Bike Culture Archive Toronto & Beyond 2003-2012.
Photography by Martin Reis and Hamish Wilson.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Insert Bike Lane Here
Bathurst Street North of Bloor. Photos by Hamish Wilson.
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
What's the story on this? Is there a proposed or demanded bike lane here?
Maybe it's just the time of day the photo was taken, and I'm not familiar with that stretch of road....but the road looks really calm and there are two lanes in each direction with a wide right hand lane, so cars can pass easily. Give yourself some space and the cars can honk, wait, or go around. :)
I think we could get a bike lane on this road since it otherwise too fast in many sections. The sidewalks are wide enough to have a bike lane like in Ottawa or Gatineau, separate lane raised up beside the car lane. Just me dreaming.
There are two "separated bike lane on the sidewalk" sections in Ottawa that I can think of. I can't say I'm a big fan of either.
1) Portage Bridge. This one's really annoying because: To get onto it after riding nice and fast down Wellington St. you have to stop and climb onto the sidewalk with your bike; two narrow bike lanes coming towards each other sandwiched between a sidewalk (step up) and road (step down) leaving no place to escape when necessary; and making turns from either side of the bridge are a real drag. The only good thing about this is that it seems to connect well if you are *only* using it to connect between recreational paths.
2) Alexandra Bridge (the one you photographed). I actually like the section over the bridge, but connecting to/from it on either side is a pain because you have to go through crosswalks flooded with tourists staring googley-eyed at the Parliament Buildings. :) They also like to close the bike lanes of this bridge (busiest commuter bike bridge in Ottawa) so people can sell shit.
They actually did a nice job with the bike lanes over the re-designed Champlain Bridge in west Ottawa. They used to be up on the sidewalk which was a disaster. But they put 'em on the road where they should be, and made them nice and wide. I feel very comfortable there now.
Extra curbs and intersections that are difficult to negotiate may give an impression of safety, but I prefer to have the bike lanes on the road where I'm free to move about as I need to. I also prefer to take a lane away from the cars, rather than get marginalized and squeezed away from a useful bike route. :)
I'm looking forward to seeing how Railpath turns out.
That's waaaaay north of Bloor :) While a bike lane would be fine here why would you want it raised up? Much more likely not to be seen by cars turning across your path at intersections and driveways. Makes left turns more difficult though depending on the speed of the road merging may already be quite difficult.
Hamish took these so I think it's way north of Bloor ... I guess that a raised separated bike path would be good on Bathurst since it heads down all the way to the lake.
7 comments:
What's the story on this? Is there a proposed or demanded bike lane here?
Maybe it's just the time of day the photo was taken, and I'm not familiar with that stretch of road....but the road looks really calm and there are two lanes in each direction with a wide right hand lane, so cars can pass easily. Give yourself some space and the cars can honk, wait, or go around. :)
I think we could get a bike lane on this road since it otherwise too fast in many sections. The sidewalks are wide enough to have a bike lane like in Ottawa or Gatineau, separate lane raised
up beside the car lane.
Just me dreaming.
There are two "separated bike lane on the sidewalk" sections in Ottawa that I can think of. I can't say I'm a big fan of either.
1) Portage Bridge. This one's really annoying because: To get onto it after riding nice and fast down Wellington St. you have to stop and climb onto the sidewalk with your bike; two narrow bike lanes coming towards each other sandwiched between a sidewalk (step up) and road (step down) leaving no place to escape when necessary; and making turns from either side of the bridge are a real drag. The only good thing about this is that it seems to connect well if you are *only* using it to connect between recreational paths.
2) Alexandra Bridge (the one you photographed). I actually like the section over the bridge, but connecting to/from it on either side is a pain because you have to go through crosswalks flooded with tourists staring googley-eyed at the Parliament Buildings. :) They also like to close the bike lanes of this bridge (busiest commuter bike bridge in Ottawa) so people can sell shit.
They actually did a nice job with the bike lanes over the re-designed Champlain Bridge in west Ottawa. They used to be up on the sidewalk which was a disaster. But they put 'em on the road where they should be, and made them nice and wide. I feel very comfortable there now.
Extra curbs and intersections that are difficult to negotiate may give an impression of safety, but I prefer to have the bike lanes on the road where I'm free to move about as I need to. I also prefer to take a lane away from the cars, rather than get marginalized and squeezed away from a useful bike route. :)
I'm looking forward to seeing how Railpath turns out.
Cheers,
Vic
Pretty far north. The sign in the second pic says Sheppard Ave. W.
That's waaaaay north of Bloor :) While a bike lane would be fine here why would you want it raised up? Much more likely not to be seen by cars turning across your path at intersections and driveways. Makes left turns more difficult though depending on the speed of the road merging may already be quite difficult.
Hamish took these so I think it's way north of Bloor ... I guess that a raised separated bike
path would be good on Bathurst since it heads down all the way to the lake.
I was hit this summer on Bathurst north of Eglinton
Hit and run
Chased him and caught up, he was charged in the end with failure to remain.
But really, biking anywhere north of eglinton is seriously dangerous, it is god's country up there.
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