Comment 90678

By Kevin Love (anonymous) | Posted August 08, 2013 at 19:53:27

A requirement to cycle in mixed traffic excludes most of the population. To quote my 75-year-old mother, "At my age, I am not playing tag with two-tonne lethal weapons." Yet in The Netherlands, 24% of all journeys made by people over the age of 65 are by bicycle. See:


http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2008/10/cycling-together.html


One good place to build a protected bike lane is on Lawrence Road between Gage Avenue and Kenilworth Avenue. Right now, there are unprotected bike lines on either side of this road. The south side of the road is up against the railway line, so there are zero intersections.

This is important; intersections account for 63% of injury crashes in Ontario and part of the Dutch principle of Sustainable Safety is eliminating intersections.

My proposal would be to remove the unprotected bike lane on the north side of the road and use the space to create a two-way 4 metre wide protected bike lane on the south side, next to the railway. There is plenty of room to have a concrete protective barrier one metre wide by one metre high. One actually does not want a protective barrier any higher than that, as the principles of Social Safety require a clear view into and out of the cycle path.

This completely eliminates cyclists travelling through intersections. Right now, westbound cyclists are required to travel through several unprotected intersections on an unprotected cycle path. Needless to say, not many people are willing to do this.

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