Cycling in Toronto Leaves Much to Be Desired

Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume blasts the city's lackluster bicycle planning efforts, calling them disjointed.

1 minute read

August 10, 2010, 11:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


"The latest example, the much loathed bike lanes on Jarvis St., finally came to pass this week after years of rancorous debate. The new lanes begin at Charles St. in the north and end, as abruptly as they begin, on Queen St. to the south.

In other words, the new lanes are all but useless to anyone who happens to be travelling anywhere above or below that particular stretch of Jarvis. The new lanes do connect with others that run along Wellesley, Carlton and Gerrard; the failure, of course, is that they don't connect with either Bloor St. or the waterfront.

Yet in their way, the Jarvis lanes tell the story of a city that pretends to be committed to the bicycle as an alternative means of urban transportation, but is anything but."

Hume says the city's disconnected planning and policies make a bad cycling situation worse.

Friday, July 30, 2010 in The Toronto Star

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