[Tuscani01]

Despite his claims, I'm definitely questioning if the author of that article has ever actually been to Toronto.

Most of his claims aren't his... they came from our own staff: "...Jacquelyn Hayward Gulati, who manages cycling infrastructure programs for the city"

 

[steveintoronto]

Most of his claims aren't his... they came from our own staff: "...Jacquelyn Hayward Gulati, who manages cycling infrastructure programs for the city"

So it's a different can of worms then...

Gulati is only quoted where she is quoted...and this really ticks me:
[but Toronto typically only sees between one and four fatal bike crashes a year, according to Jacquelyn Hayward Gulati, who manages cycling infrastructure programs for the city.]

So safety is only measured by fatalities in the council licking context of Ms Gulati? Since the following report, it turns out that a police officer handling stats has revealed *multiples more accidents unreported*. I'd posted it in this forum prior, not showing on Google right now, I'll post it when I find it again, but this will do for now:

By Ben SpurrTransportation Reporter, TorStar
Wed., July 6, 2016

The first call to police came just before 2 a.m., and they didn’t stop coming for the next 20 hours.

As the reports poured in, their locations changed, but their grim theme remained the same: A pedestrian or cyclist had been hit by a car.

Monday, July 4, marked an extraordinarily dangerous day for Toronto’s vulnerable road users. In a span of less than 24 hours, there were 18 reported collisions involving 20 pedestrians and cyclists, according to police. Most of the victims escaped serious injury. But one, a 73-year-old man, was killed.

The deadly day came just a week before council is set to debate a new road safety plan that critics say doesn’t go far enough to combat ever-mounting traffic-related injuries and deaths in the city.

The troubling trend didn’t stop on Monday, either. On Tuesday afternoon, a cyclist was killed near the intersection of Christie St. and Dupont St. Police said the 71-year-old rode at high speed into the back of a parked vehicle as he swerved to avoid a turning van.

“It’s hard to ignore numbers like these,” said Kasia Briegmann-Samson, whose husband Tom Samson died in 2012 after being hit by a car while riding his bike in the Junction neighbourhood.

Since his death, Briegmann-Samson has spoken publicly about the need for better safety measures like lower speed limits and separated bike lanes. She said what’s so devastating about Toronto’s rash of traffic injuries is that it could be stopped.

“It’s extremely sad if it takes 20 people being injured or killed in one day to make things happen,” she said. “Every single one of these deaths are preventable. Every single one.”

Through a spokeswoman, Mayor John Tory said Tuesday he was “saddened” by the collisions, and called on drivers to “to obey the law, slow down and stop aggressive behaviours.”

“The Mayor is committed to making sure all those who use our roads — pedestrians, cyclists and drivers — are safe,” Tory spokeswoman Keerthana Kamalavasan wrote in an email. “One death on our roads is one too many. . . . We have to do more to prevent these tragedies and keep each other safe.”

So far this year, 22 pedestrians and one cyclist have been killed on Toronto’s roads, according to police. The city is on track to match the 40 pedestrian fatalities it posted in 2013, which was the highest single-year total in the past decade.

Of Monday’s 20 reported victims, nine were cyclists and 11 were pedestrians.

Const. Clint Stibbe said the force typically sees about six pedestrian collisions a day, and it’s particularly unusual to see such high numbers in the early summer. It isn’t until later in the year, when darkness falls earlier, that numbers tend to spike.

“That said, whenever we have a bright sunny day, kind of a day perfect for driving, it’s a day that we see individuals making mistakes, and unfortunately collisions occur,” he said.

Stibbe said the cause of Monday’s accidents is clear. “It’s carelessness. Let’s call it what it is, individuals that have made mistakes, whether it’s cyclists, pedestrians, or drivers . . . and, in some cases, it costs them their lives.”

Police couldn’t provide details on all of Monday’s incidents, but according to initial reports, the first collision occurred at 1:41 a.m. in Scarborough, when a pedestrian suffered minor injuries at Lawrence Ave. East and Susan St. At 8:16 a.m., a cyclist was knocked off her bike at College St. and Elizabeth St. and injured her head. Then at 11:43 a.m., a pedestrian was reportedly side-swiped by a car at Queen St. East and Sumach St.

Late in the evening, in a single incident just after 8 p.m., three seniors were struck at the northwest corner of Huntingwood Dr. and Birchmount Ave. Police said they were taken to hospital but their injuries weren’t serious.

But less than an hour later, on the opposite side of the city, a 73-year-old was killed at the intersection of Kipling Ave. and Brookemere Rd. in north Etobicoke. According to police the man, whose identity has not been released, was crossing legally at a stoplight when he was hit by a driver making a left turn north from West Humber Blvd. The driver remained at the scene and police said Tuesday afternoon their investigation was ongoing.

