[waterloowarrior]

Comment: Cyclists need regulating
Posted: September 14, 2009, 9:30 PM by Rob Roberts
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...9/09/14/comment-cyclists-need-regulating.aspx

Comment by Kelly McParland, National Post

Michael Walker, a conservative member of Toronto's city council, is backing a proposal on cycling that should be embraced across the country, and expanded exponentially.

Mr. Walker says cyclists who use city streets should not only be required to wear helmets, but should be licensed as well. Predictably, the same cyclists who want equal access to city roads are against any of the regulations that apply to other vehicles. Yvonne Bambrick, executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union, says they would act as "barriers to entry" to new cyclists. Bike fans say helmets don't really protect anyone anyway.

So what? Helmets don't do a lot to save motorcyclists who go flying into a transport truck at full speed either, but bikers are required to wear one. And it's not the helmet aspect of Walker's proposal that should be embraced, it's the requirement for licensing.

If cyclists want to share the roads with cars, trucks, trailers, motorcycles and even hot dog wagons, all of which have to be licensed, why should they be the exception? Cycling in the city, as they never tire of telling us, is dangerous, even deadly. So why should the most vulnerable people out there, the ones certain to come off worse in any collision, be the only group to operate without any form of organized training or formal licensing?

If anything, licensing alone is inadequate. Cyclists should be required to wear the same forms of protective clothing motorcyclists typically use to provide some measure of safety. Cycling in main arteries should be limited to age groups mature enough to deal with the dangers and uncertainties of heavy traffic. There should be a system of regular testing and strict enforcement, just as with other vehicles. Cyclists should be required to strictly follow traffic regulations, which means obeying all stop signs, signal lights, one-way streets and parking regulations. There is no reason bikes should be allowed to weave in and out of traffic, skip through stop signs or take short cuts that would be barred to other traffic.

There is also no reason cyclists should be exempt from regulations against the use of hand-held devices while in control of their vehicle; head phones of any sort should be specifically banned, as the danger of a cyclist unable to hear what's going on around them is self-evident.

Bicycle enthusiasts are vehement in proclaiming their rights and demanding equal treatment when they want access to the roads, but are utterly unwilling to observe the kind of restrictions, precautions and safety measures everyone else takes for granted. There is no reason they should have a blanket exemption from common sense. The more bikes on the road, the greater the need for regulation. Mr. Walker should push his proposal hard, and make it much broader than its current limited state.




LOL @ wearing motorcycle safety equipment.. I'd better put on my kevlar suit and leather jacket next time I want to go down the block.

 

[kettal]

Oh yeah lets be more like netherlands where millions of children die every year in bike accidents. That's just waht we need.

 

[Northern Light]

Kettal: That was a joke, right?

Kettal: That was a joke, right?

 

[Chuck]

Enough of this partial bike lanes, partial wide sidewalks, partial streetcar lanes, and partial arterial roads. Although most streets should have a healthy mix of everything, it's also beneficial to select a small minority of roads to favour specific modes of travel so that everyone has at least one quick way in. Let Jarvis and Avenue Road go toward cars - the other 95% of downtown streets will have less traffic and can be narrowed. Give cyclists fully separated lanes on at least one street in each direction to improve cycling - perhaps Yonge and Richmond. Provide one major east west streetcar right of way to offer a quick way downtown for inner city residents - use Richmond for that as well, but take streetcars off Queen.

 

[kettal]

Kettal: That was a joke, right?

Well I don't know exactly how many die, but that poor little boy in the cargo bike doesn't seem to have much time left.

 

[kettal]

but take streetcars off Queen.

Queen is the biggest success story for a retail street in the whole city, where a huge portion of the customers arrive on a streetcar. And you think it's a good idea to remove these customers from the street?

Great idea.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Martin Goodman Trail Opening Celebration

See you there, on a bicycle, not by TTC!


Saturday, September 19 at 12:30 p.m.

Join Waterfront Toronto and its government partners at Ontario Place on Saturday, September 19 at 12:30 p.m. for the official opening of the Martin Goodman Trail. The new 1.3 kilometre, tree-lined trail section is a critical new link in the 56 kilometre Martin Goodman Trail which provides opportunities for alternative modes of travel across the waterfront.

Designed by leading landscape architects Janet Rosenberg and Associates, the newly created stretch of multi-use trail runs parallel to Lake Shore Boulevard through Ontario Place from Marilyn Bell Park to Coronation Park at Strachan Avenue.

Helping us celebrate the official opening of this popular trail will be Minister of Finance James Flaherty, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure George Smitherman, and Toronto Mayor David Miller.

The Opening Celebration will take place along the Martin Goodman Trail at the main intersection at Ontario Place across the street from the Molson Amphitheatre parking lot. Please see map for location details.

If you are travelling from Union Station, you can take the 509 Harbourfront streetcar to the Exhibition Loop and walk south to Ontario Place. Alternatively, you can take the 511 Bathurst streetcar from Bathurst station to the Exhibition Loop. The 29B or 29D Dufferin bus is another option to get to the Exhibition grounds.

