[7thgear]

As a long time driver and someone that’s recently gotten into cycling, and having visited other metropoli (is that a word?) that have proper bike lanes and bike culture (Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona) I can say with certain certainty that bike-lanes as they exist or as they are proposed will do little to improve anything in Toronto



1. First of all, without actual bike lanes (separatedby barriers and their own light signals), cyclists are at the mercy of a driver’s attention span. This is simply a lack of education on the part of the province. Bike “culture” is as developed here in Toronto as the government is in Somalia. Painting white strips on what otherwise used to be a regular road isn’t going to teach drivers to be attentive. The most important part of road safety is awareness and understanding the mind-set of everyone around you, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and even pedestrians.

I myself have many times been fault to a possible accident whereby I was makinga right-hand turn without checking to see if a cyclist is fast approaching. Knock-on-wood I’ve yet to hit anyone but if I continue to absent-mindedly just turn my car one day I might. So every time I’m out I try to always think of the cyclists and whether they are there or not.



So the first problem for Toronto is not LANES but EDUCATION. People still cycle close to the curb, and that’s FINE, so long as the drivers pay attention



2. The cyclists them selves are not without fault. I myself have experienced that feeling of invincibility and a god-given-right toride how I please. But everyone must understand that a 160 pound sack of bonesand flesh will always lose to a 3000 pound box of metal, that’s just plainphysics.

I see it all the time: cyclists whodon’t bother making eye-contact or at least slowing down when approaching apossible “danger zone.”

It’s best to always assume that thecar drivers are fucking idiots and act accordingly.





So unless there are plans to knock over buildings to expandthe current roads, or build 2nd level roads on top of existing ones,the problem is unsolvable.



The only realistic solution, in my opinion, is:



a. Stop all future commercial zoning in thedowntown core.

b. Increase taxes for commercial property owned bycorporations/business with net assests over some predetermined amount. Ie, themore you own/make the more you pay. While at the same time give incentives to small business owners.

c. Why? To shift the big commercial properties to outside the downtown core. Why do our banks need to have their offices right inthe center? Create “business centers” in suburban areas and do whatever the fuck you want.

d. Convert or demolish existing commercial property to residential.

e. BUILD MORE MULTI-LEVEL PUBLIC PARKING, make it affordable, and eliminate on-street parking.





Basically, do anything to shift the demand for peopleto outside the downtown core, which aside from a few museums and the CN toweris void of anything worth seeing.