Cycling in Canada

[JHikka]

to_cycling

Temporary cycle tracks were installed on University Avenue/Queens Park from Bloor West to Adelaide Street in 2020 as an #ActiveTO route. Before and after data showed a 137% increase in cycling volumes on a daily weekday average on this corridor. ... The installation was made permanent by City Council in December 2021. In Spring 2022, the cycle tracks were extended from Adelaide Street West to King Street West, with concrete curbs and bollards recently added to provide physical separation between people cycling and driving.





https://twitter.com/TO_Cycling/statu...37111813652481

[JHikka]

Toronto cyclists out yesterday protesting the police crackdown on cyclists in High Park as motorists continue to drive recklessly through the neighbourhood, injuring and killing residents at a rapid pace.


https://twitter.com/NathanWener/stat...81107814694912

[Nouvellecosse]

I wonder what gives the police the idea to start targeting certain groups and/or certain areas like that. John Tory refused to get involved stating that he doesn't influence such policing decisions, which is fine, but then who does?

[niwell]

As someone who lives right beside High Park I'm guessing there were (legitimate) complaints about the spandex-clad set doing circuits in the park at high speeds. I get it as those guys can be annoying, and I have seen them narrowly miss people blowing through intersections in the park. But it seems like the actual enforcement wasn't targeted towards them at all, and rather anyone making minor infractions. 26km/hr in a 20 zone is normal for drivers here, if not on the slow side.

Meanwhile I see people racing down Parkside Drive at easily twice the 40km/hr speed limit all the time. Been almost hit a few times by people making lefts from Howard Park and seemingly not paying any attention at all (as a driver as well I have no clue who would miss a pedestrian at that intersection). Lost my shit at someone once who almost hit my dog, much to my wife's embarrassment.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by niwell

As someone who lives right beside High Park I'm guessing there were (legitimate) complaints about the spandex-clad set doing circuits in the park at high speeds. I get it as those guys can be annoying, and I have seen them narrowly miss people blowing through intersections in the park. But it seems like the actual enforcement wasn't targeted towards them at all, and rather anyone making minor infractions. 26km/hr in a 20 zone is normal for drivers here, if not on the slow side.

James McLeod was out with a radar gun yesterday and easily found cars going 40km/hr in the 20 zone, with a few nearing 50km/hr. Police instead have decided to focus on cyclists who may roll through stop signs or travel marginally above the 20 limit. AFAIK there have been no deaths or serious injuries from cyclists hitting pedestrians in the city since at least 2006.

There have been a few others go out with radar guns on Parkside finding cars going well over the 40 limit as you say. The number of pedestrian collisions and deaths keep rising and yet TPS stays focused on cyclists. It's pretty clear at this stage that council shows no real regard for its residents and I know I am personally very much looking forward to the municipal election in October, as i'm sure everyone in the above picture is as well.

[J.OT13]

Targeting cyclists is just easier, I guess. For sure, there are cases where cyclists are being reckless, like burning red lights without checking, passing on MUPs with other cyclists coming down the other away, riding on crowded downtown sidewalks. But this here seems pretty perthitic. Most cyclists don't have speedometers, so how are they supposed to know they are above the speed limit?

I wish rolling stops were allowed for cyclists. When you're on a bike, you're usually going at a reasonable speed and very aware of your surroundings. You can safely slow down a bit, check and keep going. Meanwhile, cars constantly roll stops (or straight up burn stop signs) without actually checking.

Cars are more dangerous than bikes. Full stop. Unless a cyclist is being extremely reckless, they should not be targeted.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by niwell

As someone who lives right beside High Park I'm guessing there were (legitimate) complaints about the spandex-clad set doing circuits in the park at high speeds. I get it as those guys can be annoying, and I have seen them narrowly miss people blowing through intersections in the park. But it seems like the actual enforcement wasn't targeted towards them at all, and rather anyone making minor infractions. 26km/hr in a 20 zone is normal for drivers here, if not on the slow side.

Meanwhile I see people racing down Parkside Drive at easily twice the 40km/hr speed limit all the time. Been almost hit a few times by people making lefts from Howard Park and seemingly not paying any attention at all (as a driver as well I have no clue who would miss a pedestrian at that intersection). Lost my shit at someone once who almost hit my dog, much to my wife's embarrassment.

