10.18.2010 07:27 AM

Driving my sons to school this morning, stuck on Dundas

Me, irritated: Why did they have to eliminate a lane on Dundas for a bike lane that no ever one uses???!!

Ten-year-old son: Oh, look, Dad’s turning into Rob Ford.

20 Comments

  1. Brent Sienna says:

    “..for a bike lane that no ever one uses…” – no ever one eh? They really had you flustered this morning, you still haven’t recovered from it. 🙂

    Try using Gerrard if you are heading into the City from the east. 2 lanes still, can pass any streetcar easily in the curb lane. I use it daily to head into work and find it faster than using Dundas .

    • Warren says:

      But honestly – in the nearly two years Dundas has had that bike lane, no one uses it! I’ve seen it used the in the morning maybe a dozen times in all of that time frame.

      • Brent Sienna says:

        What time are you travelling Dundas though? I have seen a pretty decent amount of users on it over my time travelling it (usually 8 a.m.ish), but I will agree there are not what seems to be enough users to dictate taking a lane away. Eastern Avenue is the one I complain about more than Dundas. I have yet to see any cyclist using the lane when I take Eastern. Why they put them on Eastern I will never know.That used to be a great route to avoid traffic in and out of the City, now it just generates it.

        • Warren says:

          Varies, but anytime between 7 and 8 that bike lane is fully denuded of bikes.

          • allegra fortissima says:

            Be the first one, Warren. If the big K (fully dressed) can balance an ipad in one hand and try to steer with the other on two wheels, more Torontonians will follow, trust me!

          • James Bow says:

            Even here in KW, I’ve bought my bike and started riding again for the first time in 19 years. It isn’t much, but it stops me having to burn a litre of gasoline in order to buy a litre of milk.

            Better yet, I have just increased my chances of living long enough to see my daughters’ weddings.

          • ed says:

            This is probably true. If I lived in Leslieville and worked downtown at 9 am, I wouldn’t get on my bike until 8:30 at least.

      • Jason says:

        This drives me nuts. They did the same thing to Dupont a few years ago and what used to be a 20 minute drive is now easily a 45 minute drive during rush hour. Over the past 2 years I think I’ve seen maybe 10 bikers total (with zero from the months of November – May). A good friend of mind bikes to work every morning in the warm months of the year and he now avoids Dupont as he does not like breathing in the fumes from all of the idling cars.

        How does this make any sense?

        • scottd says:

          i live next to dupont and see bikes all the time. not as many as queen west but more and more. drivers always say there are no bikers but this driver says there are.now that Railpath is open people are starting to figure out how bikes can get around.it takes a while. by the way, I am happy that Dupont has been tamed regardless of bike lanes, i dont want a 4 lane expressway through the area ; those days are over.

      • Driving down Jarvis today, I had the same reaction. The worst part is that the new unused sidewalk takes up more space than the bike lane. Thank God University was saved!

  2. Paul R Martin says:

    And the outgoing mayor just doesn’t realize why the voters are upset.

  3. scanner says:

    I use it. I also used the bike lane on Jarvis today. Case Ootes fought that bike lane (Dundas) tooth and nail. After it was installed the city traffic engineers did a study and found the traffic was moving better on Dundas than before the bike lanes. Me, I look forward to the Toronto Party ramming the legislation through to require bicyclists to be licensed and insured, ’cause when that happens I’m going to get a slow vehicle sign and drive in the centre of the lane.
    I also look forward to $300 a barrel oil. Peak oil was 2004.

  4. jim says:

    I use that bike lane almost every day and have done since 2004 and I wouldn’t say that ‘no one ever uses it’. There are times that there are multiple bikes, one behind each other waiting at intersections for lights to change.
    Without knowing exactly where you were driving, I suspect that the reason that you were ‘stuck’ was less to do with bike lanes and more to do with unsynchronized lights and crosswalks.

  5. scanner says:

    This makes me jealous. And don’;t even talk about Portland. You can argue that “Of course but New York is a smaller city” but you would be ful of it.
    http://www.streetfilms.org/mapping-your-nyc-bike-commute/#more-48484

  6. Derek Pearce says:

    Yep, hafta say, as a non-driver, I just have zero, zilch sympathy for drivers. I guess that’s selfish of me as I know it’s not possible/practical for a lot of people to use the TTC. But until drivers are made to pay more for their privilege (not right, privilege), and transit in TO is properly expanded and funded, I will ignore the tiny violins playing for the drivers of this city. I know the TTC sucks, that’s half the problem.

  7. Randolph G says:

    Don’t forget, the sidewalk on that street is usually empty, too. If we get rid of the sidewalk and the bike lane, Dundas can become a 6-lane expressway.

    God help us if the obesity generation ever decides to try walking or biking to school…

    • Kevin says:

      The obesity generation don’t even walk their garbage to the curb.

    • Modern technology and society (science, medicine, laws) has put a halt to Darwinian selection for a while, but eventually our own habits will bring back Darwin in a big way to kill off the weaker among us.

      Maybe Toronto isn’t surrounded on all four sides by obstacles like Vancouver is — our city simply is never going to grow. There will be no more roads here, no more lanes of traffic. Clearly the increasing population here *has* to be accommodated by other means of transport than by personal automobiles.

      The rise in commuting biking has been astounding here over the last decade and all corners of the socio economic melting pot are engaged in using their bikes to get around this burg.

      Whatever their faults may be, our city council is the first to recognize that bike commuting into the downtown core is important and finally we have long overdue corridors into the core. Of course the auto-only folks cry foul, even though in one case not a single traffic lane was affected.

      I hear the same arguments from anti-cycling mouthpieces here “no one will use them in the winter”. Completely and utterly false. Maybe true where you are, but if so, change it. Getting people on to bikes is a good thing, not a step backwards.

  8. Cam says:

    Warren- at least you have the option!

  9. Andrew says:

    I would from the far West End of Toronto (Longbranch) to downtown Toronto and never used any of the bike laned roads in the city. I found that they were more of a danger to me as other riders thought you can ride on whichever side of the road they wished. Me going cycling full-bore sprint with the flow of traffic and elderly woman with basket on her bike, riding against traffic. Bike lanes are basically training wheels for bike commuters.

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