I Bike TO

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herb — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:52:20 +0000

I'm no longer updating this website but I'm leaving it up so people can find old content. Happy cycling!

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Installing the canopy for our box bike

herb — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 14:10:00 +0000

We recently bought an "e-bakfiets" and have been getting good use out of it. With fall weather it came time to assemble the Clarijs canopy we bought as an add-on. Clarijs is another Dutch company that makes various bike products. I decided to document the process since it's a bit involved in the current instructions leave something to be desired. I got some help from this article by Bicycle Belle out of Boston. And Urkai staff also provided some much needed instructions, especially since Clarijs recently changed the canopy to use a rigid centre pole but didn't update the instructions.

It's a bit intimidating to install since it involves making holes in the brand new box. You'll want to make sure you've marked where you're going to drill or screw and drape the canopy over so you can see if it'll fit. I found that if I could start over fresh I would have moved some of the holes I made but they do the job.

Urkai also sent along another pre-drilled block since they found the Clarijs bracket alone didn't hold the pole in place very well.

The centre pole slips into the pockets through the middle and at the ends. I found the pole is too big to go in entirely but it is pretty secure.

Next is sliding in the fibre rail perpendicular to the pole. The fibre rail was delivered with a warning that it can unwind with a lot of force so be careful that you don't whip anything or anyone. Once the fibre rail is installed then you push the cut pieces of hose over the end. This will provide a base that will rest on the inside of the box.

Next is screwing in the square blocks. This requires measuring and doing it twice to make sure you've done it right. I should have put them higher since Urkai's instructions suggest keeping the bracket at 15mm from the box edge but I put the top of the blocks 15mm from the box edge. Not a huge deal.

You can pre-drill the holes in the box with a tiny drill bit to help start the screw. Make sure the drill does not go all the way through. The screws only go in a tiny bit. The final product should look sort of like this:

The hard bracket jutting out isn't optimum, but at least a kid wouldn't normally have their head on that side. You can rub off your measuring marks with a bit of soap. Next, rest the canopy pole on the bracket and start to drape the canopy over the front.

Then put the fibre rail on the inside resting on the bench:

Now we're ready to decide where to put the snaps on the front. Pull the canopy between the box and the front post of the bike. Pull it down so the canopy corners are neatly over the corners of the box. Use a marker to put a mark for the screw. Then screw in the snaps.

Likewise on the back put the rubber bands through the grommets and pull the flaps down so you can approximate where the rubber bands will be somewhat tight enough to keep the flaps in place. In retrospect I should have put mine more vertical and further down since the canopy redesign means there's now a velcro tab where there wasn't before. So the old instructions from Clarijs are misleading here too.

Luckily, the canopy is a bit forgiving and the end product looked okay. You can roll up the back window and even roll up the side windows too to let some air in. It looked pretty comfortable in there. The toddler and I had a snack in the rain where I ducked my head in. Too bad no one has invented a full bike cover for the rain, which would clearly be a big pain in the ass; answering my own question on why no one has done this yet.

If you don't like the feeling of being a sail you might want to close this back flap in a strong tail wind. I learned first hand that a tail wind can really push the bike along, but unpredictably. Not enough room on the street to navigate like a proper boat.

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Our other car is an e-bakfiets

herb — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 12:00:00 +0000

We just bought a box bike (from the Dutch "bakfiets") from Urkai. It's quite a bike. It's large, long, heavy. But it rides smooth and easy even when the box is loaded with a kid and everything for an outing.

It's been pretty fun. We immediately took the bike to an nearby town for ice cream (we have priorities). It was over an hour each way along a gentle rail trail. Our toddler loved it. On the way back it was getting dark so the built-in lights came in quite handy. And we could flip up the bench so our kid could sleep in the bottom on a pad.

We've wanted a Dutch-style box bike for a while. We've already got other Dutch bikes and appreciate the low-maintenance and comfort. The Bakfiets.nl cargo bike with electric-assist that we got is really well-built. The bike came in two boxes; one really long narrow box that held the frame and wheels, and the other held the box. Urkai is based in Burlington, Ontario, but ships anywhere in Canada.

Full disclosure: I approached Urkai about getting a discount if I wrote up my experiences, and owner Andrew agreed.

Here's the bike all put together. Everything but the canopy, which I'll talk about in a separate post. This bike is like a stretch limo and front loader put together. Yet somehow nimble; likely because of the low centre of gravity on the front.

On a rainy day I put on the canopy. With the canopy it feels like a moving tent, in a good way. I would like to just hang out in there with the kid while we're stopped for a snack. She got to sit there in comfort, with everything at hand.

I recommend filling the box with lots of stuff to give it that cozy feeling.

We put a thermarest on the floor so her feet could be higher and she'd have something to sit on. Sitting on the floor makes the bench into a nifty table.

Hills

We've recently moved out of Toronto to a small town in Simcoe County that has its share of hills. Which might explain why many of the two wheeled vehicles I've seen are e-bikes. But we've only seen one other bakfiets-style cargo bike thus far.

