Do you know what would be nice . . .

Ideally, Toronto would have an outdoor closed loop cycling track. This would complement the system of recreational trails by allowing for uninterrupted outdoor cycling for any distance.

The track should be fairly long but not too long that individual loops are daunting for riders with less ability. A track length of either 1 mile (1609 m), 2 km or 2 miles (3218 m) would be ideal. Using a round number is good because riders could count individual laps and not need a cycling computer to keep track of distance.

Such a track would need to be sufficiently wide to allow for a range of skill levels safely. A pace line of riders going 35 km/h should be able to coexist here with riders going 20 km/h. As such, the track should probably be either 3 or 4 bike lanes wide.

BikingToronto has a map up showing hydro corridors in Toronto. I haven't spent much time on these, but they have the reputation of being large swaths of unused land. If this were the case, they might make a good location for the proposed track. As an example, I've put together this map of a 2.4 km loop near pharmacy and Eglinton:


View An outdoor loop in a larger map

Note that I'm not proposing this as a location. The map is just to suggest what form such a venue might take. A study would have to be done to find a suitable location.

Improvements to Walmer Circle

They've made some serious improvements to Walmer circle. It used to be a bit of a free for all there, but it looks like they've done the wise thing and:

1. Narrowed the driving area.
2. Painted it to make it more pedestrian friendly.

Kudos all 'round to the city planners and crews who completed this wonderful improvement.

West End Bikeways Meeting # 2

The second meeting of the West End Bikeways planning was tonight. This was a follow up to the Original meeting in November, which sought public consultation for bike routes that would be easy to get approved politically.

This meant that the usefulness of any new infrastructure would be limited. People weren't happy with this, but cyclists are used to compromising with local merchants and City Hall. The most desired bike infrastructure in Toronto is a new major east - west route on the west end. Take The Tooker and Bells on Bloor have shown that a Bloor street bike lane would be very popular with cyclists, and there was a lot of noise at the first meeting about a Queen West bike lane. These two bike lanes would also be the hardest to get put in politically.

Since neither of these things will happen in 2009, the idea of sharrows on College St. west of Euclid is quite tantalizing. Nobody really likes sharrows, but as more of them are woven into the urban fabric they should become more accepted and useful. Currently College goes from being a half decent bike lane to being some of the worst Toronto cycling has to offer: being forced to ride in the door zone next to a street car track and busy traffic. If anything can be done to improve that, it would be great.

"Urban Goddess: Jane Jacobs Reconsidered" on TVO's The View From Here

Last night TVO premiered a documentary about Jane Jacob's theories, discussed in a modern context. The documentary "Urban Goddess: Jane Jacobs Reconsidered" discussed whether her theories are still relevant in modern city planning. I was disappointed to see that the documentary focused primarily on the debate surrounding new developments in Toronto and New York rather than looking to the future.

All global societies are faced with the potential of a coming energy shortage due to peak oil. Some societies are much more prepared than this for others. It is prudent to plan to be prepared for scenarios like these.

Energy use affects every facet of our lives, from heating, to transportation to food usage. In the extreme scenario, food may become much more scarce with the increase of price of fertilizers derived from crude oil. Meanwhile, transporting food or even driving to work could become cost prohibitive.

Walkable mixed use communities appear to be an effective inoculation against some of the issues posed by energy shortage. For example:

1. Heating: multi-unit dwellings like apartments, condominiums and even row houses are in general more efficient to heat that separated houses.
2. Food: cutting down on urban sprawl means that less viable farm land is used for housing. This is especially true in Greater Toronto, where on an almost daily basis more of what is arguably the best farm land on the planet is devoted to new subdivisions.
3. Transportation: One of the legs that the theory rests on is walkability. This method of transport is the least affected by energy shortages. Walkability also generally means bikability.

In light of these points, Jacobsian planning should not be dismissed as a crutch of NIMBYist debate. Her theories offer cities a more stable future.

You can see the Jacobs doc again on TVO Sunday, February 22 - 10:37 PM and February 25 at 01:02 AM.