secondary street. If that's the case that may change the idea of what an "arterial" is and by association make it a little easier to build a network.

  Thanks again for starting this.

• Joe T. said 4 months, 4 weeks ago:

  Michael, thanks again for your initiative in starting this. I am hoping we can not only get the community involved with sharing good biking routes throughout the GTA, but if we can combine this with the already full information in the BikeShop and Bikelanes maps, even better!

  BikeShop Map
  http://bikingtoronto.com/maps/bikeshops/

  Bikelane Map
  http://bikingtoronto.com/maps/bikelanes/