Renforth Dr., north of Bloor St.
On Wednesday, the City of Toronto's Cyclometer newsletter announced the following:
Renforth Dr. at Burnhamthorpe Rd.
Renforth Drive in Etobicoke now has 2.5 km of winding lanes between Bloor Street West and Rathburn Road.(Google Map)
Since I read this at work, I decided to check it out on my way home, and then again on my way to work on Thursday morning. Here's a review of what I saw and experienced.
Design:
Renforth Dr. is a minor road that goes north from Bloor St. and the West Mall (near Highway 427) up to Pearson International Airport. The section from Bloor St. up to Rathburn Rd (where the bike lanes went in) is wide with only two lanes of traffic, and very minimal on-street parking. North of Rathburn, up to the airport, it widens into a 4-lane arterial with heavier traffic. Oddly enough, the stretch of Renforth Dr. that now has bike lane is the exact opposite of what was suggested in the Bike Plan (see map).
Toronto Bike Plan: Renforth Dr., Etobicoke
Almost all of the houses along this street have large driveways, and many even have more space to park in the boulevard area between the sidewalk and road. There was enough room to easily squeeze in bike lanes without any parking issues or affecting traffic flow. I noticed that there are no "No Stopping" signs in many places, especially along the west side, and maybe this is why there are still people parking in these bike lanes.
The decision to put in this bike lane must have been relatively uncontroversial, even if it's in Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre, Doug Holyday's turf.
There's really not much to say about the lanes themselves. Few conflicts with parked vehicles, only a few major intersections (Bloor, Burnhamthorpe, Rathburn), and few opportunities for conflict with turning traffic. In some places, I wished they made the lanes a bit wider, as there was room to spare and I felt a bit constrained in the leaf-filled gutter, but it's not too bad.
Connectivity:
Renforth is a good North-South route in this part of Etobicoke. The south end connects to Bloor St. and possibly future Bloor St. bike lanes (don't get too excited any time soon). The West Mall is also supposed to get a bike lane, which would continue this route further south.
Toronto Bike Map: Renforth Dr., Etobicoke
In the middle, near Burnhamthorpe Rd., the bike lane comes close to the Etobicoke Civic Centre (accessed via Rexton Rd.) and several parks
At the north end, this lane almost connects directly into Centennial Park and the Eglinton and Etobicoke Creek trails. It would be even better if they implemented the Bike Plan and continued this directly up past Eglinton and to the airport. The Rathburn Rd. bike lane is just east of here, and it is supposed to be pushed out to connect at some point.
Usefulness:
Since Renforth Dr. is already a low-traffic road with very wide lanes, there was already little conflict between cyclists and motor vehicles, from my experience. Bike lanes may add a bit to the perception of safety, and keep motorists farther left, while also acting as traffic calming, and encouraging more cyclists to ride here. However, in the grand scheme of things, it's probably not that much different riding on this road now. At least it's not any worse, as is the case with some poorly-designed bike lanes.
Unfortunately, there are very few other cyclists riding in this part of town, and I saw none on Renforth when I checked out the new lanes. I hope to see more soon, though I may have to wait until spring. An "easy win" bike lane like this will help somewhat, but like in many parts of the city, it's the east-west bike infrastructure that is truly lacking.
Comments
chephy (not verified)
Another useless BL
Fri, 11/14/2008 - 13:07If parking and traffic were not affected, it means that there was already a lot of room for cars and bikes on that street. So what is the point of the bike lane? In fact, it appears as if room has been taken away from cyclists, as the author of the BL review felt "constrained" despite ample road width. So if anything, it made the conditions worse for cyclists.
As far as I'm concerned, if parking spaces or a regular lane have not been taken out to accommodate a bike lane, that bike lane is completely superfluous at best, and makes things harder for cyclists, at worst.
dash (not verified)
kinda useless
Fri, 11/14/2008 - 15:22It irritates me to see somewhat useless bike lanes like this. I mean no bike lane is entirely useless, but there are better routes to focus on, you know? Still, having said that - I was pleased to notice that they finally installed a lane on Wellesly. The tricky Bay st. crossing is also very well marked.
What do I take from this? The knowledge that the city isn't ignoring the important routes entirely. I hope to see more lanes show up on "complex" streets in the near future.
Vincent (not verified)
Not without value
Fri, 11/14/2008 - 20:16Certainly we need to encourage the city to boldly improve the Bike Plan to include major arteries where most of us bike. Such as Bloor. No doubt.
But this is still a lane, and we should celebrate it. The city bike plan, filled with safe and easily implemented lanes on far-flung streets, is still at least a plan. Bike Plan PLUS is the new mantra.
