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Northern Light said:
I would add that I feel like Tory's impulse is towards incrementalism; and timidity on most files.
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Totally. And you can hear the offshoots of that in some of the off-handed comments he frequently makes when his timidity is loudly and publicly questioned.

For instance, in multiple media hits after the CurbTO program was announced, Tory said something to the effect of "I know there are a bunch of people who have radical ideas for opening up a whole bunch of streets all over the city..." -- he very often pejoratively decries people whom he disagrees with as radicals, even if they hold positions that are solidly in the mainstream in other cities around the globe.
 
Northern Light said:
I agree, though.......

I would add that I feel like Tory's impulse is towards incrementalism; and timidity on most files.

You then over-lay that with a misguided sense of where the good policy spectrum lies...........and voila! There is found our Mayor.
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The mentality of boomers like Tory is the real impediment to change in this city.
 
A good step... If they actually do anything in the next two months.

EDIT: I'm hopeful, this plan seems promising. This plan will expedite bike lanes already in the pipeline like Bloor West, and Danforth. It will expedite the 10-year cycling plan. It will also mean major road corridors with busy sidewalks, trails and busy TTC corridors will get temporary pedestrian/cycle space. Possibly Don Mills, Kipling, Dufferin, Finch East. It will also mean that 50km of quiet roads will prioritize peds and cyclists by allowing only local traffic. The great thing about building temporary lanes is, after COVID-19, There will be pressure to keep them and build permanent infrastructure.

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From July of 2019...

City one step closer to creating continuous cycling network across midtown Toronto
Beltline improvements present an opportunity to connect east and west

From link.

On July 17, Toronto City Council adopted a motion submitted by councillor Mike Colle requesting that city staff review opportunities to connect the York Beltline Trail with the Kay Gardner Beltline Park, thus creating a continuos walking, jogging and cycling path across midtown Toronto.

The Beltline Trail is a nine-kilometre multi-use trail with three sections, the York Beltline, Kay Gardner Beltline and the Ravine Beltline that runs south of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery through Moore Park Ravine.

Colle said that, after reclaiming public land that was fenced off illegally for years, the York Beltline Trail is due to be extended east from Marlee Avenue to Allen Road.
“As a result of that, we’re so close now to finding a link between this extended York Beltline to the existing Kay Gardner Beltline, which is on the other side of the Allen,” said Colle.
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Colle’s motion asks staff to consider the feasibility of a pedestrian bridge between the two trails, which would go over Allen Road, or improvements to an existing bridge 50 metres north of the trail on Elm Ridge Drive.

“Obviously the pedestrian and cycling bridge would be great, but it might be too prohibitive cost-wise at the present time,” said ‘Colle.

“So I’m willing to look at the alternatives of really enhancing the connectivity with the existing path and roadway. We have to widen it and make it safe.”

Colle said that the number of people using the Kay Gardner Beltline is much greater than those using the York Beltline, and due to the lack of a connection between the two, many Kay Gardner Beltline users may not even know the York Beltline exists.

“I want to put that on the radar of our council, our transportation commission, to get some real serious analysis of these options because it’s a golden opportunity to get people to connect east and west,” said Colle, who noted the difficulty of jogging or cycling on nearby Eglinton Avenue.

“It’s a missing cycling link that we could use to get people across that part of the city in a very safe way, but right now there’s a big barrier called the Allen Expressway. So I’m trying to modify that barrier in some way.”

Article exclusive to TRNTO
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Just wondering if the anti-cyclists on city council did their worst and put up their own barriers to stop this?

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From link.

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1073669513781088257
 
W. K. Lis said:
From July of 2019...

City one step closer to creating continuous cycling network across midtown Toronto
Beltline improvements present an opportunity to connect east and west

From link.



Just wondering if the anti-cyclists on city council did their worst and put up their own barriers to stop this?

1*CAkfKr0VO7FBn2pg4L2xwA.png

From link.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1073669513781088257
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Not to split hairs but that red line is technically a bit outdated and incorrect.

Currently the York Beltline was already extended to Marlee Ave. So the red should go to the next intersection on the trail.

Still a lot needs to be done to get this thing connected properly.

Maybe one day the trail that will be built along the Barrie Line along with the Davenport Diamond Overpass will connect up to the York Beltline trail.
 
salsa said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1259843154049675264
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Taken by itself, this is good. But, writ large it really underscores the inconsistent, piecemeal (and frustrating) approach that the City takes to cycling infrastructure. I was a member of the Bloor Working Group that the City consulted in the development of the permanent design for the Bloor bike lanes, in which capacity I unfortunately became well versed in the many, varied, and inconsistent reasons given for why the City can't do certain things (despite the fact they are done successfully in other cities).

One of the most frustrating of those was the assertion that physical separation had to be stopped at least 10 metres before each intersection which, as anyone who's set foot on a biked-laned Toronto street knows, means that those spaces are routinely parked-in by Ubers/Lyft and food delivery drivers, and others. This design restriction unfortunately informed the permanent design of the Bloor bike lanes from Spadina to Bathurst, yet here, in the picture above, despite the ROW being of a similar width, and the corners having similar radii, and other similarities, it is magically possible.

There's lots of blame to go around as to why Toronto has such shit cycling infrastructure (and politicians are at or near the top of the list), but the City's stuck-in-the-mud approach to its active transportation design standards is a huge and under-appreciated one.
 
Emergency crews at the scene after a cyclist was struck by a vehicle at Jones Avenue and Dundas Street on May 16, 2018.
2 Years later,

This is tough to talk about. It hurts me to know that the city is only building protected intersections when cyclists die. It's seems honourable to do that. I think that's the opposite. The city doing this on a case-by-case basis is what they have been doing but it doesn't work. EVERY INTERSECTION NEEDS TO BE PROTECTED AND THEY CAN'T JUST END. It seems the city doing these minor additions are so little. The city needs to be more consistent and not just build things when people die. No one should die, and that's only possible by building protected infrustructure and protected intersections. Not this one or that intersection. All, if not most. No one should have to die to have protected infrustructure. It's so sad.
 
ADRM said:
Again, should’ve happened long ago, but still welcome: new protection along Hoskin just east of Queen’s Park. I used to ride this stretch every day for work and encountered a truck parked in this bike lane nearly every day.
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We were given excuses all these years as to why physically protected lanes can't work in Toronto, now all of a sudden they will be everywhere at this rate. It's almost as if solutions to a problem can be found when the people in charge are willing to make the effort!
 
ADRM said:
Again, should’ve happened long ago, but still welcome: new protection along Hoskin just east of Queen’s Park. I used to ride this stretch every day for work and encountered a truck parked in this bike lane nearly every day.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1260033097363369985
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On Hoskin, I'd like to see the parking nixed and a streetscaped buffer between cycle tracks and vehicle lanes.

That could extend west at least to Spadina.

The retail strip is a bit more problematic in terms of full parking removal thereafter, so it can wait, for now.
 
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