Thoughs on cycling infrastructure
From my perspective, cycling downtown is relatively safe as motorists have come to expect bicycles and are (mostly) looking out for them. In the suburban areas of Toronto and in all of the 905, it's a very different story. When riding in mixed traffic, a bicyclist has the choice of riding on the side of the road and running the risk of a driver squeezing them into the curb, or taking the lane (as is their legal right) and running the risk of road rage by drivers who don't know what the Highway Traffic Act actually says. As such, bike lanes are safer than no bike lanes - there's no question about that. With a bike lane, everyone receives their own dedicated space; motorists are not impeded by slower traffic, and the safety of bicyclists is improved by removing them from faster and heavier traffic. Turning movements continue to be problematic, but overall, safety is improved. For the record, the proper procedure according to a CAN-BIKE instructor, is for the right turning car to treat the bike lane as a turn lane and temporarily block it entirely. This prevents a "right hook" collision, as the bicyclist cannot pass between the car and the curb. The bicyclist should go left around the turning car, as long as it is safe to do so.
While bike lanes are great, there are two problems associated with them:
Read more »Labels: cycling
Thoughts on transit platforms
With the Toronto mayoral election campaign in full swing, here are my thoughts on the transportation related issues that are at play.
Read more »Labels: cycling, light rail, politics, streetcars, subways
Keep Bike Lanes off Busy Streets - Toronto Star
As part of the Toronto Star's "Your City, My City" series, there's
an article that takes a stance against placing bike lanes on busy arteries. While the author appears to capture many of the arguments that have been made against bike lanes, here's why I disagree with nearly everything he says:
- The author begins with the argument that installing bike lanes are too expensive. It's very easy to make this argument about anything, which is why I consider it a red herring. Every piece of infrastructure, from a state-of-the-art nuclear power plant to a small parkette is expensive. Running a city costs money, and we can't be afraid to spend money to get the services we desire. Besides, the social benefit in building bike lanes far outweigh their costs.
- The ravine system is great, and it does offer a car-free way of getting across the city, but it is an indirect route. The Humber River Recreational Trail, for example, takes about 40km to get from Humber College to Union Station. Using Finch, Albion, Weston Road, St. Clair and Yonge, the trip is about 25 kilometres. We wouldn't ask drivers or transit riders to go 15 kilometres out of their way to reach their destinations, so why should we ask cyclists to do the same?
- Whereas it appears that very few people ride from Scarborough to downtown Toronto, is this because there is little demand or is it because there are no safe routes? Being very familiar with the Humber River and Don River trail systems, I can personally debunk the myth that people do not cycle in the suburbs. Scarborough doesn't have an extensive north-south ravine system like Etobicoke and North York do, so I believe that it's a lack of safe routes. If the Taylor Creek, Highland Creek trail systems offered continuous north-south routes (they are discontinuous at many points) then one would see more east-end cyclists.
From my perspective, there are two main reasons why we should support bike lanes on major arterials:
- Because most of the "destinations" in this city are located along major arteries, we need bike lanes on arteries to allow cyclists to complete the last mile of their trips safely. Consider an office park in Markham, for example. The walk from the parking lot to the front door is short and safe, and no one has a second thought about it. But, lets move that parking lot to the other side of Highway 7, and let's remove the crosswalk or traffic light. Without safe access to the site, who would want to travel there? Bike lanes on major roads follow the same principle - they provide safe access to the places that people want to travel to.
- Bike lanes on minor roads are not an effective alternative to placing bike lanes on arteries. First of all, most minor roads do not require bike lanes because light traffic does not pose a danger to cyclists. Suggesting that bike lanes belong on quiet neighbourhood streets is, in my opinion, a clever way to disguise efforts to kill the bike plan. Secondly many of the smaller streets are discontinuous from block to block and many do not have crosswalks at major arteries. The result of placing bike routes on minor streets could be, as I Bike TO shows us:
Good planning calls for us to study carefully the effects of putting bike lanes of streets, but an outright ban is not good planning either. Whatever we do, the end result has to be a bike network that takes cyclists close to their destinations via the most direct route.