This. A thousand times this. I myself have done a few speedy spandex-clad rides through High Park (not around and around, just through), and while just I alone am not an imposition on anyone, I can definitely see how weekend pelotons would be threatening to casual pedestrians.

There aren't many places in the city for a group of cyclists to get up to a good speed, so they end up in High Park. They really shouldn't do that, so I get the crackdown, save for the fact that the cops are being sticklers about precisely enforcing the 20 km/h limit while cars regularly break it and, of course, hit and hurt people on surrounding streets.

The cops are going about this in a stupid way. No wonder people are upset.

[Kilgore Trout]

Cyclists are low-hanging fruit for cops. The rules of the road were designed for cars, so it's a huge payday for police to crack down on things like rolling through stop signs, because it's something done by almost anyone on a bike, and you can pull over several cyclists at once, unlike drivers.

Incidentally, I just spent a few weeks in BC after not travelling there for two years and had some thoughts on bike infrastructure and culture in Vancouver and Victoria.

Vancouver – The new bike infrastructure that has been built over the past couple of years is amazing. Really good protected intersections and nice landscaping on new paths like Richards. The new Beach Avenue path is fantastic – no more awkward Seawall trips. That said, I was surprised to see that many of the new on-street paths arebi-directional, which are being phased out here in Montreal because they can be dangerous at intersections. I also noticed some nice improvements to bikeway streets like Ontario with more traffic-calming measures like deviators.

One thing that hasn't changed: I've always felt that Vancouver's cycling culture was a bit strange. There seem to be few of the utilitarian cyclists you see in Montreal and Toronto and way more commuters and leisure riders. I don't notice many bikes parked outside of grocery stores, concert venues or bars, for instance, and this hasn't really evolved in the past couple of years.

Another oddity: not many e-bikes given how hilly it is. Of course I saw a number of them, but the proportion was way lower than here in Montreal, which has much less challenging topography. My theory is that Vancouver cyclists already have nice hybrids that can handle the hills, so there's less incentive to switch to an e-bike, and as I previously mentioned there are fewer utilitarian cyclists who might want an e-bike to get groceries or haul their kids around.

Victoria – More e-bikes than Vancouver, proportionally. The cycling culture also felt more utilitarian. Some very nice new on-street paths, especially the protected uni-directional one on Vancouver Street that passes through Harris Green. The city still feels awfully car-centric, especially with slip roads at many big intersections, even in the downtown area. But if I lived there, I'd buy an e-bike and enjoy the year-round ability to be pretty much anywhere in town in 20 minutes or less.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

One thing that hasn't changed: I've always felt that Vancouver's cycling culture was a bit strange. There seem to be few of the utilitarian cyclists you see in Montreal and Toronto and way more commuters and leisure riders. I don't notice many bikes parked outside of grocery stores, concert venues or bars, for instance, and this hasn't really evolved in the past couple of years.
.

That's a really interesting observation, particularly to someone who hasn't been to Van in ages and always assumed it was a great cycling city. It does kinda confirm my bias that despite infrastructure lackings, Toronto isn't nearly as bad as sometimes alleged. People bike here. A lot, but maybe not as much for commuting to hit the statscan data. Bars and concert venues are packed with bikes and it's often hard to find a place to lock up (and one of the few things Toronto is good at is having lots of bike parking!). At the end of the day critical mass is more important than having great infrastructure, though obviously both are ideal. I dream of cycling around Copenhagen again.

Personally I cycle almost everywhere, despite being close to a subway station and streetcar line. And owning a car. It's often faster, easier and cheaper. Plus exercise. On that front I'm doing about 100km a week this summer on my single speed Fuji Feather, at an average speed of about 23km/hr accounting for stops and such, so much faster on long stretches between lights. At this point the only people who pass me are either couriers or the spandex guys, though occasionally I do pass the latter!

[Kilgore Trout]

Yeah, it's weird. Toronto is not a particularly pleasant city to cycle in, and yet lots of people do it, because it's so convenient. Vancouver is a pretty nice city for riding a bike and yet it seems limited to a certain subset of the population.

