How's the new Richmond-Adelaide bike lane pilot project doing?
The City Cyclist took a tour today and here's what he found
I had to go west a little ways today, so I thought I'd hop on the nice, new Richmond bike lane to get there! I hadn't even ridden one block, when what should I find, but this:
Well, that can happen (even though it's annoying), so I continued on my way.
In the next block, I saw this:
I thought the nice painted bike symbol and all of the lines mean that this is a bike lane!
The next block, the bike lane disappeared, likely due to the fact that there is tons of construction and even if they had a lane, it wouldn't really be a lane at all. Since the lane disappeared, I moved over to then left, because I had to turn in a block or so anyway and the bike lane had just disappeared.
After the construction block, I rode through the intersection, and the bike lane reappeared: On the right. I was on the left. 'Damn cyclists!' the car drivers behind me must have been thinking.
After my appointment, I rode back along Adelaide. "Let's use those new bike lanes!" I thought.
In the first block, there was a car blocking the bike lane fully. They had flashing lights on, so that made it okay, I guess.
I didn't take a picture, because how many pictures am I supposed to take when the lanes are blocked all over the place?
Happy Monday! ~ The City Cyclist
The City Cyclist makes videos of his experience riding a bike in our city. You can see more of his work below.
EDS NOTE: There will be lane restrictions on Adelaide from Simcoe Street to York Street to accommodate watermain replacement, TTC track removal, and road and sidewalk reconstruction starting (today) on Monday, September, 15. The work is expected to take approximately eight weeks. Only one lane of eastbound traffic on Adelaide Street will be maintained. This information is from a City of Toronto news release: http://bit.ly/1tW1FHL
Psst! We'll be Bike Spotting on Richmond this Wednesday at 5 p.m.
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Related on the dandyBLOG:
City Cyclist: Construction and bad bike lanes
City Cyclist: Rack'n' Roll, bike parking not keeping pace
City Cyclist: Bike Lanes in Toronto
City Cyclist: So THIS is a bike lane
Bike Spotting on Adelaide: Do you like these NEW bollards?
Bike Spotting on Adelaide: Does this bike lane need bollards?
Bike Spotting: What do you think of this new bike lane on Simcoe?
Your photos and/or videos are showing up broken here. I.e. nothing to see! Your text jives perfectly with my experiences riding those “bike lanes” in the past weeks though. It’s awful. Totally failing experiment so far.
While I still find the lanes to be a fantastic improvement, I think where they fail is in offering safe and reassuring conditions to inexperienced cyclists or just those too nervous to consider riding downtown (and from what I can tell, they are legion). Without physical barriers, we’ll never get a big increase in cycling numbers.