“It’s actually startling to me what’s happening,” said Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25 Don Valley West), who as public works chair spearheaded efforts to create the city’s new road safety plan.

She said the recent collisions are “a clear indication that we have to get the (road safety plan) into action now. Clearly, the status quo is not effective in reducing collisions and improving safety for vulnerable road users, meaning pedestrians, cyclists and seniors.”

The new safety strategy was unveiled last month by Robinson and Tory, and immediately faced criticism for setting a goal of reducing serous injuries and fatalities by only 20 per cent over 10 years.

Robinson amended the plan to explicitly set a target of eliminating fatalities, but critics still say the strategy, which proposes safety measures at specific locations that have statistically a high number of collisions, is too narrow in scope. Advocacy groups like Walk Toronto argue that measures like reduced speed limits should be applied citywide.

The location of Monday’s fatal collision is just south of a stretch of Kipling, where the safety plan recommended reduced speed limits.

Critics also charge the budget for the strategy, set at $68.1 million over five years, is too small to have a real impact. Only about $40 million of that is new funding.

At a public works meeting last month, Robinson directed staff to seek out “opportunities for new and enhanced funding,” which she said could include money from other levels of government. She told the Star on Tuesday that staff members are expected to report back next Monday, a day before the council meeting at which the safety plan will go to a vote.

Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said council needs to improve the plan next week if the city is to meet the “vision zero” target of completely eliminating serious collisions. As it stands, he said, the strategy sets out “a bold policy direction, but it does not have the resources to back it up.

“We need to scale up resources significantly to achieve vision zero here in the city of Toronto.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/06/cars-take-deadly-toll-on-pedestrians-cyclists.html

I repeat, flattery is nice, but we're not up to it! Not even close. And some of the cycling infrastructure in this city is very poor by even some US city standards, let alone European and some other continents' ones.

Toronto *so loves* to pat herself on the back...and loses her balance doing it.

 

[MisterF]

That article isn't Toronto patting itself on the back. It's a reporter from another city patting Toronto on the back. I'm as cynical as the next guy but even I can't find a problem with that.

I'm reticent to criticize someone's positive impression of their visit, but you're right, there's an awful lot to improve, Toronto is hardly an example to follow for a progressive city.

Despite his claims, I'm definitely questioning if the author of that article has ever actually been to Toronto.

Okay I lied, I'm not nearly as cynical as you guys. The article is strictly a comparison with Chicago, a city that, unlike its colder midwestern cousin Minneapolis, isn't really thought of as a progressive city for cycling infrastructure. And while central Chicago does seem to have a more extensive cycling system than central Toronto (at least based on a quick look at the Google Maps cycling layer), they seem to be farther behind on protected bike lanes. Yes I know, the ones in Toronto are badly designed. But they're there and they've accelerated the momentum in urban cycling in this city.

It's easy to get down when we see what's being done in Copenhagen or even Montreal. But we're making some real progress and people in other cities look to Toronto in much the same way.

 

[steveintoronto]

That article isn't Toronto patting itself on the back. It's a reporter from another city patting Toronto on the back.

My point stands, Toronto *does* pat herself on the back. There are some things we do well, bike lanes aren't one of them. Hamilton, fer Gawdsakes, does more for bike-lanes per-capita than Toronto does.

How is that possible? A greater tax base? Hardly. A more academically and cultured populace? Perhaps...Steel City, far ahead of us. I'm all for bike-lanes, but compared to many US cities now, Toronto is a laggard.

Comparing Chicago to Toronto in envy is using a pretty low bar. You don't have to look to der Nederlands or Danemark to realize how mundane Toronto's cycling infrastructure is.

Just look at the example being used as a template experiment for future bike lanes: Bloor Street. It's a freakin' sad joke, I cycled it yet again yesterday just to see if anything had improved since its inception. Not a thing, if anything, the state of the pavement has deteriorated, and parking is still well over the lines and past the bollards.

Something to compare to? Perhaps, compared to Bombay. Or Chicago.

I also encountered some nice curb-protected lanes along Toronto's Wellesley Street, and passing through the lush Queen's Park green space by the University of Toronto.

That I fully concur on! It's one of the very few strips in Toronto done right. But Torontonians rarely hold that up as an example of *real protected lanes*...most don't even know about it.

I've often said that the Sherbourne lanes *psychologically* offer a sense of comfort unlike most cycling infrastructure in Toronto. It's far from perfect, but a lot better than painting lines on a roadway and calling it infrastructure.

I used to defend the Roncy version, until some very serious incidents just recently. I live just north of there, ride it most every day. I've lost my confidence on that stretch, for good reason.

 

[ADRM]

That article isn't Toronto patting itself on the back. It's a reporter from another city patting Toronto on the back. I'm as cynical as the next guy but even I can't find a problem with that.