The majority of the hills the bakfiets can handle well. We barely brake a sweat if we put the e-assist on. Yet there is one really steep section on a nice, wooded trail between the two towns that pushes us and the bike to the limit. On our first attempt we had to get off and push the bike up part way.

We finally met our match with it's insane 20% grade. (I went back to measure). Most people are unlikely to encounter such hills.

I've since gone back a few times and I can make it up now with the right combination of shifting down all the way and pushing hard on the pedals and pulling hard on the handlebars. We're exploring the possibility of using a bigger chainring on the back to help with the hills. Though it means we lose a bit on the flats. Not much of a loss since we seldom need to go that fast

All about the bike

There are lots of nice touches with the bike that make it a pleasure; such as the wheel lock, the magnetically closing harness for the kids, the enclosed chain, the internal roller brakes, and the smooth shifting of the gears. You may find that some of them are a challenge for some bike shops to fix, especially those who specialize in mountain bikes or road bikes. It could help, then, to learn a few things about your bike so you can fix the basics. And keep Urkai in speed dial.

Here you can see the wheel lock. We've already got some Dutch bikes and like the wheel locks for the convenient locking for quick trips to the store. You can also see my reflection in the skirt guard which helps limit the spray from the wheel.

You can see the rear roller brake. Roller brakes are internal so they keep cleaner than other brakes, and thus more dependable. Yet they aren't (in my experience) as strong as disc brakes.

The front wheel of the bike features a hydraulic disc brake for effective stopping power. I really appreciate the disc brake on steep descents.

The internal hub is a Nuvinci, which is an innovative hub that does away with the gears and provides continuous shifting. Which explains the "animation" in the shifter: without gears numbers don't make sense so instead you see a little person going up a steep hill in easy gears and vice-versa.

The battery fits nicely into the custom made rack and still allows full use of the rest of the rack.

It uses a mid-drive Shimano Steps E6100. This basically means it provides a bit of support while riding and helps quite a bit on ascents. It allows four levels of support, the lowest being off. With the higher ones you can make a climb up a hill feel like biking on level ground. It's a great feeling to be able to scamper up a hill with a child and groceries in the front.

You see the sturdy parking stand which folds up towards the back and attaches with powerful magnets.

You see the sturdy wooden box. The base I believe is laminated fibreglass but I haven't checked.

The box features a bench for fitting two kids. The straps attach with magnets and have a locking mechanism. This works well on most rides, though if the kid gets sleepy it's not ideal.

You see the cockpit, including the electronic display and controls near the right handlebar.

The front and rear lights are powered by the battery and can be turned on at the display. I kinda wish they could be turned on independently in case the display won't turn on. But perhaps the battery won't work either.

Tags:

cargo bike

bakfiets

children

Biking on quiet streets with a kid

herb — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 21:28:00 +0000

It's no earth-shattering news that biking with a baby or a kid turns regular, confident adults into super cautious and anxious parents. I become super aware of any movement and try to guess the intention of every driver before even they are aware of their next move. A slight movement to the right means they're thinking about turning right. A tilt of the wheels means they want get out of their parking space as quickly as possible. But this is exhausting, so for the most part I try to avoid busy streets as much as possible unless there is a dedicated and physically separated bike lane.

My daughter is 2 years old and we've been biking with her for over a year. She's content and happy to be riding in her front bike seat on our bikes (my wife and I both have one on the front). I get many wows and comments about the Yepp Mini bike seat (even though I think my bike is even more interesting). It's a bit of golden age for bike gear for children. It's much easier to find quality bike seats and bikes for children in North America, much of which is common in northern Europe where people have much more experience of carting kids around by bike.

The Yepp Mini puts the kid right in front of me, putting their head right near mine. This lets me hear a lot more of what she's saying and I can talk or sing to her without having to yell over car noises. The Mini easily mounts on the bike, in this case a Workcycles FR8. I love this bike. It's very sturdy, big comfortable tires, can carry a tonne, and can stand outside without getting rusty. It's also slow. It has a cool feature that allows it to comfortably fit a wide range of heights. In short, it's built like an SUV.

I've created a quiet route from home to daycare, avoiding the speeding cars on Queen Street West as much as possible. But we can't avoid Queen St entirely so for that section, without any sense of guilt, I ride on the sidewalk. I ride slowly and carefully and will give the right of way to anyone walking. People are quite accommodating when you've got a baby on board.

Once I arrive at the daycare, I use the double kickstand to prop up the bike safely. It is quite sturdy, but I'm thinking of getting an even wider one, which might require looking online.

At the daycare

The Fr8 has a built-in front rack that is attached to the frame rather than the handlebars and fork, which is typical for baskets. This means the bag for daycare stays stable and won't affect steering. They've thought of everything.

Local tourists

For last few months I've been with the toddler during the day for half the week and she's in daycare the other half. It's been wonderful. So long as there's been no ice, we've had the chance to explore many parts of our neighbourhood. For instance, we enjoyed taking the pedestrian/cycling bridge from Portland to CityPlace, stopping along the way to look at the trains.

