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A letter to the star

I've been pretty upset with the usage of the term "war on cars." Today I read this opinion in the Star, in an article "Time to stop nutty war on cars":

As I inched my car along Wellesley St. East in morning traffic earlier this week, I watched a lone bicyclist merrily speed by me in his designated bike lane.

For cyclists like him, the recently installed bike lane on Wellesley is a welcome development.

But for fuming motorists like me, the bike lane is an unmitigated disaster because it has narrowed the street, slowing traffic and significantly increasing commuting time. And then there's all the extra pollution caused by having our cars and trucks stuck longer in traffic.

The Wellesley bike lane – used only by that one cyclist as I sat idling in traffic – is just another scrimmage in the rapidly escalating "war on cars" raging these days across Toronto.

This is bullshit! Many have pointed out that the war analogy is offensive; nothing remotely resembling a war is happening in Toronto, least of all traffic-wise. Since they've started using this term, I have noticed that drivers are acting out their frustrations more against cyclists. To me, there seems to be an obvious connection between a group being told that they are at war and an increase in violence from that group.

I sent this letter to the Star:

The phrase "war on cars" is being used frequently in the local media to describe some restrictions on driving. The use of the expression is not only offensively inaccurate, but also dangerous.

This term implies a violence that was not part of this discussion a month ago. Since the term became popular, I've noticed a dramatic increase both in the number and in the severity of incidents of aggressive drivers threatening me with their vehicles.

I used to encounter only one or two aggressive or threatening drivers per week during commutes or other recreational cycling. Now it is more often a daily event. A group of people is repeatedly being told that they are at war; the increase in violence from this group is natural.

Please stop referring to the democratically enacted replanning of a small number of streets and intersections as a war. You are imparting a violence into the discussion that has the potential to harm people.

The image is modified from barn with old car by lapstrake.

West End Bikeways plan moving forward

The map above was put together by Joe at Biking Toronto. He has a great post with the full list of proposed bike lanes, with an excellent google map, that the above is cropped from, which shows the proposals for the whole city.

So it looks like the city is going to go ahead with some bike lanes in the west end.

This comes after the consultations that they held regarding the issue. As usual, the plans aren't breath taking (What about the College/Harbord routes abruptly ending?), but it looks pretty good.

For me the most useful thing will be the contraflow bike lanes heading west from Trinity Belwoods.

From Lillian H. Smith to the Toronto Reference Library - A Timelapse

Timelapse photography from a bike on the streets of downtown Toronto. The ride was from Lillian H. Smith to the Toronto Reference Library.

Biking is really great. It always inspires me to do creative things.

The music is by Gustav Mahler: Symphony Number 2.

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.

UPS Blockade

The UPS Blockade of Toronto's bike lanes will continue until Toronto cyclist's will to live has been broken.

The Bike Lanes Are Finally Cleared!

The recent warm weather was great. Not only did it cure me from what I (not a doctor) would call "Seasonal Effectiveness Disorder," but it cleared up all of the ice out of the bike lanes.

Motorists rejoice! Your parking spaces are back!

Image from Devon Meunier on Flickr.

Update from Adrian Heaps' Office

I just got a reply to my letter about snow in bike lanes from Adrian Heaps' assistant Diane Hilliard:

Thank you for your note. This year, there is a pilot project to clear a specific bike lane; the Martin Goodman Trail. This 'trial run' will be reviewed by staff to allow for more designated north-south, east-west routes are added next year.

We continue to work with Transportation staff to effectively clear all roadways however, are unable to delegate specific 'bike lanes' at this point.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this.

Regards,

Letter to Adrian Heaps re Snow in Bike Lanes

It has been quite an ordeal biking to work this year. The extreme cold is a serious deterrent. Being outside in -20 windchill is painful for any exposed skin.

