City
Sharrows appear on Spadina
It's been a long time coming, but it appears that the City of Toronto is finally getting around to painting sharrows on Spadina. Last October, some will recall, the City eliminated the curb lane that previously ran between Bloor and Lake Shore Boulevard. This wasn't an official bit of cycling infrastructure, but it certainly gave one a little bit of space and comfort when riding along what is a rather busy thoroughfare. At the time, the City explained that the removal was part of a plan to introduce sharrows on narrower stretches of the street and bike lanes where the road was wide enough — i.e. around Spadina Crescent.
Although no firm date was given for the implementation of the new infrastructure, a post about the situation from the Toronto Cyclists Union indicated that City staff had assured the organization that the sharrows would be in place before the end of season. Good thing they didn't specify which season, because work has only just gotten started about 10 months later.
So far the new sharrows can be found on the east side of Spadina between Adelaide and just south of Queen. We're working on getting a timeline on when the rest of the street will be graced by their presence, but perhaps the bigger question is whether or not the sharrows and short bike lane will represent an improvement. While narrow, the curb lane functioned to divide cyclists and vehicular traffic. Sharrows, on the other hand, aim to foster awareness that cyclists and drivers share the same road-space.
It's probably not possible to answer the question until more people get out and try them out, but I would imagine at least a few will be asking, "if it ain't broke, why fix it?"
Discussion
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Again, it's something!
The sharrows will definitely improve riding on Spadina, when it's not blocked with traffic. I definitely feel safer on College where the sharrows were put in.
Normally I'd agree with you (take a metre from every curb or car), but Spadina is a different beast as the lanes simply aren't wide enough for two cars and one metre for a bike. Too, the street sees a lot of out-of-towners who don't know what sharrows are, but understand that a white line is not to be crossed. I ride the entire length of Spadina both ways every day and have done so for 3 years, and I've been completely sandwiched by cars since the lines were scraped off. Only time will tell if these sharrows are a success, but I don't think they'll work as well as the old 'two foot-wide' solution.
I don't have full confidence in the City to repair this damage, nor in the CU to be adequately pressing for a proper solution, which likely means in parts restriping the entire road as there is about a foot spare room in places near the central median as the yellow line there sometimes varies between being at the curb of the median, and being a foot out, and we need as much space as possible for our safety.
In some places the sharrows may be more of a help; in other spots we needed that line. And what will be done with the pinch point going northbound across Queen where cyclists are squeezed into a tight sidewalk if there aren't sharrows to push the cars towards the left?
And what about Spadina north of College? Since we've had a bike facility erased and not replaced, do we have full ability to ride on Brunswick as safe contraflow traffic without tickets?
But I kid, bicycles are ok. I just wish the city would set up a proper bicycling network, but prohibit bikes from streets that already have cars AND streetcars. Proper bike "highways" on a focused set of streets (the ones that don't also have buses and/or streetcars), with only one lane of car traffic to relieve congestion on the surrounding streets.
I also wish they'd ban street parking on streetcar routes; at least during peak traffic hours.
With all the crackdowns on cyclists lately, expect to be ticketed if you're going the wrong way on a one way street. It's a real shame too because the Annex is the perfect neighbourhood to install contra flow lanes. Cars will stay out and cyclists can stay safer by avoiding main arteries.
In regards to your one way street comment: I've gone the wrong way down one way streets, even in front of cops for the last few years, and never received a ticket.
Maybe I will one day, but the fact remains that going the wrong way on a sleepy side street in the annex is 100 times safer than using Spadina. So I'm willing to take that risk.