Trainspotting

We've enjoyed going further south to Queens Quay and bike along the new, completely separated bike path. Always get lots of looks at the bike and baby. My ego likes the attention and I think the toddler does too. It's quite sad that the City couldn't bother to provide a safe, comfortable link between the city and the water. Strachan sucks, Bathurst is worse. Simcoe has a semblance of a bike lane so is probably the best. But when I take the bridge at Portland, the easiest is to continue south taking Dan Leckie Way. For some reason the planners made this tiny road with minimal traffic into a wide, fast four lane road with turning lanes. It's sad and ironic, given that Dan Leckie was one of the first city councillors to champion bike lanes. According to Councillor Cressy, there are hopes to put bike lanes on this street, but it baffles me that the staff couldn't have just done it on this brand new road. It shows how much it's a fight against an internal culture with staff that ignores and devalues cycling, just as much as the more visible fights against knee-jerk politicians.

Regardless, riding along Queens Quay during a week day is great. No traffic, barely any bikes or pedestrians. Just us, the boats, ducks and perhaps another toddler/caregiver going by.

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Wherein an old white man accused me of age and gender discrimination

herb — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 17:42:00 +0000

I've been accused of "age and gender discrimination" by a self-described "grey-haired guy", John Schubert.

At least I think its me. It certainly seems as if he's referencing a blog post I wrote a few years ago: "Avid cyclists as policy makers are going extinct and they've no one else to blame". I've accused John Schubert and company, of being "avid cyclists" who achieved positions of some influence over cycling infrastructure and were able to impede its progress for decades. Below you can see some of these surviving "avid" cyclists (source), on a trip to critique New York City's cycling infrastructure. The three on left are members of the obscure but semi-powerful National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Bicycle Technical Committee (John Schubert, John Allen and John Ciccarelli, members of NCUTCDBTC, and New York bicycling advocate and planner Steve Faust).

I compared their approach to cycling with that of more recent leaders in cycling infrastructure, including Janette Sadik Khan (former head of NYDOT), Mia Birk (former Portland Bicycle Program Manager and Alta Planning principal) and Dr. Monica Campbell of Toronto Public Health. All my examples happened to be women (this will become important below).

I called the former cycling leaders "avid cyclists" to capture an attitude to cycling which is usually revealed by the specialized cycling clothing, specialized gear, and a focus on training to cycle in any kind of urban traffic. It certainly has its appeal to some people (as it does to me who has been known to have fiddled and repaired many a bike, taught CAN-BIKE to many, and obsessed over bike gear). But it does not appeal to the masses. And the evidence shows how cycling barely survived for decades in car-obsessed North America.

The new leaders do not focus on special clothing, nor gear, nor riding skills akin to training to "run among a herd of elephants". Rather they have focused on making cycling appealing to the masses by making the urban environment more comfortable and safer. As I mentioned in the previous post, "increasingly these policy makers are not the gear heads, "avid" cyclists and the road warriors - the survivors when everyone else stopped cycling. I'll happily put myself in the category of a reforming avid cyclist. Instead the leaders are increasingly women and men who are intensely interested in making cycling (and walking) safer for their families."

But here's what Schubert says in the quote taken up by NYC Bike Snob:

Here’s a story about age and gender discrimination: Some years ago, I participated in a review of some bicycle facilities in New York. We found that one facility, if you obeyed the traffic signals, would only allow an average speed of six mph (and that’s in uncontested traffic conditions). That’s unlikely to generate much compliance with the signals. We found other stuff, good and bad. We reported on it. So a few years after that, I found that some know-it-all had decided we were all irrelevant because we were old white guys. And published a picture of us, comparing it with a picture of Mia Birk of Alta Planning. And said how much greater Mia is, because she’s an attractive younger female, and we weren’t. Birk is known for defending bicycle facilities that cause bicyclists to get crushed underneath turning trucks whose drivers never saw them. (Hint: Google “truck bicycle blind spot” for some important information.) Most of the people saying, “No, don’t build this crap” are old white guys. But our viewpoints should be ignored, because we’re old and white.

For the record no where have I said "Mia is better because she's an attractive younger female". Note that he ignores Sadik Khan who is not young, and also Dr. Campbell (because he has no idea of her age). I have even less respect for Schubert now.

I couldn't care less about the age or gender of these people. Though it is telling of the background and environment in which they grew up. It wouldn't matter who these guys are except that as part of the semi-powerful NCUTCDBTC committee they've helped hinder truly transformative bike facilities in the US. It was only when some leaders who happened to be mostly women (with a range of ages) did an end run around this committee and created their own guide for cities that they helped break the strangle hold.

I am a white-bearded man in his forties. My mother rode her bike everywhere growing up in The Netherlands. I am quite happy that the old ideas are losing their grip and new ones are gaining power. And it doesn't matter if the people who embody those ideas are young, old, of any gender, class, race, culture.

My toddler also thanks the new leaders in safer cycling. Now we must ride off to the playground. (For gearheads: the bike is a Workcycle).

