I confess that I am a recreational biker at best (although, I have recently invested in a 'commuter' bike, that I find much more comfortable and therefore more likely to use more often). My wife is a regular commuter via walking or biking to her place of employment downtown (about 50 min. walk and 20 min. ride). She chooses active transportation from May-October.
She chooses to make her way downtown via residential side streets because of the 'safety' issue on more major thorough fares. I think there is an opportunity for some major access roads into the downtown core to be more bike friendly (i.e. Victoria Ave - speaking of which, I have always thought this should be converted to a ped/walking bridge -; Broadway Ave; and perhaps Clarence Ave.)
I REALLY like the concept, once downtown, of having a bike lane between sidewalk and parked cars as demonstrated in the Copenhagen photo. This just makes so much sense, it seems to be a no-brainer! 4th and 3rd Ave are definitely wide enough to accommodate this, and since we are in the process of some street work here, let's take the opportunity to do something that has been proven to work!!!
And finally, although the 'bike season' for most may realistically only be 5 months of the year, that can still make a huge impact on carbon emissions and congestion due to traffic. Perhaps a more practical goal for our City (which already has the 2nd most bike commuters per capita in Canada!), is to be the most bike friendly city in spring/summer/fall
