Woodbine Bike Lanes - Toronto
 

New bike lanes are having their usual resistance.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/livid-residents-call-for-new-woodbine-bike-lanes-to-be-removed-1.4297005

Evidence along Bloor Street, Richmond/Adelaide, Sherbourne, Wellesley etc have shown great success in increased ridership, improved safety without significant increase in congestion.

The argument against the Woodbine bike lanes is that they cause motorists to take sidestreets which endagers children. Why is bad driving acceptable that one would rather maintain them than enforce good driving habits?

Another usual observation is that they are hardly used. Check out how many new youtube videos gave been posted in the past week by riders on the Woodbine bike lane.

So I'm going to write to Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon and Mayor Tory to enforce local traffic and to keep the bike lanes. Then I'm going to test out the lanes myself.

Ride first, then write.

If cars are finding secondary roads to drive, then it is quite possible that bicycles would be better served by encouraging them to ride on secondary roads.

For example, Woodmount Avenue on the North side might be a viable alternative.

The problem with the arterial design is that none of the other roads quite go through. So, everyone including the cyclists get crammed onto the main roads.

In this case, it appears as if there is a triple train track that cuts through the middle of town that nothing else crosses.

Nonetheless, it may be more appropriate, and potentially even more cost effective to invest in the bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure to connect secondary roads rather than routing the bicycles onto the main roads.

Yeah, I just rode it today. The north end is O'Connor which doesn't look like there's anywhere to go from there except a painted line six inches from the curb- not even a proper bike lane along O'Connor. If it weren't for the busy traffic keeping itself slow, it'd be pretty scary. (Tell that to the people who state that bike lane safety is a red herring.)

The south end gives the cyclist more options being connected to Queen Street, Kingston Rd, etc. It's more of a downtown community feel.

But all along Woodbine north bound and southbound feels nice. The only obstructions were two contactor vehicles who had their flashers on while parked in the bike lane. But before I got to them, they moved back into traffic.

The buses stopped both traffic and the bike lane when they picked up and dropped off passengers. No point playing leap frog with the buses.

Motorists still see and use the bike lane as a right turn lane.