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Over the past couple days I've biked on both sides of Eglinton from Mount Dennis to Leslie, 12 km each way. I used the road lanes in all cases where bike lanes weren't available.

My takeaways:
  • The biking conditions are currently very poor and felt extremely dangerous in much of the way. The cars were the most unpleasant bit. The worst sections, subjectively, were westbound between Bathurst and the Allen, both ways between Caledonia and Keele, and both ways between Mount Pleasant and Bayview.
  • Even the separated bike lane section was shorter than I thought it would be. I found myself thankful for even the brief Metrolinx bike lane stubs that often emptied suddenly right into traffic.
  • The centre section around Yonge with the separated bike lanes had by far the most people biking (and had the best, most consistent infrastructure). Other than that section, I encountered very other few people biking.
  • It will be a fantastic bike route if separated bike lanes are built throughout, but it is currently too disjointed and inconsistent to recommend as a route other than for people living just west of Yonge.
I worry that the city has made a terrible mistake by pushing back the construction of Eglinton TOday so long.
 
Cambry Ardship said:
Over the past couple days I've biked on both sides of Eglinton from Mount Dennis to Leslie, 12 km each way. I used the road lanes in all cases where bike lanes weren't available.

My takeaways:
  • The biking conditions are currently very poor and felt extremely dangerous in much of the way. The cars were the most unpleasant bit. The worst sections, subjectively, were westbound between Bathurst and the Allen, both ways between Caledonia and Keele, and both ways between Mount Pleasant and Bayview.
  • Even the separated bike lane section was shorter than I thought it would be. I found myself thankful for even the brief Metrolinx bike lane stubs that often emptied suddenly right into traffic.
  • The centre section around Yonge with the separated bike lanes had by far the most people biking (and had the best, most consistent infrastructure). Other than that section, I encountered very other few people biking.
  • It will be a fantastic bike route if separated bike lanes are built throughout, but it is currently too disjointed and inconsistent to recommend as a route other than for people living just west of Yonge.
I worry that the city has made a terrible mistake by pushing back the construction of Eglinton TOday so long.
Click to expand...
It gets even worse. The stretches of Eglinton from Allen to Bathurst and east of Caledonia won't be done this year. The former due to additional congestion mitigation measures needed and the latter due to storm sewer work per the slide below.


1749431395805.png
 
TwoWheelPoli said:
It gets even worse. The stretches of Eglinton from Allen to Bathurst and east of Caledonia won't be done this year. The former due to additional congestion mitigation measures needed and the latter due to storm sewer work per the slide below.


View attachment 657356
Click to expand...
At least for those two sections there is a detour by the Beltline trail. Which brings us back to the problem of gaps in the latter. Even with gaps, going by the trail is more pleasant, safer and better for our health than the road.
 
Sure, but detouring on the Beltline from Caledonia to Chaplin adds about 600 extra metres. That's not nothing. I agree, it's a much more pleasant and safe bike ride currently, but it also means in terms of local cycling missing all the stores and restaurants on Eglinton.

1749474377562.png


The point of Eglinton TOday is that it's supposed to be safe to bike on Eglinton. The city's years and years of delays on actually building that safe, separated infrastructure is a horrible miss. The little Metrolinx stubs have been in place for years now, and the general plan has been in place for decades. It's horribly offensive that they're continuing to delay due to car traffic, like that's something that just popped up for the first time a few months ago.

I know this isn't new to anyone, but I have to rant a little bit. It was a very dispiriting trip across Eglinton.
 
txlseries4 said:
I really dislike them in the bike lanes but I can't see this ever being enforced -- and with car drivers constantly stopping/parking in the bike lanes or up on sidewalks because they can, nearly always with impunity -- I can't see a world where an Ebike-but-no-the-bad-kind stop being in bike lanes...
Click to expand...
Seven years ago I rented a bicycle in Amsterdam and I was surprised that the usually sensible Dutch allowed full-on Vespas onto their bike paths. See below.


