[MetroMan]

I'm going to need photos of these trees.

They don't look as impressive in photos because they're still bare but standing next to them, it's amazing how tall they've gotten already. There are buds on the branches so it shouldn't be long.

 

[Tuscani01]

Joe Cressy has tweeted that the Fed's and City have come to an agreement to resolve the pinch point at Portland Slip.

No other info than that at this point.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Joe Cressy has tweeted that the Fed's and City have come to an agreement to resolve the pinch point at Portland Slip.

No other info than that at this point.

Keyword - temporary fix.

AoD

 

[DSC]

Keyword - temporary fix.

AoD

The approval of the Feds was necessary to create the planned 'bridge" over the corner of Portland Slip as it will restrict the navigable waters of Lake Ontario (!!). The contract to actually install the 'bridge' is already done (Somerville I think) so with luck it will get done soon.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Of course, for the fiscal conservatives (non-cyclists), speeding money for safety is a no-no.

See link.

Cycling deaths just ‘a matter of time’ on path without safety barriers, advocate says

“The blame goes on the city’s infrastructure,” says Jared Kolb of Cycle Toronto after a five-year-old boy falls into traffic while using bike path next to busy roadway​

 

[TransitBart]

The approval of the Feds was necessary to create the planned 'bridge" over the corner of Portland Slip as it will restrict the navigable waters of Lake Ontario (!!). The contract to actually install the 'bridge' is already done (Somerville I think) so with luck it will get done soon.

Like this decade?

 

[TransitBart]

Of course, for the fiscal conservatives (non-cyclists), speeding money for safety is a no-no.

See link.

Cycling deaths just ‘a matter of time’ on path without safety barriers, advocate says

“The blame goes on the city’s infrastructure,” says Jared Kolb of Cycle Toronto after a five-year-old boy falls into traffic while using bike path next to busy roadway​

@W. K. Lis , to you everything is a fiscal issue. I have biked that path for twenty years and what was possible has proven to be improbable until today. At one point in history, that would have been infrequently enough. In today's all life at all costs environment, it is not. I had thought of a barrier more than once as I biked past, but then again we don't put them on all sidewalks, nor could we. Every time I walk on an arterial, Islington, Finch, I wonder if a car will mount the curb and I'll be killed. It's possible, but improbable.

Until yesterday, the possible, had never happened. Now a family's life has been forever changed. This is not a fiscal issue, and it has nothing to do with conservatives or blaming anyone for that matter.

I would expect a barrier to be up in weeks and I doubt that anyone would fuss about it. At this point, it makes sense.

Silly, pointless and cheap political grandstanding as a result of an accident is beneath us all. My heart goes out to the parents.

 

[Megaton327]

@W. K. Lis , to you everything is a fiscal issue. I have biked that path for twenty years and what was possible has proven to be improbable until today. At one point in history, that would have been infrequently enough. In today's all life at all costs environment, it is not. I had thought of a barrier more than once as I biked past, but then again we don't put them on all sidewalks, nor could we. Every time I walk on an arterial, Islington, Finch, I wonder if a car will mount the curb and I'll be killed. It's possible, but improbable.

Until yesterday, the possible, had never happened. Now a family's life has been forever changed. This is not a fiscal issue, and it has nothing to do with conservatives or blaming anyone for that matter.

I would expect a barrier to be up in weeks and I doubt that anyone would fuss about it. At this point, it makes sense.

Silly, pointless and cheap political grandstanding as a result of an accident is beneath us all. My heart goes out to the parents.

You articulated my feelings on this well--how is this any different of a configuration from somebody walking on a sidewalk? Kids are allowed to bike on sidewalks, too, and it's quite common in the suburbs. Should we put up barriers alongside all sidewalks in the province? What happened is a horrific tragedy for all involved--the deceased child, their family, the driver who (through no fault of their own) struck the child, bystanders, and first responders. While I have very little doubt that we'll see a barrier installed here and maybe a couple of other similar places as a reactionary measure, it's rather illogical; freak accidents can always happen, and it's not feasible to barricade every sidewalk and bike trail in the province.

In fact, per http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/woman-dead-suv-1.3634915 a pedestrian was killed while walking on the sidewalk on Bremner Blvd last summer. An SUV accelerated, jumped the curb, killed one woman and injured another. These incidents share the common thread wherein pedestrians/cyclists expect to be safe on their sidewalk/bike path raised and set back from the road, but pedestrians/cyclists can fall over into the road and cars can jump the curb and hit you on the sidewalk. Lighting can strike, a plane can crash onto you, you can have a heart attack, and so on. Some of these are more likely than others, some are more preventable, but all are relatively unlikely and infeasible to completely prevent from happening.

 

[DSC]

Like this decade?

