Thursday 11 March 2010

Why is Toronto not so bicycle friendly yet?

So, this is a cycling city? - thestar.com
This story doesn't touch on the root of the problem. The root of the problem is the anti-cycling councillors who have been blocking real progress in making Toronto a much more bicycle-friendly city. So, it is not the city's track record or the Mayor's track record that is problematic. It is the voting record of a group of councillors. If I had the links for the stories on their voting records on this issue, I would add them to this post. But such news is not covered much by the MSM - but then they publish a story like this without any background - now, why is that do you suppose?


2 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

There are a few problems I can see with the painted lines for bicycle lanes:

I did take a look at the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario. Municipalities are allowed to regulate the types of vehicles and traffic if their by-laws are consistent with the Highway Traffic Act. For example, if a municipality creates a bicycle lane, a painted line with periodic painted bicycles may not be enough to prohibit motorized vehicles from using that lane for driving or parking. A municipality would need to have signs that conform with the Highway Traffic Act and place them periodically along a road in order to make the bike lane official.

In another article, the police stated that they must ask taxi drivers to move before they may ticket the taxis parked in the bike lane on Simcoe Street. I don't know if there are "No Parking" or "No Stopping" signs located along the street.

Thor said...

Yes, there are problems with the existing bike lanes. Bike lanes are better than no bike lanes, except in the situation where they put the bike lanes beside parked cars that open doors, and on Spadina where the bike lane is about 2 feet wide AND beside parked cars...