Another serious problem is that the bike lanes haven't been cleared of snow again this year. I have noticed this on College, St. George and Harbord. For a cyclist, there are two options for dealing with the snowy lanes:

1. One could ride through the 1" - 2" of ice, snow and slush that is in most of the bike lanes. This is a laborious way to get around. The snow has the consistency of smooth peanut butter; it coats your wheels and greatly increases rolling resistance. The dirty snow on the tire generally flies off in all directions, doing it's best to create a mess of the bike and the rider's clothes.
2. One could ride farther into traffic. This is great when there are no cars around, but an alarmingly high portion of the motorist population is hostile to having a bike come out into "their lane." Hostile drivers will often pass cyclists and leave very little margin for error (often less than a foot). This is dangerous behaviour, especially so in the winter when it's possible for a cyclist to hit a block of ice and travel that distance sideways with little notice.

The obvious solution to the problem is to keep the bike lanes cleared of snow. One of the committees at city hall said last year that a better job would be done keeping the bike lanes cleared. Of course, it's not happening. Because of this, I decided to send an email to the head of cycling affairs at city hall, Adrian Heaps:

Hello, Councillor Heaps,

Biking to work recently has not been very easy due to the large amount of snow in the bike lanes on Harbord, College, and St. George. I understood that more effort was going to be put into keeping these lanes cleared this year.

Would you please see what can be done about having the bike lanes around town cleared?

Thanks,

We'll have to see if the letter makes any difference. I haven't had any luck with these in the past.

The image of a snowy bike lane is from BikePortland.org.

Notch One Up For VC

I just biked home from an office barbq north of Sheppard. I took the right lane for almost the whole way home and "biked vehicularly." (Note to VC advocates: your jargon is awkward.) I had a very smooth ride home with surprisingly few interactions with asshole motorists.

I am still an advocate for bike lanes, of course. VC is great if you are comfortable doing it, but n00bs and couriers alike prefer bike lanes. VC extremists hate bike lanes, but extremists are always wrong.

I also broke a personal speed record on the way home, clocking 59 Km/h. If only I could go so fast on an even grade...

Haranguing NOW

I just sent this letter to NOW Magazine, in response to their recent article on bike lanes.

Your recent article "Whose lane is it anyway?" which paints an unfavourable view of electric bikes using bike lanes raised some good points. I couldn't help thinking, as I sat in Sneaky Dee's watching your paper being delivered by a truck parked in the bike lane, what you really think bike lanes are for.

This is rich

Here's the reply from UPS:

Dear Ben,

Thank you for your e-mail.

It is never okay to be parking in bike lanes and I can certainly understand your point of view on this matter. I cannot respond on behalf of the driver or why the driver did this, however, I can tell you that this is not normal UPS practice to do such a thing. It is important to address these concerns to the Management Department for further investigation.

If you would like to further discuss this with the Management Department, please provide your phone number. Your phone number is kept confidential, it is used only for Management to follow up with you on this matter.

I apologize for the inappropriate conduct you observed from one of our employees.

Please contact us if you need any additional assistance.

Karen Pellerin
UPS Customer Service

So I guess we can all expect to see no more UPS trucks parked in bike lanes.

Complaining to the Deliverers

I am sending this email to the shipping trio (UPS, Fedex and Purolator), as I am quite sick of seeing them parked in the bike lanes every day on my way to work:

Why do your drivers think it is okay to break the law by parking in bike lanes? It is well documented that they do so:
http://toronto.mybikelane.com/tag/fedex
http://toronto.mybikelane.com/tag/purolator
http://toronto.mybikelane.com/tag/ups

It is not okay for your drivers to break by-laws so that they can get their deliveries done faster. If they have to break the law to get their job done, there is a problem with the management of the company.

I only sent one URL per email of course. If I hear anything back from anyone I will post the reply.

What's in a lane?

Does anyone hate it when there is a car parked in the bike lane? Fight Back! Uploading the actions of offenders is fun and easy! Bike lanes are for bikes, not for cars.

2 Km of new bike lanes approved!

Toronto has had 2 Km of new bike lanes approved on Eastern avenue between Logan and Leslie. The plan is to make things a lot more convenient for all of the cyclists coming off the Gardiner and the DVP.

With all annoying sarcasm cast aside, I have no problem adding bike lanes anywhere, I just think they should be added in places that cyclists actually use first.