Labels: cycling
Mr. Griffith goes to Washington
Washington DC is a city that only exists for a single purpose - to be the capital city of the United States of America. From a transit perspective this is both a good thing and a bad thing. The master plan for the city, created by Pierre Charles L'Enfant (whom the locals that I spoke to never failed to point out was French) resulted in a very orderly street grid with wide avenues. There was plenty of road capacity from what I could tell, so there was less of an enticement to leave the car at home and take transit. But, because the main employers in the city are essentially recession-proof, I don't think the city has seen the ridership drop that other cities have had (since you don't take transit to work if you don't have a job). I spent five days in Washington last week, and was able to experience most of what the district's transit system had to offer. Here are some random thoughts:
Metrorail:
The subway in Toronto was built under the philosophy that busy surface routes should be upgraded to higher order transit. As a result, the TTC subway follows the street grid. Washington followed a different philosophy, so the network has arms shooting out in all directions from a series of downtown interchanges. Stations are spaced fairly far apart, which makes for a quicker ride but does makes stations hard to locate, especially because they don't follow the street grid. Sign directing tourists to nearby monuments also show Metro stations, but there are few monuments (and these signs) outside of the central city. The lines are mostly in bored tunnels downtown, making the stations deep and escalators being the only way to get down to the concourse in many stations. Some escalators are exposed to the elements as the station entrances are minimalist, and it made me wonder how they were able to keep them operational with all the dirt, snow, sand and debris from the outdoors. Architecturally, there are two styles for stations - all underground stations look identical and all outdoor stations look identical. I found the stations to be dark and signage to be small and hard to read at a distance, but they did have platform floor lights that would flash when a train was approaching and were cleaner than my bedroom. Multiple lines share tracks at many stations, and next-train displays helped make sure I got on the right train, but I often found it difficult to figure out which platform to wait at and to know when I had arrived at the destination. Sometimes the in-train displays showed the next stop and which doors would open, sometimes they didn't, but the trains themselves were fairly nice with forward facing cushion benches and carpet floors. Cell phone companies are also in the process of installing transmitters in the tunnels, with the Verizon network up and the others in progress. Fortunately, riders tended to respect the unwritten code of keeping quiet in the tunnels.
Metrobus:
The bus network in Washington is fairly extensive, both in coverage and frequency. Aside from the DC operated Metrobus service, there are about a dozen other suburban systems that either connect to the Metro at the outskirts or run express into the downtown core. Effectively, one doesn't really need to use the Metro as the bus service is one of the largest and most extensive in the USA. But, one thing that I found very confusing was the number of brands operated even under the Metrobus umbrella. There are Metro Local routes (buses painted red and grey), Metro Express routes (buses painted blue and grey, premium fare), Metro Extra routes (buses painted grey and blue, regular fare express), and DC Circulator routes (buses painted red, not quite express but not quite local either for a reduced fare). While this makes it very easy to identify what bus is coming, a rainbow of buses looks less like a fleet and more like distinct systems to those who are unfamiliar with the setup - especially in a city that has multiple tour bus companies. The only route I rode was the DC Circulator, which is a network of five routes operating on the more touristy corridors. The red route connected the ritzy Georgetown shopping district with Union Station and passed by the hotel, and frequencies were every 10 minutes. The circulators used Belgian Van Hool buses like VIVA in the 30-foot and 40-foot varieties, but the 40-footer had the three door option. While the regular bus fleet had a ton of older American buses, the vast majority of the post 1995 fleet was Canadian built. There appeared to have been a significant investment in stylish BRT buses, even for ordinary local routes.