I am glad to see that the government finally banned scooters from the bike lanes in 2019, shortly after my visit there.

dutchreview.com

Amsterdam is banning scooters from the cycle paths from 2019 | DutchReview

It has been officially decided that the city of Amsterdam is banning scooters from the cycle paths. This plan has been in the making since 2017, but it seems like it's finally going to be implemented starting 2019. The problem with scooters on the cycle paths As Amsterdam continues flooding…
dutchreview.com dutchreview.com

But I believe they still allow motorized bikes onto the paths, provided the motor is powered by a battery rather than gasoline. That's not far enough, IMO, and only pedal assist bikes should be allowed to join regular manual bikes.
 
Another public consultation is happening next Monday (6:30 to 8:00 PM) at 816 Logan Avenue (Frankland Community Centre) for the Leaside-Danforth Cycling Connections. Instead of just Logan, the City is revising the bikeway designs to include contraflows on both Logan and Carlaw. Apparently, there were some concerns regarding the traffic diverters with the original design.

www.toronto.ca

Leaside Bridge to Danforth Avenue Cycling Connections

The City of Toronto is proposing a new bikeway - Leaside to Danforth cycling connections.
www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca
 
Cambry Ardship said:
Sure, but detouring on the Beltline from Caledonia to Chaplin adds about 600 extra metres. That's not nothing. I agree, it's a much more pleasant and safe bike ride currently, but it also means in terms of local cycling missing all the stores and restaurants on Eglinton.

View attachment 657421

The point of Eglinton TOday is that it's supposed to be safe to bike on Eglinton. The city's years and years of delays on actually building that safe, separated infrastructure is a horrible miss. The little Metrolinx stubs have been in place for years now, and the general plan has been in place for decades. It's horribly offensive that they're continuing to delay due to car traffic, like that's something that just popped up for the first time a few months ago.

I know this isn't new to anyone, but I have to rant a little bit. It was a very dispiriting trip across Eglinton.
Click to expand...

I agree, but it still nice to have a "bike highway" of sorts to zip across unobstructed.

I really think its due time to pave the Eastern section of the Beltline. I understand that its nice and naturey that its gravel, but many sections constantly get washed out and present a danger to cyclists and pedestrians. Plus its getting so busy a separated walking/bike division painted lines would be very welcome (not that any pedestrian would follow them....but I digress)

I also wish they would put bollard lighting along the whole thing. I understand that the houses backing the beltline didnt want lighting, but low to the ground bollard lights directed just at the ground would not cause any or very little light pollution and mean the beltline could be used later.

1749493396938.png
 
I agree that they should pave the Beltline. There's a few spots (particularly just east of Bathurst) that are badly rutted out with unpacked loose gravel. The lighting question I'm more agnostic about but I feel that both follow the question of 'who exactly is the Beltline for?' There's a tension between supporting the local/non-local recreational constituency vs the commuter groups, who use it as a means to move quickly south-east or north-west across the city. I think there's basically four areas of density, marked in blue, that are a realistic target market, or whatever you want to call it, for using the Beltline as a transportation corridor.

1749496231563.png


Dufferin, Bathurst, Avenue, and Yonge all can feed cyclists in from the north in to get people southbound very quickly, assisted by downhill geography. And there's a lot of planned density along the Beltline (I'm thinking especially about the planned neighbourhood on the Canada Goose site by Caledonia) that could feed into it. But once you get much east of

People do use it to commute (and should!) but it feels like an non-approved use because particularly because of the unrealistically slow bike speed limit (15 kph). As you mention, there's the issue of lack of lighting and poor maintenance, but beyond that there's a lack of signage to the rest of the road and bike network, the connections between the Beltline and Bayview is currently poor and disjointed, and the major road crossings range from adequate to frankly unsafe.

If the city wants a bike highway into downtown, this is probably a cheap and reasonable place to start that avoids issues with repurposing car lanes, but it feels like something that the city is conceptually uncomfortable with.
 
Cambry Ardship said:
I agree that they should pave the Beltline. There's a few spots (particularly just east of Bathurst) that are badly rutted out with unpacked loose gravel. The lighting question I'm more agnostic about but I feel that both follow the question of 'who exactly is the Beltline for?' There's a tension between supporting the local/non-local recreational constituency vs the commuter groups, who use it as a means to move quickly south-east or north-west across the city. I think there's basically four areas of density, marked in blue, that are a realistic target market, or whatever you want to call it, for using the Beltline as a transportation corridor.

