Highway 401 cuts Toronto in half

I was speaking to a cyclist friend over the weekend (she's semi-pro) and I asked her how she dealt with highway overpasses. While she agreed it took a certain amount of chutzpah to even cross them in the first place, she suggested that it was key to stay out of that right hand lane where the actual ramps are.

She would move into the centre lane and keep to the right of it. Her speed is such that she can keep up with traffic, but keeping to the right allows for people who really want to pass, but give her room to move to the right if necessary. If the traffic is too heavy for temporarily dipping into the right lane like that, she'll take the lane entirely.

I think I'd still rather avoid it all entirely, but she insists this is the safest route, even for "regular" riders.

I had almost exactly the same experience on Leslie yesterday - it's supposed to be a city street but is treated like it's a 400-series highway by most automobile drivers.

Adding to the contrast was that I ducked into Edwards/Sunnybrook park when I reached it. That was blissful by comparison. ****

Blame the design of "parclo" ramps that allow cars to speed on and off highways at full speed, which is dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. Install traffic lights at all these ramps so that pedestrians can cross safely, or better yet replace these "parclo" ramps with "diamond" interchanges that force vehicles entering and exiting the highway to slow down. A third option would be to build a grade separated pedestrian/cyclist path crossing the highway interchange such as the one that exists at Yonge St and Highway 401.

Remember kids, roads are for motorized vehicles. They were designed that way, and will continue to be designed that way despite the insistence of all the **** Toronto cyclists that they have the right to a lane on every major thoroughfare in the city. Unless you are downtown, put a **** bell on your bike, and ride on the sidewalk. Maybe then you'd notice that at every overpass in a sign for pedestrians which reads "WAIT FOR GAP", not "DRIVE DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE BECAUSE YOUR BICYCLE REQUIRES A 3 METRE RIGHT OF WAY"

Why? Simple physics
3 tonnes > 30 pounds

As a cyclist, I ride on the sidewalks, and yield to pedestrians. If a cop pulls me over, I tell them I don't respect their authority, give them a fake name, and rip the ticket up.
As a driver, I curse at the cyclists that sneak beside my passenger mirror at a red light in order to shoot ahead 3 feet and then get hit by my car. STAY BEHIND THE ***** LINEUP JUST LIKE A MOTORCYCLIST WOULD BE EXPECTED TO.
As a pedestrian, I'm about as dumb and useless as a pigeon. I don't watch where I'm going, and I assume I have the right of way always. - AND EVERYONE HERE IS EXACTLY THE SAME.

[Edited. Read our moderation policy.]

Yeah and I'll tall the cop my name is John Johnston and that he can fuck off. Bikes are a hazard on the roads, period. The only way to fix that problem is to make people get their heads out of their own asses and realize that things are safer in certain ways.

*A bike hitting a pedestrian is unlikely to be fatal.
*A car hitting a bicycle is almost certain to cause permenant injury in some form or another.
*Non motorized vehicles DO NOT BELONG ON CITY STREETS. Yes, this includes those crazy Amish as well.

Same goes for the farmer that sits with his monsterous tractor on the May 24 weekend, waiting for a lineup of cars on the horizon to pull out and block the entire road at 10km/h

Side streets are ok for bicycles. They are far less busy, and the speed limit is more akin to what a cyclist can do. Unless you can cycle at 50km/h, you don't belong on Keele Street, you belong on the sidewalk.

I couldn't care less if I'm breaking the law. Our government is filled with potatoes, I don't expect any useful guidelines to come from them. Safety trumps the law, in any and ALL circumstances.

If you ride your bike on the road, remember that you have no more rights than the cars. If you get hit, it's just as much your fault as the driver. If you skip infront of the lineup at a traffic light, expect to get yelled out and flipped off. That isn't grounds for calling the cops for road rage either, it's ground for you to smarten up and think twice.

If you jumped in line in the supermarket, you wouldn't get away with a frown and a wave. Don't expect the same at a red light.

I ride 10,000 km a year in Toronto and have never been hit. You sound like very frightened kid who has surrendered to your fear. Your fear has planted the mistaken idea in your head that riding on the sidewalk is a safe activity. Take a course, stay on park trails or sell your bike and buy a Metropass. Any one of these is safer than what you are doing.

Seriously, filtering forward is the best perk of being on a bicycle! If the gov't isn't going to put some f'n bike lanes in then i'm filtering forward. No cyclist should be expected to wait behind a car when there is room to filter past. Pretty much every country overseas has filtering forward to increase efficiency, the problem here are the drivers... they aren't too bright when it comes to driving - and why should they be! the MTO licenses seem to be coming in boxes of cracker jacks. Filter forward, watch out for drivers who are blind to anything on the road other than cars.

END OF STORY.

p.s. Sometimes i like giving those righteous drivers like Jess a smug smile as i ride by, just to see them go bananas in their cage. It really irks those people who feel they're King of the road. Kidding! ;)