Well, yes. Soon normally means in less than a decade. As I noted earlier, the work has been designed, Waterfront Toronto awarded the contract to Somerville (last July) and now, finally, the Federal Government has approved this (tiny) encroachment into `navigable waters`. Somerville are one of the best construction firms so I assume will be getting onto it soon (in the sense of months, not decades). (Here is the tender award info: Construction of Portland Slip – Sidewalk Extension – Somerville Construction ($191,242)

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

Of course, for the fiscal conservatives (non-cyclists), speeding money for safety is a no-no.

What a foolish comment! There are liberals who believe the same thing. No need to make everything a 'liberal vs conservative' fight

 

[nfitz]

What a foolish comment! There are liberals who believe the same thing. No need to make everything a 'liberal vs conservative' fight

??? I thought all 3 parties were fiscally conservative these days. Look at all the cuts Wynne did to balance the budget. And it was Mulcair federally who was promising to balance the federal budget.

 

[georgevicbell]

You articulated my feelings on this well--how is this any different of a configuration from somebody walking on a sidewalk? Kids are allowed to bike on sidewalks, too, and it's quite common in the suburbs. Should we put up barriers alongside all sidewalks in the province? What happened is a horrific tragedy for all involved--the deceased child, their family, the driver who (through no fault of their own) struck the child, bystanders, and first responders. While I have very little doubt that we'll see a barrier installed here and maybe a couple of other similar places as a reactionary measure, it's rather illogical; freak accidents can always happen, and it's not feasible to barricade every sidewalk and bike trail in the province.

In fact, per http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/woman-dead-suv-1.3634915 a pedestrian was killed while walking on the sidewalk on Bremner Blvd last summer. An SUV accelerated, jumped the curb, killed one woman and injured another. These incidents share the common thread wherein pedestrians/cyclists expect to be safe on their sidewalk/bike path raised and set back from the road, but pedestrians/cyclists can fall over into the road and cars can jump the curb and hit you on the sidewalk. Lighting can strike, a plane can crash onto you, you can have a heart attack, and so on. Some of these are more likely than others, some are more preventable, but all are relatively unlikely and infeasible to completely prevent from happening.

This is just crazy...

Comparing traffic/MGT along the Lake Shore to the sidewalks in the suburbs is crazy...

1) The amount of traffic is completely different...there is non-stop numbers of cars passing by that location at any one time, vs almost none in the suburbs...
2) they are going faster (50kph) than most streets in the suburbs (30kph)
3) there is usually separation in the suburbs - either a strip of grass, or in a lot of cases parked cars...in this location there is neither
4) there are tonnes of bikes on this Trail all the time - compared to almost none on most suburb sidewalks
5) a lot of locations where deaths occur in the suburbs are places where there isn't a sidewalk...which is a foreseeable and fixable thing...

Anyways - there is a higher risk in this location - and it can and should be managed...just like risks in every other place in the world...we put up cement bollards around the skydome to protect from exactly what happened at Bremner...and in that case, it was at an event with a high number of pedestrians that should have been protected - but weren't because the city is slow to adapt to changing uses of public infrastructure (in that case a farmers market)...

A perfect example of this is how long it is taking to build the small section of MGT over the Portland slip...this is a high usage area, and they should be fixing it much faster than they have so far...

There are tonnes of places and things in the city that should be upgraded or improved based on technology improvements...just last night during a power outage I was wondering why the stoplights stopped working...we live in a world with batteries and solar panels, why are the stoplights at a major intersection (Bloor/DVP offramp) not working when the power has been out for 20 minutes?

Why is it that we can't make a list of all the infrastructure deficiencies in the city...no matter how cheap or costly to fix...and then start prioritizing them based on some solid science...

 

[Megaton327]

1) The amount of traffic is completely different...there is non-stop numbers of cars passing by that location at any one time, vs almost none in the suburbs...
2) they are going faster (50kph) than most streets in the suburbs (30kph)
3) there is usually separation in the suburbs - either a strip of grass, or in a lot of cases parked cars...in this location there is neither
4) there are tonnes of bikes on this Trail all the time - compared to almost none on most suburb sidewalks
5) a lot of locations where deaths occur in the suburbs are places where there isn't a sidewalk...which is a foreseeable and fixable thing...

2) Most streets in the suburbs, in my experience, are 40 km/h in quieter residential neighbourhoods, but some streets that are slightly more major while still being residential absolutely do have 50 km/h limits. Traffic often moves at full speed in these subdivisions, while Lakeshore is frequently clogged. Granted, speeders will generally go faster on lakeshore than in suburban neighbourhoods, but if a child is hit by a car at 40 km/h or 60 km/h, I don't think either of those is likely to end with them surviving.

3) Some sidewalks in suburbs aren't significantly separated from the road. I can think of multiple segments near my home, off the top of my head, that are as close to the road as the stretch on Lakeshore where this incident occurred. Much of the MGT is as well-separated as most of the sidewalks in my area.