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Liberal MPP Refuses to Meet Cycling Advocates over John Street conditions for cycling

herb — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:10:38 +0000

In the ongoing saga in asking for safe, comfortable cycling on downtown's John Street, Trinity-Spadina MPP Han Dong cancelled a planned meeting with constituents, community representatives and cycling advocates on less than a day’s notice and didn't respond to correspondence from Trinity Spadina residents and voters for months.

In his email to the cycling advocates in November of last year, Dong’s Senior Chief of Staff, Ted Lojko replied after a delay:

After discussing the issue of conducting another Environmental Assessment for John Street which was already conducted in 2014, neither the local city councillor, nor the City of Toronto Planning Department feel there is a need to conduct another Environmental Assessment. Therefore we have cancelled the Meeting with Han Dong. He has no intent to work against the local councillor and feels the previously conducted Environmental Assessment sufficiently addressed local conditions. If the local councillor or City of Toronto Planning staff wish to request an additional Environmental Assessment Han would be happy to discuss this. But until that time, there is no need to discuss the matter further with our office.

A group of private citizens paid for their own professional traffic bicycle count at the John and Queen intersection last fall which demonstrated there have been material changes to the facts on which that Assessment was based. Their count last year revealed that an average of 65% of all traffic are bicycles. From Brian Iler's February 21 letter to Councillor Cressy, who has also refused to change the plans:

Our study revealed that, in the six morning and evening rush hours,

60.1% of 1013 vehicles southbound are bicycles, and 69.4 % of 867 northbound

southbound pedestrians numbered 4168, and northbound, 4459.

In the three midday hours,

45.8% of 193 vehicles southbound are cyclists, and 30.6% of 205 northbound

southbound pedestrians numbered 4634, and northbound 3215.

They sought Dong’s help, as their elected representative, to advocate on their behalves to the Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. Their original request was to simply ask the Minister to decide on an application for reconsideration of the 2012 Environmental Assessment for the John Street Revitalization project. The application was made by well known Queen Street West restauranteur David Stearn in February 2017, relying on their traffic count. The response by Brian Iler, a year-round cyclist whose law office is on John Street, and a member of the group asking for the meeting: “Joe Cressy’s refusal to consider the facts is distressing enough. For our MPP to refuse to even meet with us to consider the facts is just appalling.”

David Stearn lost his original request in a letter from the Minister on November 30. But he has asked the minister to reconsider (pdf). I'm no lawyer, but it appeared that the Minister said that the Act doesn't allow him to reconsider this type of EA, and Stearn is arguing that he indeed does.

The 2012 Assessment assumed that cyclists constituted 2% of the vehicles using John Street which was easily proven at that time to be completely incorrect, and likely fudged. The report even included a graph that was very suspicious where the bike traffic never wavered at any point of day. The City later posted a correction. It boggles the mind.

John Street is the key link between the St. George/Beverly bike lanes and Richmond/Adelaide bike lanes, funnelling cyclists from the north and west into downtown Toronto. Revitalization is planned to expand pedestrian areas, but maintain two lanes of motor vehicle traffic, leaving no room for bicycles. We would likely see similar conditions to the top photo with cyclists stuck behind single passenger cars; prioritizing the few over the many.

John provides a safe, direct crossing over the busy Queen Street. Whereas the City-chosen alternative of Peter provides a still-unplanned, unsafe crossing of Queen requiring cyclists to make an awkward jog over streetcar tracks. Go there in person and observe people on bikes, cars and foot trying to figure out who has the right of way in a constant, awkward dance.

4 downtown resident groups have voiced their support for bicycle lanes on John Street, York Quay Neighbourhood Association, the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, the Toronto Island Community Association and the Palmerston Area Residents Association. Sadly, the Minister of Environment has made no response nor decision on the residents' application made last February. And even sadder, City Councillor Joe Cressy, normally a steadfast ally of the cycling community, has refused to reconsider the design in light of the facts revealed by the Fall 2016 or 2011 traffic counts.

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Adhoc Annex group's questionable self-survey claims to prove "dramatic" downturn in sales, yet wants to keep bike lanes anyway

herb — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 13:20:40 +0000

The fate of the Bloor bike lanes hang in the balance with a vote at City Council later this month. For the over 6000 people now using it per day they may soon find themselves without any bike lanes—or some weird temporary bike lanes—if suburban politicians or a new business group gets their way. This new business group is bizarrely called the "Annex Business Bike Alliance". Or ABBA, but not nearly as fun as the band. They don't seem to be associated with the Annex BIA; rather they seem to have formed in protest to the Annex BIA working with the City on studying the Bloor bike lanes. They're concerned that the Bloor bike lanes in their current design are having a big negative impact on sales. But instead of getting rid of the bike lanes, they want to change the "design and operating hours".

It's not clear how many Annex businesses decided to join this ad-hoc group. For all we know, this group might be just one guy, Barry Alper, who I presume is the same Barry Alper that is a co-owner of Fresh Restaurants. Yes, the same Fresh restaurant that gives a discount to Cycle Toronto members.