Fare systems:
The name of the game in DC for transit fares is SmarTrip, a reloadable debit-style smart card that's good for travel on both district and suburban services. The bus service runs on a flat fare system, but paper transfers are no longer issued - the SmarTrip card knows when you first boarded the bus and gives you free transfers for three hours. There is also a discount over the cash fare when using the card. The Metrorail fare system is a bit more complex and uses a fare-by-distance system. You tap your SmarTrip card to unlock the fare barrier when you enter the system and then tap again to leave. The fare is deducted based on those two points, and discounts are available for off-peak travel. A paper ticket is available and works by inserting the ticket into the fare barrier to unlock it. While SmarTrip cards will let you leave with a negative balance, travellers with paper tickets might have to top up before they can leave. SmarTrip is the only way to pay for parking at the Metrorail parking lots, and it reduces the cost of boarding the bus after a subway trip to 75-cents. SmarTrip works exactly how I hope Presto will work when it's fully implemented, but there are some downsides. Firstly, it doesn't have a travel cap so you need a paper ticket if you want to buy a day pass (but they are working on it). Secondly, it is only sold at Metro stations with parking lots - generally on the outskirts. Within the downtown core they are sold at participating CVS Pharmacy locations, but it was next to impossible to figure out which ones were participating and which ones weren't. I ended up going to Falls Church, Virginia to purchase one. Fortunately, you put the leftover balance on the paper ticket on the SmarTrip card.
Cycling:
I managed to get 35 km of cycling on a rented cruiser while I was in town, thanks to Big Wheel Bikes in Georgetown. Initially I headed west along the towpath of the historic Chesapeake & Ohio canal, and spotted a crane along the shoreline. For most of the length the towpath ran parallel to the Capital Crescent Trail, a paved rail-trail on the old Baltimore & Ohio ROW that I followed when it turned northeast. The trail features a very interesting railway tunnel, some massive bridges, and tunnel under downtown Bethesda, Maryland. I decided to stay on the surface, and was very happy that I did. The downtown reminded me of downtown Burlington - a mix of well-placed high-rises and historic low-rises that I have always really liked. Continuing northeast, the trail ended just on the edge of Silver Spring, Maryland, and I connected to the Rock Creek trail to head back into DC. The trails were off-road to the District Line, but became on-road when I crossed into DC and entered Rock Creek National Park. Traffic was light, but I can foresee it being a little dicey during the peak tourist season. The off-road trails eventually returned around the historic Peirce Mill, and I had a smooth, traffic-free ride into Georgetown. The whole circuit took about three hours, but the trail facilities were few and far between. A few things that I did notice about the cycling culture in DC really surprised me. First of all, it didn't seem like bike theft was a major concern. I saw a road bike with expensive 4-spoke carbon wheels locked up on the street overnight. You wouldn't dream of doing that in Toronto. Secondly, while Toronto has a fair number of utility cyclists and trendy riders - the woman in boots and a skirt on a dutch bike with flowers in the basket, for example - DC riders were almost all business. The vast majority of riders on the streets were weekend warriors and weekend warriors with panniers to carry their suits. It was interesting, to say the least.
Labels: cycling, daily travels, subways, urban exploration
How I spent my summer vacation
Full disclosure time:
I spent the summer working at Metrolinx. It was an amazing learning experience and, while I wasn't in a planning position (my field), it gave me an opportunity to learn aspects of the transportation planning industry that I haven't yet been able to learn about in my course work. Having said that, I think I would be naive to say that the work experience didn't affect how I think about transit issues in the GTA.
I've always had a pro-Metrolinx bias, I've never tried to hide it, and it probably won't go away. I sincerely believe that, while no agency is perfect, the regional focus that Metrolinx has as its mandate is the only way we can achieve the transportation goals of moving people sustainably across the entire GTHA. We expect the population of this region to increase by about 2-3 million people. Intensification is a must, but there is no way we'll be able to accommodate that kind of growth within the 416 alone. We have to improve links within the 416, within the 905 and between the two. I'll be critical when I need to be, but the forward looking, positive and collaborative forum that I've tried to build this blog into will continue. Call me a trained seal (again) if you want, but these are the things I believe.
Now, to get back into the spirit of posting, here's one thing I observed over the summer:
In mid-July I cycled the Waterfront Trail from Burlington to Niagara Falls over two days and took the weekend GO excursion train back to Toronto, and was fairly impressed by the way the service was operated. Knowing that there would be plenty of cyclists taking advantage of this service (since Niagara has a very well-kept trail system), GO ran 10 car trains with 8 coaches available for passengers, the ninth coach (with tarp on the seats) became a bike car, and the cab car closed to passengers. This increased the amount of bikes that could be carried, but was only available to people who were travelling the entire way from Union to Niagara Falls - people getting on or off at intermediate stops had to mix it up with the passengers. By all measures the service was a great success, and was done fairly cheaply with platform expansions the only real hard infrastructure needed to make it happen (the concept of "quick wins vs full service on opening day" is something that I will address in a future post).
