Biking Toronto

If you’ve taken your first trip to the Islands this year, or tried to bike (or walk, or drive) east-west on Queens Quay lately, you’re surely aware that the area remains in a state of major flux as the City works on demolishing, rebuilding and constructing the strip as part of a huge revitalization project that is anticipated to take until the Spring of 2015 to completely finish – right in time for the Pan Am Games.

read full article: dandyhorse magazine.

Cyclists and motorists take a lot of flack from each other for bending the rules of the road. But even the police will tell you that it’s pretty much impossible not to break the law. With bike month around the corner, we learned what it’s like to try to follow every single rule.

read full article: The Grid TO.

OK bike nerds and design connoisseurs, this is an event to have on your radar. Brooks, the England-based saddle and bike accessory manufacturer, has organized a five city travelling bike show called “Dashing,” which lands at the Kensington Market location of Bikes on Wheels June 8th. More akin to an art/design exhibition than a strictly commercial display, the idea behind the show is to highlight brands that aren’t well-known in North America but which are nevertheless noteworthy for their design and craftsmanship. Well, that and to celebrate a little.

read full post: BlogTO.

New details have emerged through a Freedom of Information request regarding the August 31, 2009 death of Darcy Allan Sheppard. Sheppard’s father claims the evidence he has obtained through the freedom of information request does not support the explanation in the decision to drop charges against the man who killed his son.

read full article:  The Urban Country.

According to “The American Bicyclist Study: On the Road to 2020,” released in 2012 and conducted by the Gluskin Townley Group, the women of Generation Y represent an important change to who is buying and riding bicycles. To us, this is a clear indication that it’s high time for the bicycle industry to embrace the next generation of bicycle riders, a group that will represent 100 million adults in the next seven years.

The bicycle industry needs to adapt as the market shifts towards a new bicycle consumer: women who use the bicycle as a tool. A tool that serves many purposes and is used for transportation, for exercise, for spending quality time with their children, for stress relief, and, most importantly, for fun.

read full article: Momentum Mag.

Toronto police said the incident happened around 3:45 a.m. Monday near Lower River Street and King Street. The man was riding a rented BIXI bike with four of his friends, said Sgt. Jeff Douglas.

“He was trying to do some sort of stunt with the bike, some sort of jump,” said Sgt. Douglas. “He fell backwards. He banged his head.”

The victim, who was not wearing a helmet, died on the scene after his head hit the concrete ground, said the sergeant who called the incident “death by misadventure.”

read full story: National Post.

An application has been submitted to the City for a building totalling 69-storeys, featuring a glass and steel skyscraper rising behind a reconstruced 1890s heritage structure at the corner. Currently housing an Atmosphere sports store, the Jamieson building’s facade, now half hidden by aluminum panels from a partial restoration in the 1980s, would be fully restored, and would continue to be used for retail.

The tower above is proposed to contain 580 rental suites and a bicycle parking space for each. No car parking is proposed: the tower is located immediately adjacent to the Queen subway station in the heart of the city, and can claim a walk score of 100. The redevelopment presents opportunities to improve the building’s connection to the Toronto Eaton Centre and to provide better street access to the subway station below.

via Urban Toronto.

How do you get around your city? Do you cycle? Would you like to cycle? What influences your decision?

There have been numerous attempts to encourage a shift towards active transportation and cycling. The most high profile of these have focused on the construction of physical infrastructure such as separated bicycle lanes, bike parking and destination amenities such as change-rooms and showering facilities. Due to tight city budgets and the slow pace of infrastructure development, cities like Toronto have lagged behind other urban centres which have fast-tracked their cycling infrastructure. In spite of this, Toronto has greatly increased its cycling population. A recent Toronto study estimates the increase in the number of cyclists, from 2001 to 2006, to be as much as 30%. While this increase shows positive signs, there is still significant room to grow.

Researchers from the Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank have been working on the development of A Toolkit to Accelerate the Adoption of Cycling for Transportation. This toolkit takes an original approach: linking behaviour change theory and cycling promotion.

continue reading the full story: Spacing National.

Via Treehugger

Few posts that I have written brought out so many commenters, so much debate, as my question, Should Cyclists be Allowed to Blow Go Through Stop Signs? and Why Cyclists Blow Through Stop Signs: It’s Physics. In both, I make the case that stop signs exist primarily as a form of speed control for cars rather than a right-of-way system; that’s why they have converted most of them to four way stops that don’t actually work as well for right-of-way as the old two way stops. It doesn’t matter, I am still an idiot.

Now TreeHugger Emeritus Ruben Anderson joins the fray with Three Cheers for the Idaho Stop!! (or, the Insanity of Over-regulating Parakeets.)

The Idaho Stop is defined by Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland:

This law would make it legal for bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs. A cyclist approaching an intersection controlled by a stop sign, would be permitted to roll through the stop sign after yielding the right of way if there are other vehicles at the intersection.

It makes sense; a different kind of vehicle needs a different kind of regulation and control. 

read full post: TreeHugger.

In late 2012, the City of Toronto announced the completion of its first separated bike lanes (cycle tracks) on Sherbourne Street. By physically separating cyclists from motor vehicle traffic, cycle tracks are a key way to increase safety, de-stress cycling, boost ridership and reduce conflicts between road users in Toronto.