Money, Money Money: group does their own economic impact survey

The City of Toronto is conducting an economic impact survey that is being conducted by the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation and the University of Toronto. The report is coming out shortly in order to be ready for a vote at Council. ABBA, however, decided sight-unseen that it doesn't like the report and decided to conduct their own super scientific online "survey". Despite the fact that the City's survey was agreed upon by the merchants: "Korea Town BIA, the Bloor Annex BIA, and the Metcalf Foundation, in 2015, before data collection began and before the installation of the bike lane."

Here's an example of the kind of leading question they ask:

How has the Bloor Street Bike Lane Project affected my business sales?

Already the bike lanes are damned by this survey once it inserts into the merchant's mind that there can only be one cause for crappy business sales: the bike lanes. But there's no way merchants can pull out this one cause out of all the possible influences on their retails sales: whether it be the rain/snow/sun; general downturn in the local economy; customers with less disposable cash because they're spending it all on $1 million houses; employees who are skimming; or just bad business sense. You don't have to take my word for it. One of the merchants responded to the business sales question with:

Hard to say, still limited sample. Last fall business was great. This has been an unusual year, there's been so much rain which really affects our business. I'd like to see how the bike lanes work over more time.

And we can't ask the merchants to open their books. The Ontario Association of BIAs recommends against collecting retail sales data because of transparency and uniformity issues. TCAT states "the funding partners and the research team agreed that a survey question regarding sales without data to verify it would be insufficient." So the City's research also gathers "estimated customer counts from the merchant surveys, estimated spending and visit frequency from the visitor surveys, and business vacancy counts from a street level scan."

But ABBA doesn't like that approach, saying it's coming "from a group whose opinion on economic impact from these lanes would not seek out the local business’s in a meaningful way". So ABBA crafted survey questions all on their own, and conducted the survey all on their own. Almost as if they wished to engineer an outcome that is favourable to their own preconceived notions of the prime importance of their motoring customers. As one of the merchants asked in their response: "Just curious about the purpose this survey? It's says it's an Economic Impact Study but of the nine questions 4 are about parking." I have exactly the same question.

Knowing Me Knowing You: Suspicious survey responses

We know nothing about ABBA's survey except what we can see from Surveymonkey results. We already know the questions themselves are leading, but what about the parts we can't see and which ABBA failed to tell us about? Are the responses all from actual owners of the stores, or from random employees? Did ABBA coach the responders in any way?

We don't even know for sure that ABBA didn't just add a few more data points themselves to buttress their argument. There is some suspicious activity in the responses. Out of the 63 responses, only 38 come from distinct IP addresses. And there are two time periods, June 29 and July 13 when there are quick successions of responses within 1-2 minutes of each other from the same IP address. It's almost as if someone filled out the survey multiple times themselves in one sitting.

The City really can't take this survey seriously.

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! More Parking

The reduction in car parking on one side of the street was the biggest change with the bike lanes. I find it really hard to believe, however, that merchants have any clue if this had any effect. The one merchant who gave us the most information in the survey says, parking doesn't really make much difference:

We have never depended on street parking. There's only 2 space in front of our business and it's a total lottery for our customer to get one.

Wouldn't that be true for almost all stores along this strip? All of them have store frontages that are as wide as 1-2 parking spots. How much business can you actually get from 1 or 2 parking spots? Especially when most of your customers are likely coming by subway? According to the same merchant, even the Green P parking lot is rarely full:

There's a giant freakin' Green P in the Annex that was rarely full is still rarely full. Our customers that drive seem to be able to find it. The changes in parking have been insignificant.

"How important is street parking on Bloor Street to my business?"

Zero, not at all. I wanted to set-up business in a neighbourhood close to the subway, walkable and accessible by bike. That's why we came to the Annex. If we wanted parking we'd by out in Mississauga Dundas W and Erin Mills or something like that.

Waterloo: ABBA's final stand

ABBA is demanding of Councillor Cressy, not that the bike lanes be removed, but that they be redesigned and that the "operating hours" be reduced:

We are the Annex Business Bike Alliance who want to encourage and expand cycling in the GTA but do it in a way that does not dramatically impact local independent business’s along Toronto’s main streets. The Bloor and Bike lanes design and operating hours have created a highway that has reduced business activity along the entire strip (Madison to Shaw). Traffic to the area to shop has been reduced as cars do not come and cyclists do not stop and shop.

Where have I heard "bicycle highway" before? Oh yeah, former Councillor Adam Vaughan referring to the Richmond/Adelaide cycle tracks. This seems to be the go-to criticism now; make it seem cars are just soft pillows on wheels meandering at a walking pace and bicycles are monsters ready to eat your children.

Someone didn't give this kid the memo.

