Friday, March 03, 2006
Making the Tooker
As most of you are probably aware, today is the day that the Tooker bike lane on Bloor and Danforth will be born. The birth will take place at 2 pm today (Friday).
I'm all for more practical bike routes through our city, so I hope this bike lane is fully installed in the near future, and many more like it.
As I've heard mentioned in the discussion about the Tooker bike lane before, there are quite a few reasons that this bike lane is so practical. Here's what I've collected over the past few months:
1. A relatively dense population already lives and works near Bloor St and Danforth because of the subway, so this bike lane is likely to be well used.
2. Bus routes do not primarily run along the street so there is not a problem with the lane interfering with ground level public transit. Also, there are no street car tracks on Bloor or Danforth, making shifting of lanes simple.
3. The bike lanes can be installed so there is still street parking on one side of the street in most places. Also, I guess like most parts of Toronto, there are public parking lots nearby anyway. No one expects to go to the mall and drive their car right up to the front door of the store they want to go to. I don't know why it is such an imperative to have a 5 metre stroll to the store in the busiest parts of our city.
4. The route is straight, making it fast. Bikes deserve some direct routes through the city.
5. It's such a small amount of money to make such a big difference for our city. This applies to all bike lanes and paths.
Here's a quote I especially liked from the press release today from the Take the Tooker collective.
The City is aware of the hazards of biking, especially east-west cycling in the core where most car/bike collisions happen, but has failed to address the problems. Link . "Toronto cyclists can't wait for more inaction. And there's really no reason to. Bike lanes are dirt cheap--only $200,000 brings 8 kms of bike lanes to the Bloor/Danforth. This compares most favourably to the $125,000,000 a km cost of the Front St. Extension" says Darren Stehr, another member of the Take the Tooker collective.
Good luck today painters!
I'm all for more practical bike routes through our city, so I hope this bike lane is fully installed in the near future, and many more like it.
As I've heard mentioned in the discussion about the Tooker bike lane before, there are quite a few reasons that this bike lane is so practical. Here's what I've collected over the past few months:
1. A relatively dense population already lives and works near Bloor St and Danforth because of the subway, so this bike lane is likely to be well used.
2. Bus routes do not primarily run along the street so there is not a problem with the lane interfering with ground level public transit. Also, there are no street car tracks on Bloor or Danforth, making shifting of lanes simple.
3. The bike lanes can be installed so there is still street parking on one side of the street in most places. Also, I guess like most parts of Toronto, there are public parking lots nearby anyway. No one expects to go to the mall and drive their car right up to the front door of the store they want to go to. I don't know why it is such an imperative to have a 5 metre stroll to the store in the busiest parts of our city.
4. The route is straight, making it fast. Bikes deserve some direct routes through the city.
5. It's such a small amount of money to make such a big difference for our city. This applies to all bike lanes and paths.
Here's a quote I especially liked from the press release today from the Take the Tooker collective.
The City is aware of the hazards of biking, especially east-west cycling in the core where most car/bike collisions happen, but has failed to address the problems. Link . "Toronto cyclists can't wait for more inaction. And there's really no reason to. Bike lanes are dirt cheap--only $200,000 brings 8 kms of bike lanes to the Bloor/Danforth. This compares most favourably to the $125,000,000 a km cost of the Front St. Extension" says Darren Stehr, another member of the Take the Tooker collective.
Good luck today painters!
Darren J 3/03/2006 01:22:00 p.m.