City
Toronto might ban bike parking at anything but designated posts
Is this evidence of a war on cycling in Toronto or just a desire to keep the streetscape uncluttered? Earlier today the public works and infrastructure committee voted in favour of a by-law that would make it illegal for cyclists to park their bikes at anything other than an official City bike post or designated bike rack. The motion still needs approval from city council, but the sentiment alone is enough to frustrate local cyclists.
Here's the motion in question:
"No personal shall, without prior authorization from the General Manager, chain, lock or otherwise attach any article or thing to a waste receptacle, streetlight, parking meter, utility pole, transit shelter, fence, tree or other municipal property or authorized encroachment that is located in a street, and any article or thing that remains attached for more than 24 consecutive hours may be removed by the General Manager and disposed of pursuant to Article XVIII."
Some cycling advocates on Twitter have already noted that should this by-law be approved by city council, it will make what's already a challenging situation worse. It's hard to find a spot to lock one's bike in densely populated areas as it is, which means that the competition for bike posts will be downright cut-throat if this goes through. I completely understand the desire to protect young trees from careless cyclists who roughy affix their bikes to them, but there's plenty of unofficial places to lock bikes that don't result in harm to anyone.
Are bikes really that much of an eyesore?
Photo by Jezza323 in the blogTO Flickr pool
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im probably wrong, but still. what a douche
As for what??'s comment - it's not a case of there being a right maligned, its simply that this city lacks adequate secure bicycle parking in areas that people frequent by bicycle. And some drivers DO tend to park cars where they feel like - Bike lanes, sidewalks, blocking driveways, etc.
1) Increase profit of parking authority by inventing new arbitrary rules.
2) Subsequently decrease efficiency of city's transportation grid. (nobody notices that anyways)
3) ??
4) Profit.
Bikes are way smaller than cars. Plus the general idea that it would be nice to give perks to bike riders who reduce traffic congestion, stay healthier, blah, blah, blah.
*PINKOS FOR LIFE*
I'd like more post and rings, personally I don't like locking up to trees, fences or gas mains.
Let's not get all riled up by this, it's stupid.
Also, the by-law only allows for removal after 24 hours, and you shouldn't be storing your bike permanently on a pole or a gas main anyway.
I think the city has done a good job over the past couple of years with installing bike parking. Of course, we can always do with more but I think cyclists really have bigger issues than this.
They need more bike posts then
I found out yesterday that you can request bike rings here: https://wx.toronto.ca/inter/uds/bicycle.nsf/PostRingLocnSugg?OpenForm
but
"We receive a very high volume of location suggestions, which are investigated on a first-come first-serve basis. It may take up to 6 months before a field inspection will be dispatched to a suggested bike parking location."
And so it goes.
It's not possible.
Just a gravy train- sized waste of time.....
How many times have you been walking on our small crowded sidewalks, and had to skirt around a fallen bike, because it was attached to some signpost instead of a proper bike lock?
This can be dangerous actually.
They will definitely need to install more bike posts for sure though.
If they ban this people who need to lock-up for longer than 24hrs(say staying at your friends on the w/e) will squat on the all the nearby ring and posts?
Locking up anywhere is something that naturally happens, i agree with removing abandoned bicycles but this policy is too aggressive.
A. denying the public to make conscientious decisions to improve air quality, health and well being of themselves and those around them
B. increasing congestion and pollution in a already overly congested roads by disallowing residents to use alternative transportation by disallowing them adequate parking for their bikes.
Both of this points also put additional strain of the health care system which is lacking much 'gravy' as Mayor Ford has seen to that.
The reason for such an action must be related to a 'war on bicycles', and couldn't have anything to do with our Mayor could it?
Not to mention, those bicycle rings here in Toronto are so easy to break. They've shown this several times on the news. A good pry bar and some brute force and those carriage bolts WILL snap. Toronto, why don't you try acting like the world-class city you are so desperately trying to be?
let's say you drive 20km and park your car 100m from where you are going then if you bike 2km you should technically be parking your bike 10m away from where you are going right? that's not so bad but on a street like Roncesvalles Ave. near High-Park it is somtimes near impossible to find a place to lock your bike and so we scramble for the safest place in sight.
i am shocked and appalled at this back-asswards bylaw!
why didn't they consult anyone... oh wait, i know why... rob ford.
well, probably not, but the fact is the city _won't_ increase bike parking where it counts. again Roncesvalles Ave. comes to mind (i live near by so it's a pet-peve) and again the city installed about a fifth of the number of bike parking rings they should/could have. why? i don't know. i'd like to say cause they're cheap but obviously putting a bike lane on a street not really known for much traffic anyway was expensive enough...
i only ever use a pole or other random thing to park to when there is no post & ring available. i suspect this is the case for most people. also, those bike racks that some places have installed where you have to put your wheel in between two bars are not safe or useful (for example, next to the sheraton hotel on queen west, outside some malls, etc.). my wheel is usually too big to properly fit in most of those, and even if it did, the design of those racks is horrible as they only allow those with a U-lock to lock the wheel to the rack, and not the frame. if i encounter one of these, i'd rather look for a pole than lock my bike to something and get my bike stolen.
If the city wanted to 'de-clutter' the street, why did they agree to let Astral Media change the design of the "Info to go" pillars to 4 sqft. of "info" and 64 sqft. of advertising?
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/pw/bgrd/backgroundfile-39000.pdf
Absolutely useless "street furniture", with the tiniest fig leaf. I look forward to some creative vandalism on those godawful things.
Does your bike seat tie you panties in a knot?
You mean to tell me you don't see anything wrong with this bylaw? No wonder the city is run by idiots. Morons like you voted them in
Until zoning as requires a specified number of bicycle lock-ups for each development then it is the motorists who are getting special priveleges and not the cyclists.
can we please all work together to tell people that bike on the sidewalk that they look ridiculous and make everyone pissed off? i cycle every day, and these people make me mad. if its a kid, or that 1000 year old chinese lady, then ok, but if your a guy between 15 and 65, like whats ur problem, are you scared?
The bylaw is for 24 hours. Just don't leave your bike locked to something over night, pretty simple. and yeah, probably not very well enforced. If I leave my bike locked with my Kryptonite lock on a parking sign overnight, are they going to rip the sign out of the ground? doubt it...
No seriously, depends on the rider -- just like car parking is similarly afflicted by scoff-laws. Can you tell me why I cannot lock up to sign post (as a for instance)?
I think a lot of people just read the headline and jumped to comments section seeking blood. I'm a cyclist, but I almost never leave my bike locked to anything for more than a few hours.
There are a lot of bikes that have rusted over because they just got flat abandoned. So, arguably, if the city removes those bikes, there's more room for you to park your bike for a couple hours.
no pun intended?
New law proposal: after 24 hours, remove morons who can count to potato.
Bianca, the other question of course is, WHY are the idiots who run our city wasting time on such a trivial matter when, as claimed by the mayor, we are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. I mean I thought that was their focus, not this kind of spiteful action against cyclist commuters.
READ MORE - COMPLAIN LESS!
remains attached for more than 24 consecutive hours may be removed by the General Manager and disposed of pursuant to Article XVIII."
It may leave some grey area but hopefully it is going to help clean old bikes up and make people more aware when they attach their bikes to gas lines, benches and other areas. I think with this should come more accessible bike parking however. Most street stops should be able to fit 4 bikes rather than 2.
I am sure they will have some sort of chalking to ensure that they are not picking up bikes from the day before. The same way they check to see if cars are parked longer than 4 hours.
Just a thought.