Credit: Jared Kolb

The rest of the letter kind of reads like stream of consciousness, with conflicting demands. One the one hand they want the City to "REMOVE BIKE LANES FROM BLOOR ENTIRELY AND FOCUS ON DUPONT AND HARBORD (and/or surrounding side streets) AS A MORE FUNCTIONAL BIKE ROUTE OPTION". But they also "want city council to keep bike lanes on Bloor street but redesign them so that the Annex can flourish and not transform itself into an area where only national chains survive." And these are some of their suggested design changes:

CREATE RUSH-HOUR ONLY BIKE LANES USING A WHOLE LANE OF TRAFFIC (from 7-10AM eastbound/4-7PM westbound), THEN RETURN THAT LANE TO MOTOR VEHICLE PARKING FOR THE REMAINING HOURS OF THE DAY

How is this supposed to work for kids biking to school? Do all children live west of their schools? They clearly have not given school kids any thought.

CREATE SEASONAL BIKE LANES (operational from May to September)

May to September?! One of the merchants had even suggested only open the bike lane during the summer months: June to August.

What about people who like to bike in all the other months without snow: March, April, October, November? It's already October and I don't see a hint of snow nor a drop in the number of people biking. But even with snow the City has been plowing the Bloor bike lanes so there's less reason to stop biking. I find it amazing that Canadians think nothing of sending their kids out to play in the snow but can't imagine biking in cold weather.

REMOVE THE BIKE LANES FOR 1-YEAR AS A PILOT PROJECT TO MEASURE THE AFFECT ON SALES/BUSINESSES

I've got a better idea. As a pilot project let's remove all car parking on Bloor and let's see if that makes as much of a difference as you assume.

CREATE MORE MOTOR VEHICLE PARKING SPOTS ALONG SIDE STREETS, DIRECTLY NORTH/SOUTH OF BLOOR (free, 1-hr parking on BOTH sides of these sections of the those streets)

Good luck fighting local residents on this proposal.

ENFORCE SPEED LIMITS ON CYCLISTS RIDING IN THE BIKE LANES (especially during the AM and PM rush- hours)

Sure go ahead. Make sure cyclists don't go over the 50 km per hour speed limit.

OFFER FREE BIKE BASKETS TO CYCLISTS TO ENCOURAGE SHOPPING ALONG BLOOR

This actually sounds like a good idea. I'll take a basket. But you know, it's already a lot easier to stop and shop on Bloor while biking rather than drive and park. Maybe instead you should try to entice with baskets all those car drivers who lost years ago to Costco or Walmart.

Tags:

bike lane

bloor

BIA

The Dog-shaped tour of Toronto

herb — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 03:04:47 +0000

I was rooting through my old files and came across the 115 km route I mapped out around Toronto almost a decade ago (pdf). (The dog shape is purely coincidental). I was working at the City that summer as a Cycling Ambassador—mostly we went to events and gave out maps and info but we got a brief chance to create our own promotional event. I worked on this route. However, because of liability and insurance reasons I never did run a tour while working for the City. But I managed to do it once on my own time as a Bike Month event. There have been some improvements to suburban and urban cycling infrastructure (such as the Finch Hydro Corridor Trail) and Richmond/Adelaide cycle tracks) that it could be worth it to update this route to take in some of those sights.

It's really hard to come up with good continuous bike routes in the burbs, particularly Scarborough. I can't blame people for just riding on the sidewalk instead of trying to search all the weaving residential streets to see which ones help get them to their destination and avoid those which dead-end. Even with this route, there are large chunks of Toronto still to be explored, including at least of Scarborough and southern Etobicoke.

Feel free to print this turn-by-turn booklet, share it, clip it to your bike. And go explore!

Tags:

bike tour

toronto

How long is Cressy willing to defend a flawed John Street design?

herb — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 13:21:35 +0000

David Stern, the owner of the Queen Mother Café—with support of a group of pro-cycling lawyers— has asked the province to reconsider the John Street EA in light of new information—namely a professionally-conducted traffic count—that shows that bike traffic is much higher than the 2% that was quoted in the EA. Cycle Toronto Ward 20 and the Toronto Bicycling Network have written letters in support.

But Councillor Joe Cressy is not backing down. Instead he is fully supporting the EA championed by his predecessor, Adam Vaughan, and also has been touting the improvements the City is making to the adjacent Peter-Soho route as an alternative to cycling on John.

I've gone into a lot of detail on deficiencies of the John Street plan over the last few years (here, here, here for example). In short, the problem with the City's current plan for John Street is that it ignores people biking and gives them no space; and it pretends to be a "promenade" for pedestrians while doing nothing about the heavy car traffic. Even though the City staff don't spell it out, they were heavily influenced by the "shared space" initiatives in places like the UK. Shared space has come under increasing push back from people biking, people with disabilities and older people as dangerous designs (thanks to @SharkDancing for the source).

As one person who bikes regularly through the UK's shared space aptly said:

"Shared space is a false promise with poor delivery … sharing is never on equal terms - as a confident but anxious cyclist, I usually win the sharing transactions, but if a particular driver doesn’t want to yield, they won’t."