5) A lot of locations where deaths occur in the city are places where there isn't a sidewalk/separated bike trail. This incident, while a terrible tragedy, was an extraordinarily rare, freak accident. Should we focus on preventing extraordinarily rare freak accidents, or "foreseeable and fixable" ones which are much, much more common? Should we get good value for money by building more separated bike lanes to get people off roads with no bike lanes or lanes with painted lines only, or build concrete barricades next to already-curb-separated sidewalks and bike lanes while leaving the vastly more dangerous, regularly lethal situations completely as they are? Your own point here seems to actually reinforce mine, rather than your own greater argument.

1 and 4: true, but the amount of traffic isn't especially relevant, the number of fatal--or grievously injurious--accidents are much more important, and those occur far more frequently in regular stretches of road or non-physically-separated bike lanes, than they do in separated bike lanes or suburban sidewalks. Whether the MGT or suburban sidewalks have higher fatality rates is completely irrelevant for at least several decades, because they both pale in comparison to on-street cycling--once we've developed comprehensive, safe cycling options on many streets, then we can evaluate whether the best use of tax dollars is to prevent ultra-rare freak accidents or handle more pressing issues.

 

[muller877]

This is just crazy...

Comparing traffic/MGT along the Lake Shore to the sidewalks in the suburbs is crazy...

1) The amount of traffic is completely different...there is non-stop numbers of cars passing by that location at any one time, vs almost none in the suburbs...
2) they are going faster (50kph) than most streets in the suburbs (30kph)
3) there is usually separation in the suburbs - either a strip of grass, or in a lot of cases parked cars...in this location there is neither
4) there are tonnes of bikes on this Trail all the time - compared to almost none on most suburb sidewalks
5) a lot of locations where deaths occur in the suburbs are places where there isn't a sidewalk...which is a foreseeable and fixable thing...
.

To go from point A to point B in the 'burbs (e.g. Mississauga) you have to travel along the concession roads. Most of these are 60 or 70km/hr, 4 or 6 +1 lanes and lots of intersections. Here's a typical example
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.613373,-79.5894618,3a,75y,288.87h,74.89t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sKc-CNgSTzHJRGifc0uFbFA!2e0!6s//geo3.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=Kc-CNgSTzHJRGifc0uFbFA&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=39.644753&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

I would 100% compare this to the Lakeshore.

The sidewalk is separated here with a narrow strip of grass. However, you can see why there are bike/pedestrian issues. As a cyclist its very dangerous to be on the road (where i'm legally obliged to ride). On the sidewalk you are violating the law and pedestrians are in danger.

Of course I wonder why they don't reconfigure the sidewalk slightly (and get rid some of the dandelions) to build bike lanes without the need to get rid of any lanes of traffic.

It's a catch 22 decision. In Toronto do we build and upgrade the current bike lanes/trails to be the safest they can be? But that will leave no money to pay for new bike lanes. So the current cyclists who are riding in mixed traffic will continue to be at high risk.

It's not an easy decision.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From Metro, at this link:

Temporary barrier installed on Lake Shore Blvd. where 5-year-old was killed
Eventually, permanent fencing will be erected along the stretch of road near Jameson Ave.

Barriers on the Lakeshore Blvd. W., June 2, 2017. City will announce Friday it is building temporary then permanent barriers on the stretch of Lakeshore blvd. where five-year-old Xavier Morgan died last week.

City work crews installed temporary barriers along Lake Shore Blvd. Friday near the site where a 5-year-old boy was struck by a car after falling into traffic while biking on the Martin Goodman Trail.

Permanent fencing will be erected along the stretch of road near Jameson Ave. as well as improved signage and pavement markings for cyclists and drivers.

Mayor John Tory asked city officials to conduct a safety review of Toronto’s approximately 300-kilometre network of multi-use trails after a car struck Xavier Morgan when he lost control of his bike May 24.

“I support city staff increasing safety along a busy section of the Martin Goodman Trail by putting up barrier fencing,” Mayor John Tory said in a statement. “This will provide more security and comfort for cyclists and pedestrians who use this trail.”

Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park) said the “terrible loss” of Xavier “reminds us that we must do better.”

“These first steps will help. We have more work to do to ensure that cyclists and pedestrians are always safe.”

Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto, praised the city for its “quick, bold, decisive action.”

Kolb said he hopes the city will continue its review, particularly with an eye to improving safety on trials promoted as family friendly, “which means you’re going to have people of all ages and abilities on them.”

The Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists group is organizing a memorial bike ride on Saturday in the junior kindergarten student’s honour.

It starts at Spadina Ave. and Bloor St. at 10 a.m. and ends at the Canadian Legion on Lake Shore Blvd. West.