View attachment 657515

Dufferin, Bathurst, Avenue, and Yonge all can feed cyclists in from the north in to get people southbound very quickly, assisted by downhill geography. And there's a lot of planned density along the Beltline (I'm thinking especially about the planned neighbourhood on the Canada Goose site by Caledonia) that could feed into it. But once you get much east of

People do use it to commute (and should!) but it feels like an non-approved use because particularly because of the unrealistically slow bike speed limit (15 kph). As you mention, there's the issue of lack of lighting and poor maintenance, but beyond that there's a lack of signage to the rest of the road and bike network, the connections between the Beltline and Bayview is currently poor and disjointed, and the major road crossings range from adequate to frankly unsafe.

If the city wants a bike highway into downtown, this is probably a cheap and reasonable place to start that avoids issues with repurposing car lanes, but it feels like something that the city is conceptually uncomfortable with.
Click to expand...
There's also the Marlee-Winona-Shaw route which is a major fairly continuous N-S corridor for me that connects to the Beltline. Unfortunate to see the Marlee upgrades get canned.
 
Cambry Ardship said:
I agree that they should pave the Beltline. There's a few spots (particularly just east of Bathurst) that are badly rutted out with unpacked loose gravel. The lighting question I'm more agnostic about but I feel that both follow the question of 'who exactly is the Beltline for?' There's a tension between supporting the local/non-local recreational constituency vs the commuter groups, who use it as a means to move quickly south-east or north-west across the city. I think there's basically four areas of density, marked in blue, that are a realistic target market, or whatever you want to call it, for using the Beltline as a transportation corridor.

View attachment 657515

Dufferin, Bathurst, Avenue, and Yonge all can feed cyclists in from the north in to get people southbound very quickly, assisted by downhill geography. And there's a lot of planned density along the Beltline (I'm thinking especially about the planned neighbourhood on the Canada Goose site by Caledonia) that could feed into it. But once you get much east of

People do use it to commute (and should!) but it feels like an non-approved use because particularly because of the unrealistically slow bike speed limit (15 kph). As you mention, there's the issue of lack of lighting and poor maintenance, but beyond that there's a lack of signage to the rest of the road and bike network, the connections between the Beltline and Bayview is currently poor and disjointed, and the major road crossings range from adequate to frankly unsafe.

If the city wants a bike highway into downtown, this is probably a cheap and reasonable place to start that avoids issues with repurposing car lanes, but it feels like something that the city is conceptually uncomfortable with.
Click to expand...
The west end could become even more useful if they extend the planned Davenport Diamond path up to connect with the terminus of the Beltline at Caledonia station.

You'd essentially be recreating the Beltline railway loop with a bikeway.
 
Cambry Ardship said:
Sure, but detouring on the Beltline from Caledonia to Chaplin adds about 600 extra metres. That's not nothing. I agree, it's a much more pleasant and safe bike ride currently, but it also means in terms of local cycling missing all the stores and restaurants on Eglinton.

View attachment 657421

The point of Eglinton TOday is that it's supposed to be safe to bike on Eglinton. The city's years and years of delays on actually building that safe, separated infrastructure is a horrible miss. The little Metrolinx stubs have been in place for years now, and the general plan has been in place for decades. It's horribly offensive that they're continuing to delay due to car traffic, like that's something that just popped up for the first time a few months ago.

I know this isn't new to anyone, but I have to rant a little bit. It was a very dispiriting trip across Eglinton.
Click to expand...
Yes, and this red line is very generous, as it skips over the disjointed gap between the York and Gardiner trails around Marlee, where you have to awkwardly dogleg up Marlee to Roselawn and take the road for a 100 m or so to get back on the trail.

I'm totally unsurprised Matlow and Colle and local NIMBYs have blocked the EglintonTOday stretch west of Bathurst. This trend has been building around the city, and Eglinton was a ripe spot for pushback. They seem to be channelling the rage I see and hear on the daily (I live nearby) with drivers gunning overpowered cars and trucks to and from the Allen, or shouting and honking at anyone and everyone.

