City
Dupont Narrowed: a Cyclist and Driver's First Impressions
On Monday, at about 4pm, I was driving northbound on Keele Street from the High Park area, and made a right onto Annette Street. To my amazement, the lane that was previously there was no longer there. I was driving in a bike lane. Quickly, I got into the car lane. The only car lane. Just last week there were two.
I hadn't heard much about the Dupont St. and Annette St. Bike Lane Plan since last spring, so its late arrival this week came as a bit of a surprise. As I drove toward Dupont St., I thought about how cool it was that a bike lane was introduced. Freshly painted, and really wide, it's a great victory for cycling in the city, right? Right. I'm going to love the freedom and safety it comes with when I bike on it.
But as someone who both cycles and drives on Dupont and Annette (often enough to be quite familiar with the area's traffic issues), I'm not particularly happy about how this was implemented and the effects it has had on congestion. It's gotten really bad for motorists, and seems to have been done without much consideration for Toronto's mighty ruler - the car.
While I'm all for bike lanes, I'm not all for a bike lane on Annette and Dupont - at least not how they've been implemented on the stretch of Dupont & Annette between Keele and Lansdowne (I haven't yet tested the stretch on Annette between Keele and Jane to the west).
What the city has done:
- eliminated a full car lane in each direction
- added a super-wide curbside bike lane in each direction
- added some dedicated curbside car parking areas (that the bike lanes pass on the left)
- whatever road was left over sits unused in the middle, bounded by yellow strips
What the effect has been:
- increased vehicular traffic congestion at all times of the day, and well into the evening
- major increases in vehicular congestion during peak time (because what used to be a four lane road during peak times is now a two lane road during peak times).
They also didn't do much to cover up or de-emphasize the old road markings, making the road look complicated and not easily understood.
Maybe I need to get used to it. But the benefits I've gained as a cyclist seem to be heavily outweighed by the drawbacks it's caused in my role as motorist. What could have been done differently? I'm not sure. While I didn't go so far as take measurements, I do think it may have been possible to keep the roadway at three lanes, anyhow. Or they could have done away with curbside parking altogether to allow for four lanes and greatly improved flow.
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If the sidewalks were widened, the opposite has been shown to be true. Pedestrians spend much more money in an area than drivers.
Think about it, you find yourself a parking space on the road, put some money in the machine and the race begins. There will be no leisurely stroll for you. You have a time limit that you have to stick to or face the consequences. If you really wanted a leisurely (and high spending) afternoon, you'd park your car in a nearby lot. On street parking seems to be devoted to people who need to make quick (and cheap) errands.
For a detailed study, check out http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/bike-lanes-parking.pdf
Encouraging a shift in transportation mode from autombile to bicycle or public transit seems intuitively better for small businesses to me; trips are more local, people buy less in one go. Cars make the most sense for long distances and large loads; otherwise, they are just ludicrously inefficient.
Of course it's a bit of a mess now. Old lines are still on the road, there are still signs to be installed, etc. Come back in a couple of weeks and the whole situation should be a little less confusing, especially once people get used to the new layout.
I agree. The same situation happened with Wellesley St E&W. They ended up removing the lines 2 weeks after and then it was another month until proper signage came. It was a full 3-4 months until the sharrows were added between intersections.
Give it time, the city is like that retarded guy at your work in high school, he'll get the job done, just give him plenty of time.
Holy assumptions, Batman. I drove by the new bike lanes on my way from Georgetown, ON to Dupont and Ossington in Toronto, passing thorough the High Park area via the Gardiner/Lakeshore. Would you ride your bike to a job site 65km away? Me neither.
I drive and bike..that's how it is. I carry cargo, kids, life is complicated. Dont tell me to put the kids on bike, pls. we dont always go home..as I said, life is complicated, I'm trying to see both sides.
the area is now gridlocked at peak times
fact
again I LOVE BIKES
but I cannot glamorize these lanes.
Its a strange spot, train tracks and all
car route options are limited
I'm all for turning it into a bike villiage, I LOVE the road full of bikes
but it ignores the fact there ARE cars on the road, a lot of them. The bus route takes me double the time now as well.
Reminds me of the intolerance of the 80s
peas brothas!
Regardless I believe the point was that perhaps the benefit of an extra bike lane does not outweigh the cons to two less driving lanes. I think this is a very legitimate and rational argument that deserves debate and does not necessarily have to turn into a debate with big box stores or Jane Jacobs please.
that I have really liked reading your posts. Any way
I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
We're getting a group together, heading down there with a bunch of black and white concrete paint and "fixing" this sh*t in about a weeks time. Who knows, perhaps one or two of us will get arrested and elevate this idiotic implementation on the news.
I'm waiting for the "you guys are all idiots" post, please don't let me wait in vain. Your last post didn't have enough generalizations or pre-judgments in it work on that too. Don't let me down.
Big Cars: The top selling vehicles in Canada are all compacts.