The shared space scheme on John Street was backed up by some faulty numbers. The Ward 20 cyclists conducted a professional traffic count showing some substantial numbers of people biking instead of driving on John:

[P]rofessional traffic counts completed at the intersection of John and Queen Street West in September 2016 show bicycle commuters account for 71.8% of all road traffic headed south and 55.9% headed north at the weekday morning peak. During the afternoon peak commuting hour, bicycle commuters accounted for 41.2% of all traffic heading south and 74.3% of all traffic headed north. It is likely that the 2014 installation of separated bicycle lanes on two arterial roads that cross John Street have promoted the use of active transportation on John Street.

These numbers are radically different from the suspicious ones reported on early on in the EA process, where City staff claimed that no matter the day or time, the bike count remained at a flat 2%. This number was easily disproved at the time with volunteers counting and even by the data the City releases.

The Peter-Soho Alternative?

Councillor Cressy to his credit has been working harder on the Peter-Soho alternative than his predecessor:

Just last year, we also installed brand new separated bike lanes on Peter Street, to connect with the heavily used Richmond-Adelaide cycle tracks. Over the past two years, we've been working hard to address safety at the jogged intersection at Queen and Soho, to provide a safe connection between the new Peter St. lanes, and the Soho-Phoebe-Beverley route. We're happy to announce the design for a two-stage southbound crossing, and that it will be installed next year. We're working hard with City staff to finalize the northbound solution at the same intersection, and will continue to communicate updates as we finish this work.

Bike box on Queen for southbound cyclists from Soho.

What an awkward crossing. So anyone just trying to cross Queen street from the north side to the south side will have to do it in two stages? Has the City provided estimated time required for crossing Queen at Peter-Soho compared to John? It looks like it could be much higher on average.

Six years after cyclists started offering ideas to City staff on how to improve the intersection, both in public and in private meetings, staff still haven't got any firm plans for improving the experience for northbound cyclists. I imagine we'll see lots of conflicts where cyclists are allowed to go northbound but all car drivers must turn right. It's not going to be pretty.

It was six years ago that Dave Meslin presented a creative solution to eliminate the jog with a bike path that cuts through the sidewalk and building. Although it was unlikely to happen, it started a conversation with City staff. But looks like staff never got around to firming up any plans. If the City is trying to push cyclists off John Street, why are they dragging their heels on the alternatives?

I appreciate the work Cressy has been putting into this, but I don't believe these are zero-sum options. The request to reopen the EA isn't presupposing how John should look. It is a request that the EA be reopened so that the City can properly account for the safety of cyclists this time. We've already had the negative experience of the pilots on John which squeezed cyclists next to cars.

Photo by Ian Flett.

Everyone knows that there's no way Petter-Soho can match the convenience and comfort of John Street, despite the City's attempts to improve the cycling experience on it. Unless the City makes cycling on John Street truly awful (or if it's closed off during a rare street closure) we'll still see lots of people choosing to bike on John over Peter-Soho.

Tags:

John Street

shared space

The frustration of getting compensation after a car-bike collision

herb — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:13:58 +0000

This is a story about Daniel, his wrecked bike, the insurance company of the driver who hit him, and his struggle to get compensated. (Photo credit: Jari Schroderus)

A driver collided with Daniel and totalled his bicycle. Thankfully Daniel was mostly unhurt. Daniel had recently arrived from Germany and didn't have much money to buy himself a new bike. Not being Canadian, Daniel wasn't aware of all the details of Canadian law and insurance, but he made up for it with determination. Daniel found my page on how to make claims against the driver's car insurance (all credit to Patrick Brown from McLeish Orlando for writing up some excellent advice) and we worked together to find a solution: get money for Daniel's totalled bike. We hope this can help others who end up in the same situation.

Daniel called the driver's insurance company. The agent, either intentionally or foolishly, told Daniel that he would need to get a lawyer in order to make a claim. This is completely wrong and the agent should have been reprimanded for giving patently false information. After we chatted I had found that the Financial Services Commision of Ontario would be able to help Daniel pursue the matter. Daniel emailed the FSCO and got in contact with the complaint officer who got the stone rolling. Here's the result:

so after a long two weeks and loads of phone calls and emails: I finally have approval that the damages on my bike get paid for by the car owners insurance. Let me run you by the steps I had to go through so you can update the information on your webpage so everyone knows how to proceed in a situation like this.

After your last email I contacted the fsco - as you suggested. They pointed me to this webpage http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/insurance/complaints/pages/default.aspx. I went ahead and filed a complaint with the insurance companies complaint officer. This was addressed to very quickly and they filed a complaint for me. So whatever I got told on the phone that I need to get a lawyer was just wrong and even the insurance company apologized for the person giving me the wrong information (I don`t know if this is the standard procedure insurance companies go through on the phone just to scare people off - so it might be worth mentioning that).

