Tuesday: Final West End Bikeways Meeting

UPDATE: This morning the City posted a West End Bikeways Project Summary (6.4MB PDF) in preparation for the meeting. Read on to see what's coming!

I Bike TO has previously reported on the City of Toronto's "West End Bikeways" project. On Tuesday March 10th, there will be a final meeting at 6:30pm at the Parkdale Public Library where the City will present and discuss some of the bikeway projects that they want to implement in 2009 and 2010.

A summary of the project:

The Toronto Bike Plan recommends a Bikeway Network that spans the city, creating a 2 km grid of routes that are accessible within a five minute ride from all residences. The Bike Plan acknowledges that there is a gap in the Network in the downtown west end, where streetcar tracks on east-west arteries, disjointed local streets, and railway corridors all pose challenges to accommodating bikeways.

To address this gap in the Bikeway Network, Transportation Services has partnered with the Toronto Cyclists Union to gather ideas from cyclists on ways to improve cycling conditions in the downtown west end, specifically the area south of Bloor Street, bounded by the Gardiner Expressway, Bathurst Street, and Parkside Drive. The goal of this process is to work with cyclists in the study area to identify short-term bikeway projects that can be built in 2009 and 2010.

It's important to note that this project will focus on simple short-term gains that can be implemented within the next couple of years, not major overhauls of west-end arterial roads like Queen St. Hopefully changes like that can come later. In the meantime, we can focus on getting some contra-flow bike lanes, improved intersection signalling/signage, and route markings, and sharrows to fill in the west-end network.

Even if you missed the Call for Submissions or the previous Open House meeting in the Fall of 2008, this should be a good opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed bikeways. Come to the meeting and push for your own favoured improvements, and comment on any flaws you see in the plans.

The north-south routes in the west end should be easy pickins. Streets like Sorauren, Brock, Palmerston, and others are already pretty good cycling routes, even without special "bikeway" treatment. However, fix up the intersections a bit, add contra-flow lanes, some better signage, and connect it to other routes, and it will all come together as a proper network.

I have also been trying to get the City's bike planners to put some more emphasis on Lansdowne Ave. This minor arterial is already halfway to being a completed bikeway. We have traffic calming and sharrows between Bloor and College, more traffic calming south of the railway all the way to Queen St., and a defacto "bike lane" under the railway bridge where the road narrows to one lane. Pretty soon we should have bike lanes north of Bloor St., connecting to the Dupont/Annette and Davenport bike lanes, plus a connection to the Railpath at College/Dundas. Just need to slap down some more sharrows, put in proper bike lanes under the rail bridge, add some signs, and voila....uninterrupted bikeway from Queen St. to Davenport Rd.

Our former I Bike TO blogger, current editor of Dandyhorse, and west end cycling rabble-rouser Tammy Thorne has sent us a few comments about what's needed in the west-end too. She sees the King / Liberty corridor as the #1 priority for several reasons. This potential bikeway includes sharrows added to an arterial road (King St.), without harming the King streetcar's movement. Also, adding cycling infrastructure through a new development like Liberty Village is a perfect opportunity that should not be missed. It seems that on-street parking has taken precedence over safe cycling through this area so far.

Tammy also suggests that this may be an ideal opportunity for the City to finally install some bike boxes. How about at King / Queen / Roncesvalles to help cyclists make safer turns through this slightly bizarre intersection that is completely chopped up with streetcar tracks?

Anyway, that's enough from us now (and it's time for lunch!). Come out to the meeting if you can, or email your own ideas to bikeplan@toronto.ca.

More information and documents from previous meetings are all of the City's West-End Bikeways website.

Quick summary from the documentation posted this morning:

The following nine projects are proposed for completion in 2009-10:

1. Harbord-High Park Connector (signs, sharrows, contra-flow, etc.)
2. College Street (Sharrows connecting missing bike lane section)
3. Argyle-Robinson (Signed route, contra-flow, improved park connection, etc.)
4. King-Liberty (Sharrows, signed route, etc.)
5. Sorauren (Signed route)
6. Lansdowne Bridge (Bike lanes)
7. Brock (Signed route, bike lanes under bridge)
8. Shaw (Long contra-flow lane, signed route, etc.)
9. Strachan (signed route connecting Trinity-Bellwoods and the bike lanes farther south)

The document also suggests that bike boxes and bicycle actuated signals may be tried.

Have a look, and be sure to come to tonight's meeting if you can.