Cycle Toronto conducted an on-line survey of its members in January 2013 about the new Sherbourne Cycle Tracks. In response, 189 cyclists provided feedback on their experience of the Sherbourne cycle tracks. Generally, the majority of survey respondents felt safer with the cycle tracks and thought cycle tracks are visually distinct from the car lanes, which discourages cars. However, cyclists also recognized that design of the cycle track itself does not stop cars from entering the cycle tracks in all areas.

Unfortunately, motorists continue to illegally block the new cycle track. Due to insufficient separation, the Sherbourne Street cycle tracks allow motor vehicles to park in the lanes. Reports of cars parked in the cycle tracks have become common place.

Cycle Toronto now calls on the City to make a series of improvements…

read full story:  Cycle Toronto.

Photo from NOW Toronto

Bicycle helmets may prevent head injuries, but a newly published study has found there’s no evidence that mandatory helmet laws do the same thing.

“It is a bit counterintuitive that we don’t see an effect of helmet laws on head injuries,” said University of Toronto researcher Jessica Dennis, whose work was published Tuesday in the journal of the British Medical Association.

“But there’s so many other things going on at the same time a helmet law is passed that it’s really hard to say that helmet law was the reason head injuries decrease.”

full story: CityNews

On Friday, council voted to restart construction of a bike station in the building’s underground parking lot, a project that gained notoriety when the mayor and his brother fiercely criticized the fact that it will include showers. 

Despite Mayor Rob Ford’s objections however, the project passed easily by a vote of 26-5.

Before the decision, Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker urged other councillors to respond to the growing demand for downtown bike parking. 

“If you want people to get out of their cars so there’s less congestion… you’ve got to provide secure bike parking,” he said in a speech to council. “My prediction, madam speaker, is the day you open that facility is the day that it’ll be sold out.”

full story:  City Hall bike station goes ahead | NOW Magazine.

Mayor Rob Ford opposes adding showers for cyclists commuting to city hall but he wanted to look at installing a splash pad for kids as part of renovations to Nathan Phillips Square.Ford has slammed as a complete waste of money plans to park 380 bikes in the underground parking garage and provide a $130,000 change room and $20,000 for three showers.His brother, Councillor Doug Ford, on Friday warned that the bike station was going to “turn into nothing but a bathhouse,” and: “We’re going to have a towel boy handing over towels. They’re going to have staff there.”

via Mayor Rob Ford slams bike station, then floats idea of city hall splash pad | Toronto Star.

A Toronto councillor wants a law pased that would require a one-metre buffer zone between cyclists and drivers.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is seeking an amendment to the provincial Highway Traffic Act so that a one-metre gap is mandatory when passing cyclists.

She says the motion is inspired by the death of Toronto cyclist Jenna Morrison. The Toronto yoga instructor and mother was killed in a collision with a truck on Dundas Street West and Sterling Avenue in 2011. She was pregnant with her second child. The driver was not charged.

read full story Councillor wants three-foot gap between cyclists, motorists – Toronto – CBC News.

The annual Bells on Bloor ride is happening this Saturday, May 11th. Come out and show your support for Bike lanes on Bloor. The group ride will start at High Park and end at City Hall. This year in honour of Mother’s Day, there is a “best-flowers-plasitc-or-otherwise-on-a-bike” competition. More information is available here: http://cycleandsole.com/

via Bells on Bloor this Saturday! | Cycle Toronto.

A cyclist rides past BIXI bikes in Toronto on Wednesday. BIXI Toronto Inc. borrowed $4.5-million from the city, and has a loan balance of $3.9-million as of Dec. 31, 2012, according to a city report going before the mayor’s executive committee next week. (Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail)

For a city with big ambitions, Toronto often thinks awfully small. Consider a couple of examples from the world of bikes.

Major cities around the world are promoting cycling to get people out of their cars and ease the pressure on public transportation. One way is bike-sharing, letting tourists and locals alike get around town on sturdy, practical, borrowed bikes for a modest cost. You can pick up a bike at one station and drop it off at another. Scores of cities from Dublin to Rio have embraced the system.

Read the full post: “It’s time for Toronto to think bigger about bikes at the Globe and Mail. Beware, they have an annoying paywall.

Developers to cut the number of parking spaces in new residential developments could save Toronto’s ailing bike share program, says councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. Current city rules allow builders to trade parking capacity for auto share spaces or ring-and-post locks, and Wong-Tam wants BIXI stands added to that list.

In a member’s motion to be heard at city council next week, Wong-Tam will ask transportation services and city planners to investigate the feasibility of expanding BIXI using developer’s money at zero cost to the city. The new stands could be funded out of a pool of money and placed where there’s the most demand for bike infrastructure.

Read the full post: “How Kristyn Wong-Tam plans to save BIXI Toronto” on blogTO .

Time: Saturday, June 1 at 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Location: Toronto – Downtown/East York

Summary: A community conversation, with City Councillors in attendance, to examine how Yonge Street can be revisioned as a complete street that functions well for cyclists and all other road users.

Read the full post: “Yonge Street Visioning Workshop” on the BikeMonth website.

Time: Wednesday, May 29 at 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: Halton Region

Summary: A 65 or 83km ride from Schomberg to lunch in the village of Hockley.

Read the full post: “Schomberg to Alliston / Hockley Ride” on the BikeMonth website .

Stakeholder meeting seeks input on how bylaws should classify electric bicycles. Cyclists, e-bikers agree to disagree.

Read the full post: “Cyclists, e-bikers spar over bike lanes” on the Toronto Star.