Originally Posted by
spunkyj
I actually like the new dotted lines approaching corners allowing cars to merge into the bike lane before a right turn. If they do it properly they should leave no room for a cyclist to pass them on their right, and a nice bike-lane sized gap for a cyclist to pass on the left where it is much safer. Even so, drivers don't seem to understand they should merge into the bike lane before turning when there is a dashed line so they end up preventing me from passing on the right (too dangerous) and also block me on the left. Argh!.
Actually the city is going with this now (
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/network/bikebox_faq.htm ) So you can do a left turn safely from a Red light, just go into the appropriate lane and turn if you are at a intersection with a red light. Cars do not watch when they merge into the dotted bike lanes at all, and there have been a number of low speed collisions cause of it. Trying to get both drivers and bikers to understand one set of rules is hard, especially when there is no training for bikers, and there is little to no training for drivers in their driving tests for how to handle bikers on the road.
College/Spadina intersection has the bike boxes now (since its on both of our commutes), a few others already have it, and as far as I know the rest of the cities bigger intersections will all get them sooner rather then later. Probably long before we get bike lanes on Bloor anyways. But to be fair, with all the traffic on Bloor that is typically stopped and parked in the right lane, gives you rather large amounts of room to bike on the left side of the right lane anyways. And atleast this way, they won't shove us to the curb.
Originally Posted by
spunkyj
However, one of the biggest offenders is Canada Post! I would think that AT LEAST a government organization could follow city by-laws.
I don't have a problem with FedEx or UPS generally, guys in Ryder trucks, CPost as you said (who are the worst, your totally correct), Cintas and other uniform suppliers etc seem to be the greatest offenders atleast with regard to bike lanes. UPS/FedEx tends to find a parking zone even if its not legal to park during that portion of the day.
Originally Posted by
spunkyj
Gotta love TO..
Number one thing to do in TO when biking, I find anyways, avoid bike lanes, and bike that 1 meter from the curb/parked cars, in a straight line, like your supposed to. I don't care what drivers get annoyed, at that far from the curb/parked cars, no driver doesn't see you as they try speeding by, or as they rush to make a right turn without looking to see if they will merge onto a bike lane with bikers.
Jim