Igor, Bike Thefts Make Front Page of The New York Times

Well explosions and drinking could have tourist appeal... but I'm disappointed that Toronto's safety issues are constantly showcased in the world media but maybe it'll force a creative solution to the problems.

Sure, "cyclist-friendly", but compared to what? Detroit?!

Toronto is a cyclist's nightmare compared to cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, which put our fair city to shame.

"For decades, Copenhagen has encouraged commuters to leave their cars at home and ride into the city on bicycles via designated bike lanes. It is therefore not surprising that in 2007, roughly 40 percent of its citizens arrived at school or work on their bicycles."
(Ian Chodikoff, "Pragmatic Utopia". Canadian Architect, February 2008)

I was waiting for this discussion to turn into the definition of a 'cyclist-friendly city' with the obvious comparisons to both European cities as the ideal; and American mid-west and east coast cities as the 'Before'. Hard-call - I wish that more information and studies were available - not just anecdotal evidence and 'sensationalist' observations.
As someone who cycles half the time to work, I notice that we represent a very small fraction of road users compared to cars, transit and pedestrians - who knows? 1 to 100 with cars, 1 to 500 with transit users, 1 to 50 with peds? i am just making outlandish guesses. No point- just an observation.
Maybe some of the problem is that many 'daily' cyclists by nature are very anti-establishment and tend not to follow 'transit plans'. Many ideas like making every third east-west roadway corridor into a full two-way 'shared' cycle road (one car lane and one cycle lane, each way), with minimized on-street parking and adding cyclist extras like 'right turn box lanes' typically haven't encourage a concentration of cyclists in these areas - we pretty-much still seem to go anywhere/everywhere we want. Further, cyclists don't seem to want to park in a 'lock-up facility' (i know there are very few around) and walk a block or two to wherever they're going - we still park right at our choice building, even if there are no spots/poles - we simply park wherever despite being an obstacle to pedestrians, etc.
This is interesting because a few of my dutch friends (in Rotterdam) say that cycling has become so 'mainstream' that there is a natural attitude of 'sharing' and 'compromising' and following bike-routes - even 'stopping and putting your foot down at each and every stop' (holy crap - and i thought we were the country of politeness) - strange. So how do you 'force' / 'suggest' mainstream-ness so that cycling becomes more.. umm.. 'accepted' - by being good road citizens? who knows? - hopefully the weather stays dry so I can get out to the lakeshore path...

"Many ideas like making every third east-west roadway corridor into a full two-way 'shared' cycle road (one car lane and one cycle lane, each way), with minimized on-street parking and adding cyclist extras like 'right turn box lanes' typically haven't encourage a concentration of cyclists in these areas - we pretty-much still seem to go anywhere/everywhere we want."

As well we should be able to do. There is nothing that says that bike routes are mandatory to use... especially when they're as sporadic and inconvenient as they're in Toronto right now. Cycling infrastructure should encourage cyclists by giving them MORE options, not FEWER. It's precisely this kind of attitude that confirms my suspicion that cycling facilities serve to limit cyclists more than to help them out, and makes me uneasy whenever someone talks about turning Toronto into Copenhagen where cycling is concerned.

did anyone notice that the NY times called the Globe and Mail a "Toronto Daily Newspaper" ???
You would think that they would do their research..........
T

I grew up in Toronto and have been in New York for eight. I biked the trails behind Sunnybrook when I was 9 yrs old and I've circled Manhattan and been to Coney Island and back on two wheels. So I know the bike-ability of the two villes. I'm puzzled as well by the description of Toronto as "a city renowned as one of the most bicycle-friendly places in the world". New York has far more dedicated bike infrastructure, such as a signalized speedway on the west side of Manhattan that is mostly segregated from walkers, a growing number of proper bike lanes separated from traffic by parked cars (as opposed to the other way around), the awesome racing track known otherwise as Central Park, and even a full mountain biking trail facility. Toronto has no money, no vision and is a far cry from its days as "New York run by the Swiss". However, the old stereotypes endure, and the pleasant lowrise nature of Toronto makes biking on side streets there much friendlier than a death-defying ride on any midtown street in Manhattan. (Try shooting down 5th Ave sometime from Central Park to, say, 34th St. You'll be high on adrenaline for hours afterwards.) A distinct lack of Bronx drivers also improves the odds of getting maimed in Toronto. Bike theft, Igor aside, is still worse in New York as well - look at the fine print on any bike lock ("Guarantee not valid in New York")

Toronto also persists in having some sort of Portland or Euro-ish sheen to it when viewed with NY eyes ("Hey, they're sort of run down, but the beer is nice, and they have streetcars!")

So, yes, Toronto is somewhat friendlier by a function of geography and layout and its physical nature, but certainly not through any brilliant work by the city government. Montreal will have a bike sharing plan soon, DC already has one, and Chicago has a fantastic downtown bike station. Toronto has... some great bike racks? I wouldn't go much beyond that.


(PS - Americans are not familiar with the concept of nation-wide papers other than the shoddy USA Today, and they always refer to the Globe and even the Post as Toronto newspapers.)

Igor also made the
<a href="http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml";>front page of the bbc world edition RSS feeds today 2008 08 26</a>, but that link changes every day.. so here's <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7581764.stm";>a link that'll work after today, to the BBC Igor story</a>.