Or maybe it has to do with the overall culture of the city? People in Vancouver just don't seem to go out as much as they do in Toronto or Montreal. It often feels like a city of homebodies.

[MonkeyRonin]

Toronto sometimes gets a bad rap as a cycling city, but I just don't think that's true anymore or really reflects the on-the-ground experience.

On paper, Vancouver's bike network looks fantastic. Bike lanes are extensive, well connected, and high quality:


https://www.translink.ca/rider-guide...etro-vancouver

But in practice, outside of the (admittedly excellent) Downtown peninsula, most of those bike lanes are on residential side streets - which are generally quiet and safe for cyclists already. The commercial strips and thoroughfares on the other hand are underserved and can be somewhat treacherous with 2-3 lanes of fast-moving traffic in either direction.

Toronto's bike network in comparison might look a bit disjointed and haphazard, but most of those bike lanes are on the busy commercial thoroughfares (which are fairly well served at this point) where bike lanes are more intuitive and really needed. And for those that don't have bike lanes, traffic volumes are higher, speed limits are lower, and bikes are more common, so they're easier & safer to bike on. The City's been pretty aggressive on expansion recently as well - now they just need to improve connectivity.


http://www.twowheeledpolitics.ca/202...-plan.html?m=1

[zoomer]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Yeah, it's weird. Toronto is not a particularly pleasant city to cycle in, and yet lots of people do it, because it's so convenient. Vancouver is a pretty nice city for riding a bike and yet it seems limited to a certain subset of the population.

Or maybe it has to do with the overall culture of the city? People in Vancouver just don't seem to go out as much as they do in Toronto or Montreal. It often feels like a city of homebodies.

Could be where you cycled/when you cycled and the variable nature of individual perception?

In East Van I’ve seen cyclists from every subset. Along the seawall and other more ‘touristy’ routes you’re likely see a smaller subset, and not people doing everyday chores or commutes.

Too lazy to find all the stats, but what I did come across in a quick Google search, shows that in 2017 Vancouver’s Burrard Street bridge was the busiest route in North America where there was an an Eco-counter sensor with an average of 3,100 per day.

Source

Mind you those stats are old, and to be honest I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a Vancouver route approaching a daily average of 7,000 in 2022.

As for Montreal - from a June 4, 2022 CBC article, “ Around 2,000 cyclists a day, he said, use a recently constructed bike lane on St-Denis Street, a major artery in Montreal's urban core. "There's some days when it's 8,000, which is impressive."

Source

Again, I’d be surprised if there isn’t a route that is far above an average of 2,000 cyclists in Montreal - there must be busier routes than St-Denis?

Victoria has an extensive automated counter network (and yes, the number of routes coming into downtown is less than Montreal, but the population of greater Victoria is also 10 x less than Montreal.

Daily average from January 1 to August 14, 2022 for Victoria is 2,141 cyclists at the busiest checkpoint - with three other checkpoints at basically the same number. You can check out the 28 counters at the site below, just remember to untick ‘pedestrians’ so they’re not included in the count.

Source

Edit - thanks for sharing those maps MonkeyRonin - fascinating.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Toronto sometimes gets a bad rap as a cycling city, but I just don't think that's true anymore or really reflects the on-the-ground experience.

The City's been pretty aggressive on expansion recently as well - now they just need to improve connectivity.

Yes. Toronto is still not up to Montreal or Vancouver’s standards when it comes to bike infrastructure but it’s astonishing how far we’ve come in the last 3 years. We used to be embarrassingly bad among our peer cities and, if current trends continue, I wouldn’t be surprised if we come out on top in a few years.

I credit the fact that the same organization that runs street parking runs the bike share system, and that the Toronto Parking Authority runs a very tight ship and can somehow make the impossible possible.

[Kilgore Trout]

East Van has a similar cycling culture to Montreal, it’s true. (That’s true for more than just cycling.) I’m thinking in particular of the downtown peninsula and some adjacent areas where the cycling culture doesn’t seem to have caught up with the excellent infrastructure. There’s probably a whole number of factors at play.

