Posts tagged cycling

Great video from the City of Portland, showing how their pilot cycle track (separated bike lane) will work. 

The above figure was compiled using the 2003 and 2010 New York Cycling Maps to show the growth in Manhattan’s cycling network in a very short period of time. I’ll see if I can pull up a comparison for Toronto over the same period. Note the rapid expansion of both on-street bike lanes and segregated bike paths. Amazing.

The above figure was compiled using the 2003 and 2010 New York Cycling Maps to show the growth in Manhattan’s cycling network in a very short period of time. I’ll see if I can pull up a comparison for Toronto over the same period.

Note the rapid expansion of both on-street bike lanes and segregated bike paths. Amazing.

It appears that the City will be initiating a pilot project for segregated bike lanes on University Avenue this summer between Wellesley and Richmond Streets. This will be a big leap forward for the cycling network in Toronto, as until now, there have not been attempts to create physically separated bike facilities on our urban streets. It is also a first for the City’s Transportation Department, which in the past has been criticized for studying things to death before implementation. Perhaps the speech by Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York DOT, last year at a CUI luncheon, where she stressed the power of just doing things, knocked some sense into the folks at City Hall.  Quoting Sadik-Khan on pilot projects: “People are more willing to change if they know it’s not permanent,” she explains. “The public needs to see things right away,” she says. “We have the vision in New York and we are able to implement that vision.” source Read: Posted Toronto: Bike Lanes on University Avenue City of Toronto: Bikeway Network Downtown 2010 Program

It appears that the City will be initiating a pilot project for segregated bike lanes on University Avenue this summer between Wellesley and Richmond Streets. This will be a big leap forward for the cycling network in Toronto, as until now, there have not been attempts to create physically separated bike facilities on our urban streets.

It is also a first for the City’s Transportation Department, which in the past has been criticized for studying things to death before implementation. Perhaps the speech by Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York DOT, last year at a CUI luncheon, where she stressed the power of just doing things, knocked some sense into the folks at City Hall. 

Quoting Sadik-Khan on pilot projects:

“People are more willing to change if they know it’s not permanent,” she explains.

“The public needs to see things right away,” she says. “We have the vision in New York and we are able to implement that vision.”

source

Read:

Posted Toronto: Bike Lanes on University Avenue

City of Toronto: Bikeway Network Downtown 2010 Program

Is Toronto a Cycling City?


Taxis parked on bike lane on Lower Simcoe Street (source)

In The Star today, they ask, “So, this is a cycling city?” in response to a rather frustrating article about police inaction with taxis parked on the new bike lanes on Lower Simcoe Street, first brought to light on Duncan’s City Ride.

So given the slow action on the City’s bike lane network, the continuous fight for every inch of bike infrastructure, and two leading mayoral candidates that seem to not understand the need for a comprehensive cycling network, instead of asking, “this is a cycling city?”, I ask, “Is Toronto a cycling city to begin with?”