Low Density: We are a massive country and if you look at population density rates we do very well for a country this size
"Take any european or asian country": You find me one person from any country are say that they are much better than Canada and I'll be very surprised, you think Europeans are happy with their governmental decisions? Europeans just expect bureaucracy headaches and political games
Urban Renewal: Let me know how bike lanes create urban renewal. No one biked on Dupont until these lanes were opened?
Transit City: Massively political, so many problems with that I'm not sure where to begin.
Union Station: This refurbishment has more to do with making it prettier, friendlier, cleaner, than encouraging public transit.
Long Term vs. Short Term: Installing a bike lane is the most short term action possible, there is nothing cheaper, than wiping out some road lines and painting on some new ones, nothing, no environmental study, nothing.
I'm not sure how you manage to bring up daycare with regards to infrastructure, but you did. Also, read my words above very carefully, don't add words to mine, quote directly, no paraphrasing or presuming you know what I am saying. Just because someone says that "good evidence" shows something, does not mean that is a "scientific study". Your words show an incredible lack of thoughtfulness or clarity. I honestly believe that you are not grasping he crux of this discussion and are making this a car vs. public transit argument, which it isn't. It's a city roads plannng discussion.
When the final sales numbers are tallied up at the end of this year, the compact Honda Civic will have knocked the venerable Ford F-150 from its perch as Canada's best-selling new vehicle – a title the full-size pickup has held for the past five years.
Ford F-150 was the TOP seller for 5 years!! And we buy many more larger sized sedans whereas Europeans and Asians tend to buy smaller and narrower hatchbacks.
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-vs-europe-top-10-selling-vehicles-in.html
http://cars.uk.msn.com/News/Top_ten_article.aspx?cp-documentid=2620300
Also, vehicles are quite a bit more expensive in European and Asian countries not to mention their roads are much smaller, do you think they prefer a sub-compact? Can you please stop derailing the initial point of this post, regarding a decrease in lanes, causing traffic to be a problem. Could you not just stop and think for a minute that some of those people in that traffic, are most likely driving a compact car and have to be driving a car for their situation.
You do realize that one of your links is in reference to American car sales right? We are in Canada. There's a difference.
How the F are you supposed to get East / West in this city? There are literally zero routes between the Gardner and Lawrence. So if you're mid-town, say Yonge and Bloor, you either have to head south to the Gardner (good luck) or north to Lawrence to find a suitable route, or sit and stew in 45mins worth of traffic on Bloor or St. Clair or now Dupont! WTF? The car is a fact of life, people! People need to get around this city. We can't just all hold hands and sing kumbaya and wish really (really) hard for the car to go away. Absolutely unacceptable. The sooner Miller goes, the better.
C.
PS. And before you flamers get started, I ride my bike to work 2-3 times a week (doesn't mean i don't also need to get around in this city), so back off.
I agree, the photo above is like a model home er model bike lane, a dream! I have never seen the road that clear, sadly I use this road almost daily by car, bus and bike. rarely walk it because the distance is quite long. and who mentioned local businesses?, maybe you should walk that strip some time, its not exactly a stop and shop shopping hub you probably don't hang there at night. namasayin? Dupont has been an industrial throughway in the city for decades, I have seen the traffic increase in this area only after 5 years. a condo here and there, next thing you know DUPONT AND DUFFERIN to DUNDAS WEST is a traffic battleground I fight daily. The madness of the dunwest hairpin left turn, and now the impossible merge at the foot of the 'electric'city lofts..hahah imagine 300 more commuters coming from thier condo once that is built. Madness! Its not about getting used to it or road signs..its pure congestion, we have regressed. I LOVE BIKES did I mention that?
this is more of a facade and I agree with the early posters, not well planned and the fastest easiest way to make it look like the city had taken some action.
Oh did I mention, I LOVE BIKES and wish there were MORE BIKES but we cannot simply ignore that there ARE cars on the road..really, Ill try and snap a photo of the street today.
reading these posts, I can really tell who is arguing hypothetically about the idea, and who actually has to use this mess of a road. only one person has brought up smog..yes, cars are all in a neat little line, bikes whiz by. Its not about who wins, we all have to get around (see above with cargo, kids, work gear etc, life is complicated, not so linear) and this is not a good solution.
I wonder if the road stayed at 2 lanes and bikes could legally use the right lane, cars could go around them..i mean, its a slow street to begin with, i think its more dangerous now simply due to the fact that its HOT and people are stewing in cars rather than driving (im not exaggerating when I said gridlock earlier..its a real mess) and more likely to make bad judgments when driving in rushhour. I think this could have been planned differently.
sorry, its early and im in rant mode. all your posts are great cept where you're attacking each other. XO
WAIT UNTIL JARVIS GETS MESSED UP.
Miller must resign now!
WAIT UNTIL THE MESS UP JARVIS. IT WILL BE WORSE!
Miller must resign now. He can't run the city.