I could see using this path to get to the airport, as I often do when I fly with my folding recumbent. This connects nicely with Renforth leading up to Silver Dart road, which is the best way to get into the airport (See the bike map for details)
Normally i take the Humber trail to Eglington, but this would be faster: the Humber is a wending trail, although beautiful.
chephy (not verified)
> I mean no bike lane is
Tue, 11/18/2008 - 01:04Many bike lanes are much worse than useless. They are actually dangerous.
Semi-important routes, perhaps. Wellesley was a very tame street even before any bike lanes. Even (gasp!) Bloor is, compared to most arterials in town. Where the bike lanes (or some other accommodations like wider lanes) are really needed is actual busy streets out in the 'burbs: on Eglinton, on Kipling Avenue, on Kingston Road, on Kennedy, on Steeles... and on Bloor, sure - though relatively peaceful for an arterial, it is an arterial and a very important one. Putting it on Renforth - especially on the quietest safest portion of Renforth - is almost insulting.
I could easily take a pack of 9-year-olds on that part of Renforth the way it was before the bike lane. A bike lane there is a suggestion that the abilities, skills and judgement of Toronto cyclists are below those of a 9-year-old. Which I do happen to consider an insulting notion.
On your way to the airport notice how this bike lane ends at Rathburn which, incidentally, is where Renforth turns from a two-laner into a four-laner. I.e., it ends precisely when you might actually want it to start. Isn't that charming?
anthony
Renforth bike lanes may be at risk
Thu, 12/11/2008 - 22:40While at tonight's Waterfront West Light Rail Transit (LRT)Park Lawn Road to Long Branch public house a reliable little birdie told me that some residents are not happy with the new Bike Lanes on Renforth and are organizing a petition to have them removed.
I don't know how far this petition will get, but we don't want to have perfectly good bike lanes removed.
Our first counter strike against this is to to tell the local Councillor Doug Holyday, and your own Councillor, that you really like the Renforth bike lanes, that you would like to see more like it - as well as connections with it.
Let's hope that this does not turn into another bike lane battle.
vic
Renforth - Why?
Fri, 12/12/2008 - 08:09Anthony,
Do you know why some of the residents oppose it? The only think I can think of is that maybe there was some on-street parking lost. But it seems like just about everyone has a huge driveway along there anyway.
No lanes of traffic were lost. It hasn't actually changed the streetscape much for motorists. What's their beef?
anthony
Nothing lost
Fri, 12/12/2008 - 10:21Nothing was lost on Renforth, no parking, no lanes. Only the bike lane was added. This narrowed the lanes but did not take anything away.
This section also has releatively lower volumes of traffic than other N/S routes in the area, such as The West Mall, or even Renforth north of Rathburn.
Whenever bike lanes go in there are one or more nutters that don't want those people (the "other") invading thier space. Loss of property values is always a concern. In addition, being able to temporarily use the street as a parking lot immediately in front of one's house for larger gatherings of family and/or friends is lost.
No-one yet know if, or how far, this opposition against the bike lane will go. If even if does not manifest itself this time, it would still be good to reward Councillor Holyday with a few Thank-You notes from cyclists, esp those who live in the area. I don't even mind encouraging motorists and others who derive benefits from the bike lanes from writing in and thanking Councillor Holyday. Doing so will likely mean that he's less likely to give as much push-back against additional bike lanes in his ward like he did for this one. Additionally, as these would seem to come unsolicited, these thanks you's should hold more weight than a petition. As adviocates, we should already know that it's harder to gains support FOR something than against something.
I hope that my litle birdie keeps me informed so that if this petition does move forward, we can then organize a more organized response.
In the meantime, it is never a bad idea to send off thank-you notes to councillors for installing bike lanes -- while also asking nicely for more!
AnnieD
"those people"
Fri, 12/12/2008 - 11:17I've created entire cycling advertising campaigns while out riding. One campaign promotes cycling's benefits (tagline: "Bike, for the health of it") and the other is about changing people's perception of who cyclists are. I think one reason drivers are so rude is to them, cyclists are all a bunch of yahoos who live on the edge. I imagine a poster campaign profiling real cyclists: "Today, Dr. B. treated x children with brain tumours (...). And then he biked home." another one profiling a grandmother or great-grandmother, etc. - a kind of "Cyclists, they're not who you think they are" strategy. As an added benefit, this could also help other people see themselves as potential cyclists because they would see other people like themselves biking.