Okay I lied, I'm not nearly as cynical as you guys. The article is strictly a comparison with Chicago, a city that, unlike its colder midwestern cousin Minneapolis, isn't really thought of as a progressive city for cycling infrastructure. And while central Chicago does seem to have a more extensive cycling system than central Toronto (at least based on a quick look at the Google Maps cycling layer), they seem to be farther behind on protected bike lanes. Yes I know, the ones in Toronto are badly designed. But they're there and they've accelerated the momentum in urban cycling in this city.

It's easy to get down when we see what's being done in Copenhagen or even Montreal. But we're making some real progress and people in other cities look to Toronto in much the same way.

I take your point about the author choosing to focus on a city to which his is often compared (and I also acknowledge this isn't a New York Times exposé), but I was still looking for a little better context - something along the lines of "Toronto is enjoying something of a cycling renaissance and its citizens are clamoring for a much speedier implementation of its rather unambitious 10-year cycling plan. And, when compared against other global leaders in cycle infrastructure safety, Toronto lags sorely behind."

I'm not looking to needlessly critique an author, but I think that this sort of article unhelpfully fuels the fire of the more retrograde commentators on the subject in this city, who often say things like "look at how much we've done for cyclists lately" when the reality is the city has done slightly more than jack all and has plans to do just slightly again more than that.

 

[EnviroTO]

Unfortunately, a lot of the claims are highly misleading. Won't list them all, but it starts with this:
[Canada's largest city recently overtook Chicago to become the fourth-most populous city in North America, with 2.83 million residents as of 2015, slightly more than our 2.72 million inhabitants.]
lol...Chicagoland (Greater Chicago plus) is more than the population of Canada.

What are you adding together to get something more than the population of Canada (36 million)??? Illinois 12.9M, Wisconsin 5.7M, Indiana 6.6M... that is still only 25.2M. What else are you adding?

 

[Northern Light]

For the record, Greater Chicago (land) is 9.9 million people spread over 28,000km sq.

The closest comparison would be the Greater Golden Horsehoe (Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Guelph, Durham and points in-between) at roughly 30,000 km sq.

The population of said area is roughly, 8.8 million people (pending new census data)

 

[steveintoronto]

For the record, Greater Chicago (land) is 9.9 million people spread over 28,000km sq.

The closest comparison would be the Greater Golden Horsehoe (Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Guelph, Durham and points in-between) at roughly 30,000 km sq.

The population of said area is roughly, 8.8 million people (pending new census data)

Agreed. Many US cities are smaller than Toronto, and massive in comparison for greater area. (San Fran and LA are classic examples) This is more of an issue for transit than cycling.

Point stands, Toronto needs to do a lot better, but has come a long way. I'm showing a Dutch lady friend around the city's cycling infrastructure. I'm not at all surprised at her alarm as to the ridiculous ways a lot of it is laid out.

What boggles me most is anyone holding up Bloor Street as an example to copy. There's far better in Toronto, in very small doses, for on road. Where Toronto does well is the off-road paths, albeit tying them together is a challenge. I've found a good way into the core from Rouge Hill, just got back, but if you don't know the back street and park shortcuts, it's very dangerous.

That has to change.

 

[EnviroTO]

For the record, Greater Chicago (land) is 9.9 million people spread over 28,000km sq.
The closest comparison would be the Greater Golden Horsehoe (Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Guelph, Durham and points in-between) at roughly 30,000 km sq.
The population of said area is roughly, 8.8 million people (pending new census data)

Not only that, but the Greater Golden Horseshoe is expected to grow by about 1.4 million in ten years, while Chicago is expected to grow by 400,000 in the same period, so while Toronto is larger than Chicago but Chicagoland is larger than Greater Golden Horseshoe today, in about a decade we will be clearly larger in both respects.

 

[steveintoronto]

Not only that, but the Greater Golden Horseshoe is expected to grow by about 1.4 million in ten years, while Chicago is expected to grow by 400,000 in the same period, so while Toronto is larger than Chicago but Chicagoland is larger than Greater Golden Horseshoe today, in about a decade we will be clearly larger in both respects.

I was just researching that. You might wish to check again, Chicago proper is shrinking population wise, Chicagoland is increasing dramatically. It is now the third largest conurbation in the US, and growing. London UK is shrinking for population, the surrounding area is bursting. Don't get me started...

You may have a dated idea of what "Chicagoland" constitutes.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chicagoland

Btw, this is funny:

City

The Chicago Sun-Times takes a dump on Toronto
Posted by Chris Bateman / March 7, 2013

113 Comments

It's tough growing up, especially when the big kids get jealous they're no longer in charge. With that in mind, Neil Steinberg at the Chicago Sun-Times took the news that Toronto recently surpassed the windy city's population (therefore calling into question his city's very soul) particularly badly yesterday evening.

