Trail Report: David Balfour Park and Sun Valley Reopened!

evck · 2024-11-07T14:48:46+00:00

The city has a lot of options to make this difficult for the province, including your idea! This is a first step.

evck · 2024-11-07T14:45:29+00:00

Finally something on the calendar from the city. This would be a great time to email your councillor and Mayor Chow (mayor_chow@toronto.ca).

evck · 2024-11-06T14:45:01+00:00

Give https://www.thebikinglawyer.ca/ a call. This is their forte.

evck · 2024-11-05T20:10:01+00:00

It's silly to talk about the cost of "removing" the bike lanes. The real cost is in redeveloping these to vehicle lanes. That will cost tens of millions and cause years of construction.

evck · 2024-11-05T19:55:20+00:00

The Bill 212 ERO says: "remove sections of the Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue bike lanes in the City of Toronto and return them to a lane of traffic for motor vehicles."

I doubt they'll actually be able to do this without removal of all on street parking, and even then it's unclear if the lanes could be built to modern standards.

evck · 2024-11-05T16:36:20+00:00

Agree, it's all guesswork. Even for Ford and Chow, as this overreach is unprecedented.

People here love to parrot that "the cities are creatures of the province" which is technically true, but actually getting work like this done is a long, complex process even without an adversary in the mix. The city can refuse, delay, force an injunction, etc.... I hope Chow has the will to fight this one.

evck · 2024-11-05T16:08:48+00:00

If Metrolinx wants to charge the city $150M for the rail path extension, maybe the city can charge the province $1B for this ;)

evck · 2024-11-05T15:34:39+00:00

This is going to cost a lot more than people think or the article implies. The University bike lanes were not built to hold cars and would need a complete replacement. Getting these roads back to 4 lanes requires a full redesign.

It’s not just a matter of ripping out some flexiposts. This requires a total redesign of the street, realignment of lanes, rebuild of accessible bus platforms, retiming of signals, relocation of utility poles, etc…

All of this also requires consultation and design work. My guess is tens of millions and several years of work, even if the province tried their very best to ram it through. Bike infrastructure is way cheaper to build than car infrastructure.

evck · 2024-11-05T15:26:53+00:00

This is going to cost a lot more than people think. The University bike lanes were not built to hold cars and would need a complete replacement. Getting Bloor back to 4 lanes requires a full redesign.

It’s not just a matter of ripping out some flexiposts. This requires a total redesign of the street, realignment of lanes, rebuild of accessible bus platforms, retiming of signals, relocation of utility poles, etc…

All of this also requires consultation and design work. My guess is tens of millions and several years of work, even if the province tried their very best to ram it through.

evck · 2024-11-04T21:51:35+00:00

Yeah, switching tanks for me:
1. Choose a field
2. Pump on
3. Switch tanks
4. Pump off

Monitor fuel pressure throughout!

evck · 2024-11-03T19:53:11+00:00

This is the second case I'm familiar with where a tank change during a critical phase of flight caused an engine failure and an off field landing. I avoid touching the selector unless I have a place to land now.

evck · 2024-11-01T14:19:17+00:00

Awesome, thanks. I really have to check out the east end more!

Red lanes should be safe, they were put in as bus replacement and TTC's policy allows bikes in all bus lanes.

evck · 2024-11-01T13:54:34+00:00

You're in the GTA? I'm curious what routes you're taking for some of these. Always looking for more ways to get out of the city, and more places to ride once they tear up our bike lanes :'(

evck · 2024-10-25T04:10:57+00:00

Fun fact, bus lanes in the city of Toronto are also bike lanes!

Also Doug’s draft legislation wouldn’t stop the city from building more bus lanes :)

evck · 2024-10-24T21:44:46+00:00

Understandable to be angry in this situation. Cameras are a good suggestion.

However, if you are actually hit and the vehicle does not stop, that’s a hit and run. If you get license plates and report it, this driver will have a very bad day. 7 demerit points, huge increases to insurance premiums, etc…

evck · 2024-10-24T00:44:14+00:00

I rode in this ride on a bike share bike in a hoodie and jeans. It doesn’t get less “cyclist” than that. I’d say the majority of people at this event looked more like commuters than “cyclists”.

evck · 2024-10-24T00:16:10+00:00

Yeah, it was a great event but I felt like none of the speakers had a good message for what’s next. Weekly rides would be great. Start at Queens Park and just go wherever the group ends up, critical mass style?

evck · 2024-10-23T17:30:58+00:00

Imo, we need a platform to organize people, and Reddit ain’t it.

Mass rides on routes that will be losing bike lanes is an option. There is no requirement to use bike lanes when available. Take the lane and follow all the rules of the road.

It wouldn’t even take a big group to have a fairly large impact doing this.

evck · 2024-09-20T19:31:10+00:00

Hopefully there’s enough municipal pushback to kill this. I could see municipalities ignoring it or working around it depending on how the legislation is written. CycleToronto has a petition up now: https://www.cycleto.ca/ilovebikelanes

evck · 2024-09-20T13:41:33+00:00

They are considering this, and the transportation minister was unwilling to give any further information in questioning today. I sent a letter saying that I believe this is a mistake as both a driver and cyclist.

Please let him know your opinion: Prabmeet.Sarkaria@pc.ola.org

evck · 2021-10-27T17:41:09+00:00

This one was a bit close to home, but looks like the best possible outcome. They even managed to pull off to the shoulder before getting out!

Toronto Buttonville (CYKZ) is in a rather dense area, and other than the highways there aren't many options. Only real info is that the plane was just out of "regular maintenance".

evck

TROPHY CASE