For more information, please contact Andrea Kelemen at akelemen@waterfrontoronto.ca or 416-214-1344 ext. 248

 

[confusion]

If anything take the cars off Queen

 

[kettal]

I think Queen Street is great how it is, despite the dangers of biking on it. At least the traffic is slow moving (thanks in part to the streetcars). If there was no car traffic, safety would be compromised. At least with the through traffic there are additional eyes on the street.

I really don't know what's the rush to significantly change a great street like Queen?

 

[Design Wallah]

I've been re-reading some back posts. I'm really surprised by the seeming intransigence of the anti-bike faction. The amount of uniformed asides remind me of Fox news commentators.

Lots of bike deaths in Holland? There's this web site, called "Google", where you can research dubious claims.

Recent studies by Toronto's police show that 90% of bike/car accidents are the fault of car drivers. Is it really so much to ask that our increasingly densely inhabited city possess adequate bike lanes?

This is an issue that will bite Toronto in the ass, probably in the form of negative foreign press, lower rankings in those 'best city' polls, and fewer jobs and companies moving downtown.

 

[nfitz]

I thought consensus was that painting bike lanes on roads was no safer than operating in mixed traffic?

 

[Chuck]

Queen is the biggest success story for a retail street in the whole city, where a huge portion of the customers arrive on a streetcar. And you think it's a good idea to remove these customers from the street?

Great idea.

Then give streetcars their own right of way on Queen, make the other two car lanes one way, and create separated bike lanes on Richmond. The specifics are the topic of another thread. The point is, I'd like Toronto to dedicate a few roads - maybe 5 in the entire downtown area - to act as super corridors for certain travel modes. No matter which mode of surface travel someone uses, they would have one truly efficient route to choose from. Right now, you're practically screwed no matter which way you travel unless it's underground.

 

[Northern Light]

Bike Safety

While physically separated bike lanes can be helpful....

The real key to bike safety is numbers.

As cycling become a mainstream method of travel, and drivers grow to understand and predict likely movements and anticipate the presence of cyclists, safety increases exponentially.

There in lies the merit in the physically separated bike lanes, is that they increase safety in the short term, on selected routes, thus inviting more people to cycle, who invariable also chance regular roads as they get more comfortable, and in turn cycling numbers increase and safety does as well.

Slower traffic can also help; but its not really about every car doing 20km/ph; rather its about speed proportionate to road width and users, and speed that is largely predictable; most city roads aren't too bad for speed, but the wider roads, six-lanes, can be more problematic, as drivers will climb to 70km/ph plus on those roads, and that can be scary as a cyclist.

*****

Best Measures

1) Physically separated bike lane on University north of Queen, there's ample room, the street parking here is totally superfluous, no significant retail, easy win.

2) Bike lanes of some description continuous along Bloor/Danforth This is a major bike route even now; but there is nowhere near enough room for cyclists in the curb lane even today. If volumes increase, disaster.

So some sort of bike lane here is crucial. Physically separated lanes would be the end of on-street parking all together, and in areas where that is offered, too much of a political football. But there is no on-street parking in Yorkville (Bloor, Avenue to Jarvis) anymore. Its gone.

So it would make sense to do a physically separated lane in that stretch, and then conventional bike lanes with street parking reduced to one-side of the road, but made permanent (spaces don't go away in rush hour). Makes perfect sense.

3) Finish a basic on-road bike lane network where demand already exists or is latent, and where it connects the existing bike network.

Obvious priorities, Donlands, the North end of Broadview, an E-W bike lane somewhere in the financial district, (any of Wellington, Adelaide or Richmond could work); and some bike lanes for North Toronto (Davisville would be and Oriole Parkway); and finish with downtown North York area (Willowdale and Senlac)

4) Finish the obvious off-road bike trails (no one objects to these) Gatineau, Finch, Warden (old hydro Corridor) and the waterfront trail where feasible.

5) As to general traffic, I would mostly work on eliminating high-way onramps that meet the road on an angle (as opposed to at an intersection) and getting rid of channelized right-turns. These are the most serious design flaws in our roads from a cyclists point of view, as they create a desire/need for much higher speed and acceleration.

 

[k10ery]

Lots of bike deaths in Holland? There's this web site, called "Google", where you can research dubious claims.

Recent studies by Toronto's police show that 90% of bike/car accidents are the fault of car drivers.

You might want to google that one, actually.

The collision study report explicitly states that that the assignment of collisions to motorist and cyclist crash types is not an attempt to assign fault and that "it is possible that a cyclist could have been wholly or partially at fault" in a motorist-action crash type.

For example, in a "Drive Out at Intersection" collision the motorist is moving through the intersection (usually turning) but the cyclist could "cause" the collision by e.g. passing on the right during the turn.

This motorists-cause-crashes line apparently originated with a statement by Chris Cavacuiti which he subsequently corrected, but the line had gone viral by then. See the original interview.

Not that this will stop anything - it's on freakonomics now

 

[waterloowarrior]

The mayor talked a bit about separated lanes today on cp24
. He noted some different ways that other cities have done them and encouraged citizens to send his office ideas on how to fit them on Toronto streets. He acknowleged that these types of lanes would take away space from cars, so it would be a tough discussion, but it would have the effect of making things safer for everyone (or something like that)