Looking to the southeast, the Long Island Railroad runs a similar excursion service. During the summer, the Cannonball has left NYC in the early afternoon and run express to the Hamptons - a 100 year tradition. The LIRR also runs local service to these same destinations, but by their own admission, the Cannonball remains their most popular service. As GO expands further into the Niagara Region, I suspect that an express will remain popular. Therein lies the question: should the GO express service to Niagara Falls have a name?
In the golden age of railroading the premier trains had names, with some remaining to this day. Is it time to bring some of these names out of retirement to give a bit more prestige to an already special service?
Labels: admin, cycling, daily travels, GO Transit
Darcy Allan Sheppard
May he be remembered as a man, not a martyr. For who he was, not how he died.
Labels: cycling
Fuzzy logic
I sometimes listen to right-leaning talk radio. This morning the number one argument I heard against bike lanes on Jarvis Street (before I turned it off due to angered blood) was that four months out of the year it snows and cyclists pack it in for the winter. The logic was that an infrastructure project that cannot be used year round is a poor investment.
So, by that logic, snow removal is a poor investment because the plows sit idle for eight months. Cleaning up the beaches of trash and E. coli is a poor investment because June, July and August are the only swimming months. Public golf courses, landscaping services, tennis courts, splash pads... Most specific-use parks would be a bad investment because they can't be used year-round.
Cyclists do not seek to force motorists out of their cars - high gas prices, congestion and changing views on the environment and on urban land use will do that - they only seek to have some safety on our roads. I don't think it's an unreasonable request, as more cyclists means fewer cars clogging up the roads.
Labels: cycling, urban design
Sustainable Commute Fail
If you've been following this blog then you'll know that I'm attempting to replace the car trip I take to get to the GO station with a folding bike which I can take onto a bus or train as needed. The first week was excellent, with the only day I couldn't ride being the days when it rained or when I planned to shop for textbooks.
Unfortunately, a critical linkage in the folding mechanism of my bicycle became damaged yesterday, rendering the handlebars unable to remain in the upright position. As an unsafe condition, I had to take the bike to the Cycle Shoppe on Queen West immediately for repairs. It could be a month before it's back on the road, with a possibility of the problem reoccurring. In the mean time, I'll be riding my other bike to the GO station but won't be able to bring it downtown.
While I stand by my purchase, if anyone at Dahon (as their bikes do not suffer from this problem) wants to send me a free sample, I'll be more than happy to accept it and review it.
Labels: cycling, daily travels
Adventures on a folding bicycle
Assuming that the cars my family owns are operating at peak performance (which is never the case for any car driven outside of the factory), I can expect to pay $15 per week in gas to drive from my home to Brampton GO station. This assumes, of course, that I can find parking (almost impossible after about 7:20 am). When I can't, I have to drive to Bramalea GO station, a $30 per week proposition.
Clearly, I could use an extra $15 in my pocket, but I suffer from a problem that so many residents of the GTHA face - living too far from the bus stop. From my area, there are three different options for getting to the GO station by transit. However, the 20 minute walk to the bus stop makes it unattractive - and that's just to reach the stop with minimal service. To reach a stop which offers frequent (for Brampton) service, I'm looking at a 2.3 km walk in the ditch along a former provincial highway.
Recently, I refurbished my fathers' trusty 10-speed and have been cycling a 10km route between my home and the heart lake area of Brampton every few days for exercise. It was during these rides that I realized that the 20 minute walk became a 5 minute bike ride. And, the stop with "frequent" service was less than 10 minutes away. Clearly, cycling was an option to make eliminating the car more attractive. However, there were some roadblocks. I wanted to ride my bike from my house to the bus stop, but also from Union Station to Ryerson in order to reduce the need to take the subway to complete my journey. But, while GO is in the process of installing bicycle racks on their buses, they currently do not allow bicycles into the luggage compartment, or on any train which called at Union Station during the peak hours. Since locking it up in Brampton would defeat half the purpose of buying it, I needed a solution that would come to me through a
youtube video.
