I am a resident of Bloor…

I am a resident of Bloor West Village in Toronto. My family supports the removal of the bike lanes along Bloor, not only from Runnymede west, but east of Runnymede as well. Anecdotally, many residents in the area feel the same way, even those who often cycle.

I am not opposed to bike lanes in principle, but I am opposed to both the design and location of these particular lanes. They may address some safety concerns but they create others, and there is no reason for them to be located on this street.

1. As a driver, it is extremely difficult for me to see bicycles coming when I'm turning left off Bloor, as they are obscured by the lane of parked cars and my attention is taken up by buses and pedestrians at the intersection. When turning right, for the same reason, I must pull over and block the bike lane to ensure that the car does not turn into a cyclist that cannot be seen (and who chooses to pass a turning car on the right. A dangerous situation exists at the bottom of the hill near High Park, where cyclists could be travelling at 30 to 40 km/hour in the bike lane towards cars waiting to turn right off Bloor.

2. The parking lane is too narrow. It requires drivers to open their door into a live lane of traffic, and makes it unsafe to retrieve an elderly person or child from a car seat in the back seat. While somewhat safer on the bike lane side, it still requires opening a door into the bike lane and emptying an unsteady person or stroller into the bike lane. This assumes that the car doors are not blocked by the ridiculous bollards. The design creates accessibility issues for the disabled as well the elderly and families with small children. In the blind pursuit of making cycling safer, the safety of others has been compromised. (As an aside, the behaviour of many cyclists adds to the safety problem - without exaggeration, I see cyclists driving the wrong way down a street or even in the bike lanes, riding on the sidewalks, and/or blasting through stop signs and red lights without stopping EVERY TIME I go out. And then there's the failure to wear a helmet....)

3. The bike lanes are rarely used in this section of the City and it is difficult to imagine any scenario where they will ever come close to replacing cars and public transit. The City's own usage data bears this out. Well under 1% of trips (only a few hundred per day at best) along this section are taken by cyclists, even in good weather. There are tens of thousands of people living in the surrounding area. The introduction of the bike lanes had no meaningful reduction on the number of car trips. I would also note that the data does not explain whether the additional cyclists on Bloor after installation were existing cyclists or changed their routes from side streets to use the lanes, meaning no or little net new cyclists. (How many were using Annette Street, Harbord, the Queensway before?). The data has also not been presented in relation to the City's population growth (i.e. as the population grows, so proportionately will the population of cyclists to some degree, but is it more, or less?). Similarly, it is not possible to know from the data whether the small reduction in car trips is due to drivers using side streets to avoid the new congestion on Bloor.

4. It is unacceptable for a short trip of a few hundred metres to take two to 4 minutes longer (double). That is a massive increase in travel time and is made worse if someone is travelling longer distances on Bloor, as each of those delays add up. I have personally witnessed the additional congestion around Bloor/Jane/South Kingsway as a result of the changes. I have also witnessed, on numerous occasions, emergency vehicles stuck with nowhere to go until a light changes, as there is no where for cars to pull over to the right to let them through until the light turns green.

5. Why are we putting bike lanes directly on top of a route with a subway on it? There is already an alternative option to cars built right under this street.

6. On a point related to #5, Bloor Street is where shuttle buses need to run when the subway is down. It is total gridlock during rush hour when the shuttle buses need to run and just as bad on weekends, because there is not enough room for them.

7. Government money should be shovelled into public transit. That is the realistic way people will be able to reduce their reliance on vehicles.