Despite all this, I really disagree with paving the Beltline, as much as it might help cyclists. It's a rare gem of unpaved path, wonderful for kids and families to walk and explore and for pets and other creatures as well. The loose gravel east of Bathurst can be dealt with without paving the trail.

Despite the challenges posed by Ford's bikelane bill, and the general trend to block and backtrack from bike plans, I don't think we should give up on the sensible and logical plan to offer bikeways on arterials like Eglinton. What we shouldn't want as cyclists is to be relegated to corridors or MUPs that don't take us to or past 99% of the businesses and destinations we need.
 
TwoWheelPoli said:
It gets even worse. The stretches of Eglinton from Allen to Bathurst and east of Caledonia won't be done this year. The former due to additional congestion mitigation measures needed and the latter due to storm sewer work per the slide below.


View attachment 657356
Click to expand...
It's a small thing but it bothers me that the city's graphic here shows various "recommended cycling streets" with zero actual infrastructure as part of the solid lined "existing cycling network." This includes Old Park, which runs north of Eglinton in Upper Village, and Elm Ridge, which runs E-W just above the Belt Line. Those streets are often congested with impatient SUVs trying to get to Eglinton or the Allen, and there is nowhere safe for a cyclist to ride. Even Lascelles just west of Yonge, while a fine quiet street to ride on and part of the city's now defunct numbered cycling routes, has no bike lanes.

It all feels like puffing up the very poor and disjointed network. It's misleading and outdated, at best. Those streets are useful suggestions given the lack of real cycling infra, but they aren't a cycling network.
 
UntitledCyclist said:
It's a small thing but it bothers me that the city's graphic here shows various "recommended cycling streets" with zero actual infrastructure as part of the solid lined "existing cycling network." This includes Old Park, which runs north of Eglinton in Upper Village, and Elm Ridge, which runs E-W just above the Belt Line. Those streets are often congested with impatient SUVs trying to get to Eglinton or the Allen, and there is nowhere safe for a cyclist to ride. Even Lascelles just west of Yonge, while a fine quiet street to ride on and part of the city's now defunct numbered cycling routes, has no bike lanes.

It all feels like puffing up the very poor and disjointed network. It's misleading and outdated, at best. Those streets are useful suggestions given the lack of real cycling infra, but they aren't a cycling network.
Click to expand...
While I agree that the City could make their maps clearer to show how much (if any) 'cycling infrastructure' is on a street it is unreasonable to expect a fully integrated network of good cycling routes to be feasible 'over night" (or over several decades!) The network is being built incrementally as it is done with limited funds, while other road work is happening or ......
 
I am not sure where I asked for anything to be built overnight. My point was only about representing streets with no infrastructure as a "cycling network." We are hemming & hawing, pausing or stopping planned work, while other cities leapfrog us. Look at Eglinton: That project has been over a decade in the works. It was meant to be done last year, and that was stalled to this year. Now we are getting more pieces taken out. A bike route with a missing middle is not a bike route. Elected officials (and yes, staff) are more prone than ever to kowtowing to community pushback, and the pushback has become more organized and savvy. See the instagram pages and websites built by these astroturfing groups like "Balance on Bloor" or "ABC Toronto." To me these efforts are obviously phony and lacking in any facts or data, but they seem to stoke fear in councillors. Meanwhile, by claiming a "cycling network" built of non-laned side streets, the city can dodge pressure to actually build lanes. So going back to the map: this matters!
 
How about a compromise and just paving the section of the Beltline from Bathurst to the point where the trail passes under the Eglinton bridge? It's highly used, there's a high school and residential density, there will be a crosstown station connection, and it's the section with the poorest quality of trail.

But it truly is so sad, the lack of progress of better infrastructure around Little Jamaica. I think Councillor Colle is a making a really big mistake by pausing the construction. With the Crosstown opening it's a chance to pivot from car-centricity to really build a section of the city for people but it seems he's listening to the people east of the Allen who just want to get around quickly in their cars without getting stuck in traffic.
 
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