Biked all over the city the other day and want to share some of my thoughts.
Adelaide St West - as you remember the bike lane was on the south side of the road, not protected, terrible asphalt quality and not safe to ride. Now they resurfaced the road, moved the bike lane to the north side, installed barriers which makes it impossible for cars to park and what's even more exciting is separate traffic lights for cyclists on every intersection. All cars turning left have their own traffic light, so biking on Adelaide is super safe, no cars parked, not even turning when it's green for cyclists, This is great! Recorded some videos of Adelaide
here and
here. Downtown core is still messed up, but when completed Adelaide will be very nice to bike all throughout the city.
Wellington St West - love the bike lanes, wide and safe. But I don't like Spadina crossing, have to merge with pedestrians and it's very busy sometimes, not great. Also lack of connection to downtown core, but it looks like they'll extend the bike lanes to Simcoe St in 2025, but I hope they can do it all the way to St. Lawrence market. Some videos
here and
here.
Esplanade - the city did a god job, no complains. But I wish some of the bike lanes could have a greed separation from the road with trees and some plants. Can't wait when the extend it more to the East to Yonge. But then we have to wait for a good cycling infrastructure on Yonge.... oh well. Some videos are
here and
here.
Dundas St East - very wide bike lane, literally same wide as car lane which is great. But we need a better separation from cars, concrete blocks like on Adelaide/Richmond would be better. Trees and plants would be even better. Video is
here.
Can't wait to see the improvements on College St (mid November) and Bloor St West between Avenue road and Spadina (spring/summer 2024). Also it's great to see that quiet streets are not forgotten. Gladstone is under construction right now now, Parliament street and Sumach St is done, it looks like Portland street will get bike lanes too.
I'm biking all the time in Toronto since 2016 and I can tell that in the last 2 years I've seen more improvements than in 2016-2021. It's still a long way to go, even compare to Montreal, but the city is on the right track.