Have you taken a closer look at this 1km section of Dupont where the bike lanes are being installed? It's mainly a commercial/retail strip with restaurants, bars, shops, a library, bank, church, etc... Some residential too. There's no real "industry" left along here, unless you count the former Viceroy factory (now a storage building), and a couple of small commercial buildings around Campbell Ave.
I walk or bike through here very often, shop along this strip, and yes...even hang out at night once in a while.
I always hear the drivers complain that there is no room for them, yet having a parking lane, and a driving lane, counts as two lanes. (You want to park in one, not my problem...) So your lanes have been taken from 2-3. If the parking lane does not count as a lane, how come bikes are expected to ride beside them half the time? Can someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
This city is seriously picking some odd streets to add bike lanes to. I'm 100% for them, without a doubt, as I use them too, but that stretch of Dupont was already a mess with congestion. I already avoid it whenever I'm driving in that area, so there's no way I'd go near it again.
I'm guessing all that this has done is push more people onto Dundas West, thereby creating even more congestion there. Poor implementation again.
PS Cyclists: please stay the EFF off the EFFING sidewalks!!!
I guess I'm just not all that sympathetic. I'm one of those people that thinks the price of gas should be elevated. People won't change their lifestyles if the status quo continues to be subsidized and encouraged. Maybe if people get sick and tired of waiting in traffic they'll get rid of their cars, start to carpool, move closer to their place of business so they can walk or cycle commute, etc.
It's not like it's a war against people. It's a war against a huge hunk of metal that kills. Kill the beast, kill it good.
The city has already scoured all the side routes for good cycling routes but there are very few. Annette is, in fact, a minor arterial and an alternative to biking on Dundas (although not a very good one). Then to cross the tracks there is only one choice: Dupont. So car drivers, leave your cars at home. Compost them, turn them into playgrounds, because it's only going to get harder from here on in.
Car driving IS subsidized. My property tax dollars pay for road maintenance on the Gardiner which I can't use, road maintenance on city streets which I do not cause damage to by a lighter weight, policing and ambulance dollars - and how much % of their budget is related to traffic and traffic collisions?
Not to mention there are hundreds of people dying in Toronto every year from the air pollution caused by motor vehicles - the city health dept. estimates 400 fewer deaths if driving was reduced by just 20%.
20% is not a lot.. I'm not saying that all driving can be eliminated but if everyone gave a bit more thought about the best way to get from A to B then the roads would be a lot less congested when you had to drive on them.
No one suggests eliminating all use of cars, but it's certainly quite possible to reduce it considerably. And yes, even if you have two kids. Maybe especially if you have two kids: introduce them to sustainable transportation when they're young, and they'll grow up to be cyclists and transit riders. Yep, it's possible: my parents did it somehow, after all.
I am so surprised with the amount of piousness that comes with transit users that look down on car drivers as self-centered and self-centric, I'm sure you have some friends that drive cars, but "their different" and everyone else is the asshole.
That being said, the reallocation of road space away from cars is being driven by two immovable constraints: 1) There isn't any more room to build roads. There just isn't. If you want to try and build the Spadina Expressway again, good luck. Move to Los Angeles and see how well road expansion works. 2) Oil and energy in general is going to get a lot more expensive very soon (http://aspocanada.ca/). It will take time for society to adjust, so we had better get started now. Change will take time - people will get shorter commutes, development will happen closer to transit lines, and so on.
Also, I know that it's a one lane road as well, but there is another street between Bloor and St. Clair that no one has made mention of (and it's often dead as a doornail, traffic wise)- Davenport!
The argument that people on bikes shop more is laughable. Let's see, you need to find a place to lock your bike, make sure it's safely locked, and dirty your hands with the grease and dust on the lock and bike frame. You have to take off the panniers if you are carrying other stuff, or risk them being stolen. You have to shop in a bike helmet. And how are you going to carry the purchases home? How much can you fit into a basket or panniers anyway?
Just an FYI, I live in the area and commute downtown by car. Yes, I know I could bike, and I tried, but I work in a professional office setting and cannot be arriving at work in a sweaty T-shirt. My employer does not offer change facilities. Public transit is an option, but it takes about 10-15 minutes longer in the morning, and I cannot run errands or go to the suburbs if I'm using the TTC (I need to travel on a short notice.)
Park on a side street. Bike lanes are essential, your massive white "hey kids I have candy in here" Vans can be parked on side streets. Stop ya whinin
The railway corridor that runs parallel to Dupont would be an ideal bicycle highway to travel across the West end, and would reduce the need for bike lanes on roads.
- Still massive traffic jams on Dupont from approaching Lansdowne to Dundas/Annette intersection at almost any time of the day;
- Still one or two bicycle riders using the lanes in half an hour that I observed them.
Removing traffic lanes to give space to bikes is not the answer. All it's doing is increasing exhaust from idling vehicles. It's done with good intentions, but you know what the road to hell is paved with.