Chief among Steinberg's gripes is that everyone north of the border seems to understand that Chicago actually has a more populated metro area and if it weren't for amalgamation we would be nowhere close to competing in terms of numbers. Toronto just isn't bellowing at other cities often enough, he scolds.

Steinberg goes on to knock our "donuts" (whoa, easy) and our skyline, whose "only noteworthy element is a TV antenna." Also in the crosshairs are the city's monument to multiculturalism outside Union Station (he can't believe it!) and our insecurity about whether we're "world class" (ok, so maybe that one's accurate.)

"Let us know when you can make a decent pizza, or build a building that bears a second glance. Or when somebody writes a song about Toronto. Or shoots a movie in Toronto that actually takes place in Toronto. We'll be here, waiting, humming 'Chicago.'," he finishes.

Ouch. Can't we just be friends? We could, of course, mention Chicago's crime rate, the Cubs' World Series drought (longer than the Leafs!), or the bland Midwestern attitude that so many Chicagoans sport, but why engage in such hostility?

We're not the ones suffering from envy — for once.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: "Frozen" by Acid_Punk/blogTO Flickr pool.

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/03/the_chicago_sun-times_takes_a_dump_on_toronto/

 

[salsa]

The City is currently testing the use of these bollards to provide separation from cars on Bloor Viaduct. Testing bollard durability, install & removal technique.

Photo by Cycle T.O

 

[Zach6668]

Nice to finally have some bollards there. At the very least they keep speeding cars from encroaching on the lane (especially as the road makes the right hand turn up ahead).

Still a big issue in this city of placing them too far apart. A car can easily pull in to park still.

 

[steveintoronto]

Still a big issue in this city of placing them too far apart. A car can easily pull in to park still.

Exactly my first thought too. They not only can, they do, as Bloor more than anywhere shows.

So one has to ask: "Why bollards in the first place?" If they really wanted to protect cyclists, they'd put this down, plus bollards (twice as many)

How to create a bike lane in seconds
Zachary Shahan (@zshahan3)
Transportation / Bikes
May 9, 2014

Share on Facebook

© cyclehoop
There are many tools you can use to plop down a quick bike lane. The one picture above and below has several benefits, so I thought it deserved some special attention. It's called an "Armadillo." It's quite simple, but comes with a number of advantages.

For one, it actually creates a separated bike lane on the roadway, which is much more preferred than a bike lane that is simply painted on the side of the road and almost looks like a road shoulder rather than a dedicated path for bicyclists.

Secondly, while drivers can see that they shouldn't drive up onto Armadillos, and will quickly notice if they do, they also aren't faced with the unpleasant stress of driving next to tall separators such as cones or poles. I definitely think bicyclists deserve physical separators, but I don't think they always need to be tall and stressful to drivers.

© cyclehoop

© cyclehoop

Thirdly, these babies are made from 100% recycled PVC. 100% recycled content rocks, and the manufacturers deserve some props for that.

Another plus with these Armadillos is that they can very easily and quickly be implemented. That cuts costs, of course, and also makes it easier to implement test projects that could more quickly get separated bikes lanes added to your neighborhood, similar to the pop-up bike lanes I wrote about in February.

"Armadillos are bolted into the ground and spaced out so that cyclists can enter or exit the cycle lanes as needed," cyclehoop writes. "Much quicker and more cost effective to install than other solutions, Armadillos have been successfully installed and used by major towns and cities across Europe and North America for the past 7 years."

Here's a video featuring some of these Armadillo bike lane separators,

and one more photo:

© cyclehoop

Some of the commentary in the video was cringeworthy, but what can you expect from the mainstream media?

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/how-create-bike-lane-seconds.html

Also recommended:

• 
  The rise of curbs: Protected bike lanes in the U.S. are growing up!

• 
  1 mile of a protected bike lane is 100x cheaper than 1 mile of roadway (Chart)
  
  

 

[salsa]

Nice to finally have some bollards there. At the very least they keep speeding cars from encroaching on the lane (especially as the road makes the right hand turn up ahead).

Still a big issue in this city of placing them too far apart. A car can easily pull in to park still.

I agree but so far I never saw anyone park in the bike lane. There is little reason for anyone of park on a bridge where there are no businesses or anything else, so I feel that the speeding traffic here is the bigger problem. I would have preferred a more robust separation than just bollards, which a driver can easily run over if they're careless.

 

[Zach6668]

I agree but so far I never saw anyone park in the bike lane. There is little reason for anyone of park on a bridge where there are no businesses or anything else, so I feel that the speeding traffic here is the bigger problem. I would have preferred a more robust separation than just bollards, which a driver can easily run over if they're careless.

I've seen it once, right where that picture was taken. But yeah, that particular lane isn't a huge problem spot for parking - but it certainly is everywhere else in the city.