A folding bicycle was the solution to all of the roadblocks I came across. It was sturdy enough to carry me to the bus stop and through the streets of downtown Toronto, and light enough to be carried around during the day. GO Transit does allow folding bicycles in the luggage compartment of their buses, provided they are in their carrying case, and that very same case would allow me to bring it onto rush hour trains (as of the beginning of July, folding bicycles are officially exempt from the bicycle rule on trains as part of a pilot project). As for the TTC, staff prepared a report for me indicating that while folding bicycles did not require an official exemption, they felt that operators would be more lenient since it did not take up as much space. Of course, if it were placed in its bag, I think it would be even less likely to be refused.
After some shopping around, I found a bicycle store in Scone, Ontario called Wheelfast the Bicycle Shoppe, where Tim Green gave me an amazing deal on an Avenir aluminum 6-speed folding bicycle. I saved at least $100 off the average retail price in the GTA and made a day trip out of it,
visiting quaint towns in Bruce, Grey and Dufferin counties. The Avenir aluminum weighs about 25 pounds, and folds to less than 1' x 2' x 3'. It's a Canadian re-badge of a 2004 Dahon Impulse D6, which makes it a product of one of the largest manufacturers of folding bicycles in the world.
After riding around the neighbourhood for a while and familiarizing myself with the way the bike folds, I tested my plan back in June by riding to the bus stop and taking the bicycle on Brampton Transit to get to work and back. I didn't experience any problems, and reception from other passengers was quite warm. The 15 minute drive to downtown Brampton became 60 minutes using the option with the most frequent service, but maximizing GO Transit will bring those times down quickly - possibly cutting it in half and brining it to within 5 minutes of a normal travel time.
On Thursday July 3rd, to get to a Metronauts community meetup, I decided to take the bicycle downtown for the first time. Starting on the Lakseshore line, I brought the bike in its bag to Exhibition station before unfolding it and going on a tour of the town. My first stop was at my aunt's house off Harbord near Ossington, where I raided her bottled water and showed her and my cousin the new bicycle. Upon seeing how the bicycle worked, my cousin turned to my aunt and said "grandma, I need a new bike." Next, I rode across Harbord and Wellesley to Church, then back across town to Bathurst and Dundas before doing laps around Chinatown to kill time. After the meeting, I again rode to Church and Wellesley before heading down to Front Street and into Union Station for the westbound train ride. It was a test of my own physical endurance, and a mental test to see if I could endure the stress of downtown cycling. While nothing can prepare your for the latter, I did prove the concept that spurred me to purchase the bike - it is practical to bring a folding bicycle on a GO train.
Since my trip will involve buses, I knew I had to examine the practicality of bringing the bike on a GO bus, and on using the TTC bike-rack equipped buses. Earlier today, starting at Bramalea City Centre, I boarded a bus bound for Yorkdale with the bike in the luggage compartment. The GO bus operator was very helpful, ensuring that he knew where I was getting off. As I stood up to get off, I observed him already putting on gloves to open the luggage compartment door. I walked over to the 47 LANSDOWNE stop, unfolded the bike, and put it on the rack of the next bus for my ride into the city. Eventually reaching College and Lansdowne with the bike still secure despite a bumpy road, I headed east on College through Little Italy and past U of T until I reached Church, where I met a friend for a meal. By the time we finished, night had fallen and a ride to Parliament and down to Queens Quay gave me a chance to enjoy the fresh air before heading to Union Station. Passing the Redpath Sugar plant, the unloading of a ship added a different aroma to the night air.
I caught the 10:30 bus back to Brampton, and as I sit here finishing a post that I have worked on infrequently for almost a month, I believe that I have found a tool for mobility that might be ideal for many people. Apartment dwellers will appreciate the little space it takes up, and car-dependent suburbanites will equally appreciate the fact that it can fit easily in the trunk of a car. It can do everything a normal sized bicycle can, but takes up half the space, and looks cool as "Japanese-speaking mice balls" while doing it.
There is a blog from Spain called
Vida Plegable, which means "Folding Life". While I don't speak Spanish, I now know that this is a good life.