I made clear that I only wanted the repair costs for my bike to be covered which does not seem to be standard over here (I assume this is why car insurances are so rediculously expensive in Canada) and the officer that was in charge of the claim was really surprised and approved my $590 CAD claim for a 5 year old originally priced at $1100 CAD bike within 2 hours. I am currently only waiting for the release form that will get mailed to me after which they send me a cheque to get my bike repaired. If you would want to claim anything concerning reimbursements for injuries or maybe compensation for the time you were not able to work: I cannot say too much about if that would go as smooth but I guess the filing the claim procedure would stay the same.

The fsco also pointed me to this page http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/mvacf/Pages/mvacf_property.aspx which would be suitable for hit and runs or in case the driver is not insured. They offered to file a claim but I decided to go through the drivers insurance instead.

I hope updating the information on your webpage helps more people (although I rather hope less people get hit and more drivers use their eyes/mirrors more often - but accidents happen anyways).

I've often had people email me after they've been in a fall or collision and I try my best to point them to resources, lawyers or other people who can help. I had asked Daniel to let me know how things went. It was satisfying for me to see some resolution for Daniel. It's no small task to keep dogging insurance companies and navigate the bureaucracy of government and corporations.

For some background, Daniel's email:

Hi,

I read through the information you provide towards "http://www.ibiketo.ca/guide/how-tos/how-claim-insurance". As I was in an accident today where the driver went into my lane and hit me (which he does not admit and stated to police that he was in his lane) I was wondering how
to proceed in this matter. No witnesses were there as every car just drove on that witnessed it. So its his word against mine. I was wondering if you could shed some light in the dark on if I have to get a lawyer to actually get money for the damages caused to my bike.

Thanks in advance

Daniel

I prefer to call it a collision since "accident" presupposes that there was nothing that could have been done differently. That usually only applies in the case of meteors falling out of the sky and not with motor vehicles driven with human agency.

After I explained the no-fault insurance part, Daniel got back to me after he reached a dead end where the insurance agent suspiciously derailed him from making a claim:

Hi Herb,

sorry to bother you again but I tried to contact the insurance today and they are saying that I can not put a claim in in person but would have to go through a Lawyer - which would most probably cost me more then the parts to repair my bike themselves. I am kind of lost in this (just moved here 6 months ago from Germany - where things are handled very differently as in the police would make sure the drivers insurance pays any damage caused to the cyclists bike) and I am kind of lost in this - my first and hopefully last - legal matter.

If you find a minute to advise me on how I can proceed with filing that claim - I`d greatly appreciate this! My Fork, front wheel and a few bits and bobs are bend/broken and at the moment I am looking at $400CAD to replace the parts. I really feel stupid for not just calling an ambulance and sueing the person that hit me - but thats not who I am. I thought everyone that makes a mistake would pay for the damage they cause (or at least the insurance). But over here things seem to go very different - from what I am experiencing.

Happily, once I insisted that insurance claims could be made without lawyers, Daniel started getting some results slowly as you read at the top. Indeed, the whole point of no-fault insurance was to avoid getting lawyers involved! I strongly suspect that Daniel is right that either it's standard procedure in this company or this individual agent's procedure to try to scare people away from making claims with lying.

When asking Daniel if I could print our conversation, I also asked him if he had anything else to add so others can hopefully avoid the same trials and tribulations. Daniel replied:

[C]yclists should NEVER leave the scene of the accident (which I unfortunately did). Gather as much information as possible if you are able to. Get as many witnesses as possible (and their details).

I guess if I would have been hurt in the accident and it would have come to a court case I would have not been lucky as I did not have any witnesses, the driver said he stuck to his lane (which is a lie), and we left the scene to go to a bikeshop to get a quote for the damages on the bike (the driver wanted to give me $100 which would not even have covered the replacement front wheel). The only thing I was able to collect as evidence later was the marks of my tire on the asphalt from locking my back wheel.

Another thing cyclists should do is call the police (911 will do but if noone is injured call 416-808-2222 and wait - it took about 1.5 hours in my case) because without a accident report from an officer it could also get messy. The officer was really friendly and told me that I might even have to sue the driver because its his word against mine (as the tire marks could have come from anyone) - which shows that even the police can be misinformed on how the law sees this.

All this wouldn`t have happened if I would have taken a picture of the accident scene, had witnesses or anything else to prove that it was not my fault.

After reading up on other webpages: you should also - even if you do not need a doctor/ambulance right away - keep documentation of your injuries as in photographing cuts, bruises, etc regularly in case something turns out to be worse then you thought later.

All excellent advice. After being in some minor and major collisions myself, I've gotten more savvy on just taking a breather. The driver might want to leave but you're in no obligation to let them go. On the contrary, call 911 and tell them you've been in a collision and that you might have injuries (you often can't tell when pumped up on adrenalin). Take photos. Get the driver's documents. FInd witnesses and get their phone numbers. Who cares if it takes hours. You never know if the next day you find out you've got a concussion or some other injury. Or damage you didn't see in the moment. Get a lawyer or advice from a lawyer. You shouldn't feel embarrased or ashamed for doing a thorough job of protecting yourself. We're already vulnerable enough as people on bikes or foot in a car-centric world.

Tags:

insurance

collision