Toronto cyclists face a dangerous combination of streetcar tracks and motorists, the Bicyclists' Injuries and the Cycling Environment Study (BICE study) has found in its preliminary results. The BICE study is coordinated by the Cycling in Cities program at the University of British Columbia, which interviewed 690 cyclists injured and admitted to hospital in Toronto and Vancouver in 2008 and 2009.
The initial analysis chose 150 interviews from each city and created a picture of the different environments each city's cyclists encounter. For downtown Toronto the researchers found that one-third of injuries involved streetcar tracks and a sizable portion of that involved cyclists falling because they are avoiding double-parked cars, cars moving out of parking spaces or drivers opening doors. The cyclists then slip or get their wheel stuck in the streetcar track.
The other big portion of downtown Toronto injuries involved "dooring" where the cyclists hit the car door because the motorist or passenger opened the door as the cyclists passed. This contrasts with Vancouver where most injuries involved car collisions.
These are just preliminary results as the full study won't be completed until early 2011. What we have so far, however, is still interesting.
This study is particularly interesting since it gives us a window into falls which did not appear in the City of Toronto's Bicycle/Motor-Vehicle Collision Report of 2003, which only studied collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles and were reported to police. It's revealing that there is no mention of injuries because of streetcar tracks, but focuses on motorists driving out at intersections, overtaking cyclists or opening car doors. The BICE Study provides a new window on cycling to reveal how streetcar tracks provide a risk to cyclists, particularly when a cyclist is trying to avoid a motorist.
The detailed results will help planners in deciding the priorities of bike infrastructure in making cycling less risky and more comfortable. So many downtown cyclists are faced with the prospect of riding the narrow band between parked cars and streetcar tracks at some point, and so few of them feel completely comfortable and safe.
This Study will hopefully put a renewed interest in improving the safety of cyclists on downtown arterials. Cyclists are not going to stop cycling on streets like King or Dundas so the alternative is to create more space for cyclists next to the streetcar tracks, ideally by removing the car parking.
Comments
dances_with_traffic (not verified)
Streetcar tracks
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 20:02No problem, the issue is pedestrians or cars causing you to take evasive action... if the cyclist isn't a pro at bunny hopping there is a good chance they're goin' down - hard.
qwerty (not verified)
No tracks or parking: **Bloor and University**
Fri, 06/04/2010 - 09:37In other words, ride where there's no streetcar tracks (possible) and no street parking (... not so much). The city should have it's dubiously useful bike lanes where those conditions can be met: Bloor and University. Not going to hold my breath.
hamish (not verified)
2 quick fixes,and a complex solution exist
Sat, 06/05/2010 - 11:02It's nice to have someone else pop up the obvious things of Bloor and University - the missing part being the political will, especially with the more important west-end Bloor. Ten years ago I was lucky to get a longer letter into the Star criticizing the Bike Plan ignoring these obvious options - the lethargy and non-performance of the City in doing simple, obvious, cheap things for bike safety and fighting climate change is appalling, though I guess it's even cheaper to pass unanimous resolutions at Council upholding the Toronto Target - that 20% reduction goal that we're 20% over,...
If we had one!! single, smooth, safe straight east-west route odds are cyclists would go to it - and Harbord ends at Ossington, plus there's that 4-block gap. But Bloor is obvious from Dundas St. W. to Ossington - but the City/Councillors won't do a darned thing but maybe study it again.
The more complex solution involves taking a lane of either Queen or King, and putting in a two-way deMaisoneuve/Montreal style bikelane, even though there are a lot of short blocks that equal many conflict points with motorists turning and not necessarily looking both ways.
When the City initiated the West end bikeways project, it would seem that the majority of fixes that cyclists wanted were on the few direct streetcar-tracked streets, and doing the side streets milk run had less appeal, even if it was in the Bike Plan.
Instead of the City doing a Class C EA on the essentially useless local Front St., running from Dufferin over to Strachan which may cost $50M or so, resources should instead be put into getting a high-quality straighter run for cyclists in the lower west end of the core. But JoeKing of Pantalonia really likes roads, and qui bono, and Gord the Green owes Joe, so Gord's been a bit blindp on this road folly, and a few others/groups won't go beyond cheerleading it seems.
The City must also being to count! these crashes - they warn us of the dangers to put the onus and liability back on cyclists, but if they counted all the many many injuries and harms, well, it would be a problem, maybe even a public health problem, and maybe some decade public health officials would have to get out of their offices and cars and do less harassing of restauraunts and eateries to maybe follow some of their rhetoric.
Over four years ago they were supposed to start studying a Clean Air Corridor for Bloor.
One possible coping mechanism that I've been trying to use is to pull up on the handlebars to make sure my front wheel gets over the track, and thus far - knock on wood - it's worked.
Dundas2 (not verified)
On King West, eastbound near
Mon, 06/07/2010 - 17:02On King West, eastbound near Simcoe, there's a hand-written sign saying "Cyclists Must Dismount", next to a very wonky looking hole in the ground (it was covered by a sheet of plywood this morning) that leaves about 30 cm free beside the track.
I asked why they wanted me to dismount when cars were zooming by today, and was told "some cyclist got a wheel stuck in the tracks and fell." I asked the Paid-Duty-Cop why they didn't just shift traffic to the left, and he just slurped his coffee and smiled.
herb
start with reporting to 311 and work down from there
Mon, 06/07/2010 - 20:45I don't know the best way to deal with this, but you can start by calling 311. The City has inspectors that are supposed to ensure construction companies are doing their jobs properly. These signs are (obviously) not official and they'll hardly cover the company's or the city's butt in court. And they obviously don't protect the cyclist from falling, since no one is going to obey a homemade sign, let alone get off their bikes to walk down the road.
Anyone who falls and injuries themselves at one of these sites should get the cops, ambulance and then record the name of witnesses, construction company. Then either get a lawyer and sue them or make insurance claims (at least to the City).
hamish (not verified)
Another dissmount sign?
Tue, 06/08/2010 - 09:16While there's likely some real concern about our well-being on the part of some of the construction workers etc., the signage, especially hand-written, does give the distinct impression that cyclists are not worth providing safety for in construction zones. There was a similar sign on Queen St. W, westbound, west of University Ave. a couple of weeks ago, and many cyclists routinely ignore the ones printed up in the Boor/Yorkvile area, where bikes really are disscouraged, and some are now hesitant to take the lane for our safety.
The east-west streets with streetcar tracks have inherent hazards with the tracks, and they need extra care.
I tried to put this into written deps at the TCAC last night; there was a compression of dep time so the specific motion to investigate the legalities of this signage was likely unread, but there was a bit of a motion to urgently work on improving conditions on Dundas and Queen, encouraged by the CU, though that misses other east-west issues, like below, like the Dewson trenching, like the bad patching on Harbord and Bloor at Major St., and obviously now, something on King.
The city likely deserves some legal friction for something akin to entrapment ie. they encourage us all to ride bikes, and consistently are missing the provision of safe passageways in the west core.
dances_with_traffic (not verified)
Take the lane
Tue, 06/08/2010 - 12:22I saw this sign also... really quite funny considering the amount of money the city probably paid to have the work done.
Why on earth would you dismount and walk through a construction zone? Take the lane as you're required to. There is no room to sneak by between the cones and traffic either.
People will honk and retaliate, but whatever.
Just watch out for that fucking Saab. You know who is driving it.