Labels: cycling, GO Transit, ttc
The Vomit Comet & other stories
Yesterday, a group of planning students including myself, Matt from Vaughan, Melissa from Thornhill, Jordan from Sarnia, and one other person who's name will be added once I remember it, sat in on the TTC general meeting yesterday. It was my first meeting, and I must say that it's something anyone interested in urban transportation, politics and the like should do. A good time was had by all.
Among the items discusses were a possible extension of the Dufferin bus through Exhibition Place to the streetcar loop. This would be done to serve the soccer stadium (now named BMO Field) opening this spring, and to connect with GO. After debate, it was agreed that the extension would only be considered if Exhibition place created a private right of way for the buses to use. It was interesting to see the different styles of politics come out over this issue, from the consensus builder (Giambrone) to the enforcer (guess who - I'm sure you won't be surprised). It's interesting to note that the GM commented that spreading people out by making them walk to the two loops would deal with crowds from games far more efficiently, which I tend to agree with.
The commission received the report outlining that there was no justification to expand the bike rack on bus project, but since vice-chair Giambrone is also the chair of the city cycling committee, they might take up the issue. It's likely that Toronto will go the way of Vancouver and have all buses outfitted with bike racks.
Finally, the commission directed staff to study the possibility operating the subway 24 hours a day, like New York City. This morning, CBC Radio's Metro Morning host, Andy Barrie spoke with the TTC's chief GM Garry Webster, who commented on the proposal. Essentially, we won't be able to run 24-hour subway service until 2016 at least. By that time, the signalling system will be upgraded to the point where trains will be able to operate safely on either track in either direction. Then, the critical nighttime maintenance can be done on one track while the trains use the other.
Also, Mr. Webster commented that nigh time service might run at much higher frequencies than we see today - possibly even every fifteen to twenty minutes. It's definitely something we should look at in the long term, but in the mean time, the 320 Yonge Night bus, affectionately known as "the vomit comet" is fast and reliable, and by my observation, relatively vomit free.
Labels: cycling, subways, ttc
If you don't use it, you lose it
Next week, the TTC will receive a report on the bike racks on buses pilot program at Wilson garage. All of Wilson's accessible buses were equipped with bike racks, allowing cyclist to load their bicycles on the front of the bus, take transit, then use their bikes to complete the journey. While the racks were very well received by over 75% of people surveyed, less than 1% of total passengers used them. As a result, the report argues that there is no justification for the expansion of the program.
The TTC is cash strapped, and we cannot expect them to throw money at a program that clearly is not working, but I believe that cycling is such a big issue in the city these days, this is something that City Council may want to get involved in. The promotion of cycling is, after all, consistent with the city's official plan.
I think there are two main reasons why this project failed.
- The project had bike racks installed on Wilson division's accessible routes, which operate mainly west of Yonge Street. Of those routes, only four serve the downtown core. They are 7 Bathurst, 29 Dufferin, 47 Lansdowne and 161 Rogers Road. I believe that these routes do not provide enough downtown coverage for the cycling-transit mix to work well enough. Simply put, these routes do not generate enough data. The TTC should rerun the pilot project, but add more downtown routes to the project. 6 Bay, 65, Parliament, 75 Sherbourne and 94 Wellesley should be included, to give more coverage to the project area.
- They installed bike racks on Wilson accessible buses at the worst possible time. Wilson has three types of accessible buses. Orion V, VI and VII models. At the time of the test, the Orion Vs were in the middle of their mid-life rebuild program, the Orion VI fleet was being withdrawn from service and retired, and the Orion VIIs were just arriving from the factory. As a result of all this, Wilson had to substitute fishbowls on its accessible routes for many of the runs - buses which did not have bike racks. An eager cyclist who waits at the stop and sees five fishbowls in a row is not going to say "I'll try again tomorrow." I'm certain that Wilson being unable to meet it's accessibility requirements contributed to the low ridership. Now that the fleet is stable, the project can actually produce realistic results.
With the city wanting to promote cycling, and the fact that the project was flawed from the start, I don't think we've seen the last of the bike rack issue.
Labels: cycling, ttc
