Pointless: Bike lanes downtown
There’s a proposal out to put bike lanes on Bloor Street, a major east-west arterial in Toronto. My feeling: waste of time.
Yesterday I rode from downtown Toronto at College and Spadina to Bloor and Lansdowne. There are official, marked bike lanes all the way along College (less busy than Bloor) to about Dufferin. And they are totally useless. There must have been at least a dozen trucks, couriers, and cars parked in the lane, forcing the bicyclist to merge into traffic. The lanes are downright dangerous at right-turns, because cars just make the turn anyway. And cyclists seem to ignore them, as I passed two groups riding two abreast. Further point of information: I was seriously injured while riding in a bike lane. So I’m not the biggest fan.
I actually felt safest on Lansdowne, which I gather has been criticized for its lack of ‘official’ bike lanes (it has a bike symbol but no solid white line). There, there are no cars parked in the north-bound lane, and the road is plenty wide enough for all but large trucks to share with cyclists.
I gather the cycling advocates like any idea that gives more visibility to cyclists, but this idea of a bike lane on Bloor would divert money from more useful ideas. Here’s one: completely close off streets to non-local automobile traffic (say, for example, King Street). Last time I checked there were about 5 good ways of getting across Toronto in a car: why can’t one be dedicated to transit and bikes?
I guess the only other idea I had was to actually enforce the Traffic Code, namely towing people who park in an official lane. Solid white means don’t cross, but this law, along with no-idling, no running red lights, etc., don’t seem to be enforced. Courier companies, I’m pretty certain, see traffic tickets as a cost of doing business (and likely can deduct them on their taxes anyway!).
Update: Apparently some advocates are getting annoyed too…
I completely agree. Toronto’s bike lanes are mostly useless. The only sensible way to do this is build bike paths that motor vehicles cannot drive or park on. Eg separated from the vehicular traffic by a raised curb. I noticed some of this in Montreal – they’ve taken a whole vehicle lane, built a curb to separate it, and put a bi-directional bike path in it. European cities get this right far more often.
Steve Easterbrook
2009 May 21 at 19:33
The story I’ve heard about Toronto-style bike lanes is that their real advantage (and possibly their real purpose) is that they encourage more people to go out and bike because they make those people feel safer. In turn this may increase actual biking safety due having more cyclists on the road. I find myself sympathetic to this story; if nothing else, having bike lanes (or even ‘share the lane’ markings and signs) sends a signal that biking is expected and being accommodated.
Chris Siebenmann
2009 May 22 at 09:57
Steve: totally agree. A German city I visited used metal bollards to create a path between the pedestrian zone and the parked cars. There are still problems at intersections, of course (not to mention the number of cyclists who ignore traffic lights).
Chris: a valid argument, but all it takes is a few accidents in the bike lane for the timid to head back to their cars.
Neil
2009 May 22 at 10:05
The problem with the bike lanes in Montreal is that we pedestrians only see them when we are already on them, and then a cyclist will run over us. I think more enforcement is needed on cars invading bike paths, but I once read that Vancouver is getting ride of their bike lanes and actually making the bikes safer…
Manuel
2009 June 10 at 10:42
Here in Manchester (UK) there are rather a lot of similar schemes to the one you mention in Toronto with cycle-strips down the side of a number of major roads in and out of the city. And it’s infuriating. There are the parked cars (which I was shocked to discover is actually _legal_ according to local byelaws), the strips stop and start randomly at very short intervals, and worst of all much of the time the cycle provision is to share a lane with busses and taxis.
Being cut up by irate bus drivers is insanely dangerous and I’ve had a number of hairy moments trying to get past on both the inside and the outside.
By contrast, a recent trip to Paris revealed (for the most part) a much better engineered city, curb-separated lanes and a clear sense of priority for bikes. Your idea of dedicating a thoroughfare for cycle transit and Steve’s tales of Montreal’s bi-directional separated lanes sound like even better solutions yet.
I always berate other cyclists who jump lights
they are such fools.
Sam
2009 June 25 at 10:03