OK, so it's not going to happen. But I bet it would be more effective than the rather dull poster campaign that Toronto put out last summer. One of these days I'll have to describe the commercials I came up with - those ones are a bit cheeky.
anthony
Holyday attacks bike lanes
Sat, 12/13/2008 - 16:28From: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/552036
"We simply haven't got the money to do all things," said Councillor Doug Holyday. "With regard to bike lanes out in Etobicoke, I'm now getting calls from people who live on streets with bike lanes reporting to me that they never see any bikes on there."
Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) said the state of the roads is an issue with constituents. "I'm getting more and more calls from people who say, `This road's terrible, that road's terrible, there's so many bumps and cracks, when are you going to do something about it?'"
brian
Holyday's right
Sat, 12/13/2008 - 23:41Hi all,
Councillor Holyday is conveniently right. It's the same all across the GTA today, only freaks and yahoos are using bike lanes on December 13, 2008/
I'm looking out my window right now, and no one is using the Leaside Bridge bike lane. What a waste! I rode downtown and back today, down Pape, across O'connor, down broadview, across Chester Hill Road (great contra-flow, thanks Mr Egan!) across Bloor Viaduct, thru "Mink Mile", down Bay to TD Centre.
Only saw two cyclists, and one e-biker (thought it was a Vespa, thanks MTO pilot program!) I'll write Councillors Parker, Ootes, Rae, and Vaughan right now. All those bike lanes unused. It's a travesty.
Holyday probably has thousands and thousands of cyclists in his ward, but none of them talk about it, and heaven forbid they approach the Councillor to report on their issues (or give kudos). He's obviously "one of those politicians".
Here's a positive suggestion : think of a way to reach those thousands of cyclists, and get their comments, and get them to Councillor Holyday. Door to door campaign? Posters? Coffee shop forums? Neighbourhood office workshops? Business improvement association roundtables? Propery owner meetings? Bike shops?
I've rode to and from the Airport, took me 1.45 hrs to ride to and from Pearson to Thorncliffe, at an easy pace. The best part was the off-road paved surface trail that parallels Eglinton from Kipling to almost Rogers Road. I believe that's in Holyday's ward. email him and thank him for this great piece. I highly suggest trying this ride, it's an awesome example of what City is capable of, and what Bike Plan can really be.
Cheers,
brian
Luke Siragusa
I agree...
Sun, 12/14/2008 - 09:47...Councillor Holyday is right: "There isn't enough money to do all things." But why wasn't that a consideration when he was pushing the Front St. Extension to the tune of $250 million. That's right, a 2 KM strip of asphalt for a quarter of a billion dollars -- lotsa cash for that.
He's right about the quality of the roads too. They're deplorable. But you'd think someone so thrifty would realize that a cost effective way to maintain roads is have to less of them and have less cars travelling on them. You'd think that he'd know that investment in mass transit, rail and bikeways would yield a bounty of returns here.
To those such as the good Councillor there is never enough parking, there are never enough roads, and their quality is never good enough. The problem is externalized to the quality and quantity of that other than what is truly at its heart: an excess of cars.
Nope. To Doug, we never have too many of those.
Todd Tyrtle (not verified)
Curious
Sun, 12/14/2008 - 18:53Hey Brian,
It's December 14th, and I used the bike lanes on Leaside Bridge, Cosburn, and Logan. Am I a freak or a yahoo? ;-) The Leaside Bridge bike lanes, when clear of snow, though short are some of the ones I am happiest to have. Cars and buses fly across that bridge and I like my (very likely illusion) of safety.
It was a bit warmer than usual today but I saw far more than two cyclists and there were well over a dozen bikes parked in the racks at the T&T market with several people coming/going as i locked/unlocked my bike.
Seriously, though, I'm not sure your point. Winter cycling's a bad idea? The small number of winter cyclists means lanes aren't useful in December? Maintenance of lanes stinks in the winter? (Agree there) The bike lanes we have are inadequate (we agree there but still in many cases - Leaside Bridge is a good example IMO) better than none.
Hoping my genuine curiosity doesn't come across as crabbiness/sarcasm. I suspect we are likely to agree at some level...
AnnieD
Hey Todd,
Mon, 12/15/2008 - 09:39Try re-reading Brian's post and imagine his voice is laced with irony. Given his previous posts on this board, I think it's pretty safe to assume he wasn't being literal. :)
Todd Tyrtle (not verified)
Hmmm - must've been a
Mon, 12/15/2008 - 12:35Hmmm - must've been a serious caffeine deficiency. Apologies for my being a little dense ;-)
Maybe I am a bit of a yahoo after all ;-)
Thanks, Annie - I think I'll go get another cup of coffee now...