Quote:
Originally Posted by Doady
Street parking is a very important feature of a walkable downtown. It reduces the need for off-street parking allowing for redevelopment and intensification, and it calms traffic and provides a buffer between car traffic and pedestrians. Lack of parallel parking is the main problem with Main Street and King Street in Hamilton, for example. Simply adding parking on those streets would improve Hamilton's downtown immensely.
Parallel parking along major roads is a large part of what distinguishes a real city like Toronto from places Brampton and Mississauga. As you say, removing the parking actually made driving a car along Bloor easier, but is that what we really want in our cities?
I don't think people would bitch so much about Bloor if the city had along made some investment in improving cycling infrastructure for the rest of the city. By excluding people outside of downtown from the cycling network, the city allowed it to become a wedge issue. They pay for it, get no benefit from it, and no surprise they feel like they suffer because of it. It's just another way to divide the city. 905 has bike lanes too so no reason for a place like North York not to have them.
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In the past bike lanes were installed on some Scarborough streets. but due to opposition groups and the city councilors those bike lanes were removed. So, the city has tried and often failed when adding bike lanes in the suburbs. The city is still trying to install bike lanes in suburban areas but the local councilors and opposition groups have been successful in killing many projects.
In fact the Ontario government got involved in fighting bike lanes when they were installed in suburban areas, ie Etobicoke, before then they had no objections.