It’s not necessarily about number. Beach Avenue is as busy as anything I’ve seen in Canada. It’s impressive. Vancouver clearly has a ton of cyclists, and its numbers are boosted by the fact that you can cycle comfortable almost year round, as opposed to Montreal where it takes serious dedication to ride a bike from December to early March. But I’m talking about a more subjective observation of what kinds of people are riding bikes and for what purpose.

BTW, you can see real-time bike counter numbers here, at least for Montreal:

https://data.eco-counter.com/ParcPublic/?id=630#

St-Denis has an average of 3,500 for this year but that includes the winter (as well as the curfew/lockdown earlier this year). It has been peaking near 10,000 passages on busy days this summer.

[zoomer]

Thanks for the link Kilgore Trout! Weird, it seems impossible easily find eco-counter city data - you’d think their website would have a city search function. Can’t seem to find Vancouver’s data, and Edmonton’s is displayed weirdly through the city’s open data portal.

The busiest route in Victoria is the Galloping Goose - a 55 km former rail line with wide paved lanes. Interesting that if you include pedestrian counts the daily average goes from 2,141 to 3,454. I was just using it today on an electric scooter, so smooth and fast, yet some in the spandex crowd are going too fast, especially considering there are also families walking the trail. I guess it’s wide enough that there aren’t really many close calls, it just feels disrespectful to be going over 35 km per hour on a busy trail.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I wonder what gives the police the idea to start targeting certain groups and/or certain areas like that. John Tory refused to get involved stating that he doesn't influence such policing decisions, which is fine, but then who does?

The Mayor and Council decide how much money is allocated to the police. This seems like a situation of "Wow, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands targeting cyclist for minor, overall harmless, infractions. Maybe it's time to revise your budget... )

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Yeah, it's weird. Toronto is not a particularly pleasant city to cycle in, and yet lots of people do it, because it's so convenient. Vancouver is a pretty nice city for riding a bike and yet it seems limited to a certain subset of the population.

Or maybe it has to do with the overall culture of the city? People in Vancouver just don't seem to go out as much as they do in Toronto or Montreal. It often feels like a city of homebodies.

Cycling is very popular in Vancouver (statistics wise).

I think rain, or the ever present threat of rain, turn a lot of people off cycling outside of the summer months.

Bike thefts get talked up a lot too, although I doubt that's a Vancouver specific issue.

[jamincan]

I've really been enjoying the riding this fall. We've had reasonably good weather and temperatures, which has meant we're still getting out on our bikes, even with the early sunsets.

There's something special about flying through the trees with the darkness surrounding you, turning off all your lights at a trailhead and seeing the stars, hanging out with a beer in the parking lot once you're done, and still getting home in time for a 10pm bedtime.

[Airboy]

We had a great fall as well. A dry Cross season for the most part, if you stayed out of Calgary.

Spent more time on the new mountain bike than the gravel. Road riding was ok if not windy.

But now we get into winter weather and the Fat bike is now off the rack and ready to go. but will use the MTB until the snow is deeper. Plus, I don't want to switch off the studded tires.

Some shots from riding last weekend. Been able to hit some of this years newer trails and some older ones that were challenging but seem to be easier with the new bike.

[IMG]PXL_20221023_194801852 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]PXL_20221023_193025800 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]

I will post a couple of vids from the last ride once I clean them up a bit. Have a brake cable in most of the shots. Will be switching to a body cam for the winter. Ordered a New OSMO Action 3 because of the cold weather ratings. Can use it up to -20C. Whereas the GoPro 11 is still not cold rated. Currently I am using the GoPro 8Black.

[SFUVancouver]

I keep meaning to take some photos, but Hamilton is slowly but surely building out a credible downtown-area network of cycle-tracks. The east-west Cannon Street cycle-track gets a lot of use and extends from Sherman Street to Dundurn Castle, a distance of 4.5km.

Along the way it connects with the north-south Victoria Street cycle-track. This extends from Burlington St (which is fully within the waterfront industrial zone) to Cannon St. This has recently been extended south to King Street and apparalently will tie into the east-west Hunter-Stinsen cycle-track.

They're still largely at the low-cost stage of facility development (i.e. paint, pylons, and low concrete dividers), but they exist, are being used, and demonstrate follow-through on the City's cycling master plan.