Toronto's Love/Hate Relationship with Bikes
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.14.07
I often complain about Toronto being all talk and no action, particularly when it comes to bikes. The bike lanes are a tooth-rattling mess full of potholes and delivery trucks, and they let the bikeshare program die for want of $80,000 while they can blow $ 100,000 on a whiny advertising campaign.
Then I find that perhaps it isn't all talk; things are happening.
1) People who get it are getting elected. City Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker lives in the outer reaches of the city but bicycles 42 km (26 miles) each way to work at Toronto City Hall, all year round, from a part of town where there are no bike lanes. He takes a circuitous route of residential streets to avoid the killer cement trucks. The Mayor from who we expected so much has promised1000 kilometers of lanes by 2012. Read Profile of Glenn's ride in ::The Star
2) Citizens are taking action. Some have started sending pictures to MyBikeLane, a website where you post pictures of cars and trucks in the lanes.
at Torontoist, Marc Lostracco has produced a pdf to print this poster for " benevolently placing under offenders' windshield wipers, but we remind riders not to be dicks about it." ::Torontoist
The great Toronto website Spacing is on the case as well and produced this poster which you can download from their site at ::Spacing.ca
Now if we could only get pictures of Councillor Rob "Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day" Ford, say, drunk and abusive at a hockey game, maybe we could have even faster progress.
Does Llyod ever stop complaining about his city?
LA: Um, the point of the post is that things are happening and I am not complaining, I am praising.
I never quite understood who Bikeshare was targeted at. I always assumed that the people who were in supporters of biking would be bike owners and that people who didn't own bikes didn't own them because they preferred not to ride. Who was their target demographic?
I'm relatively new to Toronto (since 2004), and have only been biking the city for a few weeks but overall I'm very pleased to see what is happening here as compared to many of the other North American cities I have lived in. Yes, there's room to improve, and there have been many setbacks, but overall I think we're moving forward, albeit not as quickly as I'd like to see.
Two years ago i was in Toronto on a visit with my family and of course we were visiting the city on our bikes. What i've noticed is that the traffic is more civilized then the city i come from... Montreal... you must fight for your dear life. The city is starting to put those reserve lanes.... the cars are using them as fast lanes....can i borrow your campaign for my city?
Awareness -
In New York City, the worst bike lane obstructors are the taxi cabs. What compounds the problem is the empty headed pedestrians that hail them expecting them to block the bike lane or a standard traffic lane . . . when there is clearly space to pull over fully about one or two car lengths away.
My response changes depending on the day. I am sick of my voice being hoarse by the time I get to work so I just bear it, go into the next traffic lane and hope for the best.
vsk
The good news in Toronto? We have people working and thinking about how to make the city bicycle friendly. The bad news? We haven't come near the tipping point, the point at which cyclists, not drivers, dominate the streets and set the tone.
Rob Ford is a good man.
He is interested in the Santa Monica notion of setting aside residential streets as "local traffic only and FOR BIKES.
tHE WOULD SAVE MONEY AND BE SAFER FOR BIKERS. Residents like it because it gets rid of motorists who might be temprted to use back streets as highways.
What about bad bikers?!?!...I've almost been sideswiped 3 times in the last 2 months by bikers who act like they have the right of way at all times! And if you tell them that they dont, they act all rude and arrogant! Next biker that comes barelling through (ignoring the streetcars STOP sign) as people are getting off a streetcar is gonna get my swift foot in his spokes..and a bent-to-shit bike to boot. I'm all for cycling for the good of the environment and I know what cyclists have to go through dealing with cars. But as a pedestrian I think alot of cyclists downtown think they can ride like they own the road. They need to understand that pedestrians are the most vulnerable and they should be aware of this even more so that car drivers... Someone needs to put a stop to bad biking practices before they spread.