Bloor-Yorkville Loses Parking, Ignores Cyclists

[joe]

It looks like construction is starting this summer on the $20-million "makeover" of Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Church Street, according to the Globe and Mail.

All on-street parking on Bloor is being taken out, surprisingly with the support of most merchants along the stretch.

Cycling advocates are concerned about there not being any bikelanes in the plans, even though City of Toronto Staff are looking at the possibility of Bloor-Danforth bikelanes running across the city.

I'm more concerned with something I read a few months ago in a TCAT Newsletter - that there are NO plans to install ANY bikeracks in this plan.

Still... it is nice to see some space previously devoted to cars being given to pedestrians.

[Todd Tyrtle]

I posted this over at ibiketo but I think that this might be a better place to actually discuss it as an idea instead of a one-off comment:

"I think when it comes to drivers' arguments against infrastructure it comes down to "possession is nine tenths of the law". We're already here so 'suck it up' Perhaps, with that in mind, instead of waiting to be given things we need to take them.

It's a pie in the sky idea (and maybe not the right one - perhaps another idea will be inspired by this) but what if on streets like Bloor people were to bunch up in groups of 15-20 during rush hour - with various meeting places along bloor before continuing on. Once the group was at an adequate size they proceed, taking the lane like we do in Critical Mass (but obeying traffic signals). It would sort of be a "bike bus" meets critical mass idea. This would legally create more disruption (more leverage for getting infrastructure) while giving us the safety we hope to get from the lanes.

When ants are flooded out of their nests, they do not all swim in the direction they're trying to go, they mass up into a writhing ball and float away to better weather the storm. Perhaps we need to take a cue from them?"

I'm wondering if this isn't something we could actually organize. I think a good step towards our getting what we want is keeping up. Bike Buses are not a new idea (have a look at one in the UK here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_e3awuYiDE). If we could get something like this going in TO we could both help some of the less comfortable folks get started cycling to work and provide more safety for those of us already on the roads. With this approach, we could have all the benefits of the bike lanes but with fewer parked cars ;-)

Sure, as one person (Luke) pointed out, we could just wait for this to naturally help it along but the more I think about it, organizing it in the beginnning could help speed up the process a little.

Thoughts?

[Tory]

ha, similarly. I thought it would be disruptive and great if critical mass were to 100% obey traffic laws, which includes riding single file.

Imagine, all of critical mass riding single file through an intersection, it would be impossible for a driver to make a turn during a green light, and this would happen for several light changes. Essentially no left hand turns would be made except those daring enough to gun it at the end of the light. Only right had turns could exist because of the ability to turn on reds... unless the cyclists act as if there is a bike box!

I like the group riding idea.. I usually keep a pretty quick pace when commuting, but often if I come up to someone slower, I will slow down just to be around another cyclist.


and on topic. As little as I know about politics, city infrastructure and how relatively young, and I suppose ignorant I am... I find it hard to believe that there is no room for a bike lane in place of the parking spots. The bike lane would only take half the width of the parking, leaving probably another meter for sidewalk... it's not like... the sidewalks are over crowding... and I don't think there are any pedestrian-pedestrian fatal collisions. Looks like we are putting comfort over safety?

[chris]

The decision makers at City Hall continue to disappoint me. In my opinion every new road construction project on any arterial road in the city should include bike lanes. There are exceptions to every rule... but Bloor street is not one of them.

[Todd Tyrtle]

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but I also think that at least for the moment, cyclists are perceived to be less wealthy than car drivers (or pedestrians) - particularly those in Yorkville. We're viewed as people who pass *through* there (or better yet, go around), not as people who stop there and support the businesses.

[Tory]

I have a feeling there may actually be some fact to that. How many cyclists do you see going into Holts :P heh

But so what if cyclists are passing through? For transportation to be possible people have to pass through places.

Not too many people stop and shop on the bloor viaduct.. it was still built.

I don't think the wealth or material preference should play a role here.

[Todd Tyrtle]

I agree with your feelings about wealth/material preference. However, when you think about it you can sort of see why we only have the Bloor Viaduct - there are no businesses to complain about the icky cyclists making the neighbourhood look poor.

[Tory]

hehee..... siiigh.

bikes will be there, bike lane or no bike lane.

Now instead of icky cyclists passing through.. they will get very icky blood covered cyclists lying there making a big disruption from time to time. Perhaps even the extreme ones could get a u-lock through their bmw or a screw driver in the neck. *grins*

[Todd Tyrtle]

Hmmm - you may be onto something - zombie walk meets critical mass slowly going through Yorkville. Die-in 2.0!

[Tory]

lol, I got side tracked there. I mentioned blood due possible collisions and ambulances and such.

The violence... well.. we've all heard the stories.

[Todd Tyrtle]

Nope - I was following you. Just made me think that perhaps if we used reverse psychology, bringing them *more* of what they were hoping to keep out (traffic, poor cyclists) by leaving bike lanes out of the picture we might get somewhere.

[joe]

Wow... great discussion here. :)

Once this "makeover" is done ... I'm tempted to co-ordinate a bikepost-request campaign for this area... get tons of people requesting bikeposts if in fact there won't be any.

Todd... your BikeBus idea is a great one... maybe we should start a seperate thread for discussion / co-ordination of that?

[Todd Tyrtle]

I can start it but for the "on the ground coordination" of it, I will have to ask for someone's help as it looks as if aside from the occasional visit home, I'll still be in Quebec City for a few more weeks. I'm not complaining - there are far worse places for one's company to send them than this, and the cycling here is fantastic. Commuting is 99% stress free - about the same as riding the TTC.

My only reservation about coordinating activism from the ning platform is that ning has some shortcomings I found (when using a ning site of my own to coordinate a collaborative podcast (http://talkingstick.wordpress.com for the curious) was that it is easily forgotten even by its members and there's no quick notification of new threads you're not already involved in. Participation was minimal even by those enthusiastic about the idea. Facebook was also good but there are those who object to it on general principles I started a google group to try to coordinate the podcast and participation skyrocketed. I set up a similar google group (http://groups.google.com/group/TOcycling-activism) for the activism thread a few hours ago but am not sure if that will catch on.

Anyway - I don't care where it happens I am just hoping we can channel some of this energy in a positive way and get us what we need.