Rogers Road Bike Lanes nearing completion

Surprise, surprise. sigh

Good to see this going through, I noticed it was already drawn in on the new bike map.

Yeah, the door-zone issue always bothers me too. If it's possible to get doored (and knocked in front of another motor vehicle!) it's not really a good cycling facility.

Actually, looking at these photos it reminds me quite a bit of the Harbord St. bike lanes. Although Harbord has its fair share of door-zone areas, I don't find it to be that bad. If you ride near the left edge of the bike lane, you can mostly avoid the door zones.

Still have to be really careful though. Especially when there's no other traffic behind me, I often ride outside of the bike lanes so that I'm absolutely sure I'm not in door-zone territory.

I'll have to check this one out myself sometime.

Stop being so easily co-opted. Drivers who door people, kill people, as on Eglington. How is it a 'bike-lane' if you put someone in the best place to be killed?! The city can slap down the paint, and politicians can do the photo op, but can we all stop supporting this crap? Better yet, a group with stones can heckle the politician in front of the cameras with persistent and focused questions: parking-enforcement, door zones and bollards.

I could be wrong, but I think some roads have wider parking areas to the right of the bike lane than others. Parts of Davenport are bad for this. This new one looks fairly wide since that full-size pick up truck is definitely not on the white line. I could be wrong.

Also, how wide is the bike lane? If it's wide, it's easy to ride in the left half and be away from doors.

Was Rogers Road a 4 lane road before? So now it's 2 lanes: one in each direction. That means less car traffic and maybe slower calmer traffic. That is a big plus for me.

So I see the potential problems here, including cracked asphalt, but from what I see, this is a good thing.

-dj

Bike lanes should increase safety for cyclists, not encourage us to ride in the door zone! The lines put a lot of psychological pressure on cyclists to stay within the boundaries, not to mention driver reactions if cyclists consistently ride outside the line.

These lanes, and the sharrows that do pretty much the same thing, are worse than nothing. Not only because they put cyclists in danger by requiring poor positionning, but also because they add to the Toronto cyclist map, allowing politicians to pat themselves on the back as they point to all those km's, and that lovely grid of coloured lines. I'm tired of seeing all those km's reported, only to have to subtract 90% of them because they either consist of "signed routes" or lanes/sharrows next to parked cars because the politicians don't have the balls to stand up to businesses and drivers and create something that would genuinely make a difference.

Martin Reis posted a great link to the sharrows in Portland in another thread. :

http://www.commissionersam.com/sam_adams/2005/08/sharrows_moving_1.html

In Portland, the purpose of the sharrows is to position cyclists outside the door zone. Imagine that. Not only do they leave enough space for an open door, they even allow for a cushion between the edge of the door and the proper position of the cyclist. Meanwhile, in Toronto, sharrows and bike lanes put cyclists in the door zone BY DESIGN!!!

Deep breath. Yes, I'm mad. You'd think if there was one place where cyclists could find common ground, this would be it. A great place to focus advocacy efforts, because it seems like such a no brainer. Stop cheering whenever paint is slapped on the road, will ya?

I've never owned a driver's licence. I bike downtown almost daily, and other than a couple of blocks on College or Harbord, almost never use bikelanes. I don't need bikelanes to be happy. But I do want bikelanes so that kids can bike to school, and to encourage new cyclists who just won't venture out on the road otherwise. That also means enough barriers along the bikelane to prevent cars and trucks from parking in them (but not so many that bikes can't merge with traffic as needed). Would you feel comfortable sending your child out on the types of bikelanes that we keep getting in Toronto???

I've a simple question: Are planners and traffic engineers subject to guidelines and standards when designing and implementing bike lanes?

There are standards for everything from curb heights, on-off ramp curve radii, lane widths,etc... But judging from the variations in placement and widths of extant lanes, notably the travesty on Spadina, it seems there are no guidelines nor standards in place ensuring a consistent, safe and acceptable outcome.

There are several bodies that have issued documents that normal people would recognize as standards. When it comes to bike lanes, paths, trails, etc. City Authorities claim that these bodies of works are mere "Guidelines."

...And then they will claim that they haven't adopted any of these "guidelines," which means that they don't apply.

Today (Friday) at approx. 7:30 PM I rode eastbound on Rogers Rd. from Kane Ave. to Oakwood Ave. expressly to judge myself the state of affairs. In my opinion the bike lanes are a definite improvement. Unlike the last ride along this route (sans lanes) 2 weeks ago, there was no jostling for position; though the cagers were queuing up I zipped through. Lotsa elbow room this time.

Yes the bike lane was afflicted with patchy asphalt at times -- the motorists' lane was as well -- and often flanked the door zone. It also was littered with a half dozen parked autos and mistaken once for a right turn lane by CO addled dullard. Even so the leg was more relaxing and quicker than previously. Without a doubt.

That I saw only one cyclist pedalling that Rogers Rd. stretch was disappointing though. It ain't perfection, but it's certainly a step toward it.

The bike lane was

mistaken once for a right turn lane

Not really. Everyone, cyclists and motorists, should be aware of how to turn right at an an intersection. Let me do my best to explain because I don't think that the motorists was mistaken.

All vehicles are required to merge into the right-hand most lane before making a turn. see HTA 141. (2) When there's a bike lane on the right, the paint is usually in a dashed as it aproaches an intersection. This allows motorists to merge into the lane before turning right. By merging into the bike lane before making the right hand turn motorists prevent cyclists from cutting in front and earning a right hook.

When a motorists uses a bike lane in this fashion it does seem like they are turning the bike lane into a right turn lane, but it's a temporary thing. This is supposed to be for everybody's safety. Cyclists are still able to pass a motorist turning right by passing on their left side, when it is safe to do so.

Point well taken.

Here's what I meant by the remark though: with motorists' lane backed up at stoplight a driver midway up the queue hopes to use the bike lane to advance to the red stoplight and turn right. But he finds the bike-way is not wide enough. Result: one motorist, wedged into the bike lane unable to proceed, blocking bike traffic.