Quote:
Originally Posted by hipster duck
Toronto definitely wins "most improved" bike network in Canada, but there are still a few things that Vancouver does better than Toronto in this department:
1. Way-finding. Instead of anonymous route numbers and a tiny shield, Vancouver gave their bike routes clever names (my favourite is "Off Broadway" - the route that parallels Broadway), revamped the street signs on bike routes so it's clearly marked, and even put in special overhead street signs that hang from traffic light standards when they cross arterial roads. They even paint bike symbols and arrows on the pavement when a route makes a turn onto another street;
2. The network extends into suburban areas of the city. In Toronto, the network is starting to become good south of Davenport, but it's still thin and a decade behind in the urban-but-not-core areas between Davenport and Eglinton and then completely non-existent north of that. In Vancouver, the bike network covers the whole city, including areas like Killarney in the southeast that only got built out in the 1970s.
3. Push signals to activate lights at intersections that are placed at a bicyclist's reach. In Toronto, some intersections (not all) have a sensor built into the pavement that not too many people know about, and they seem a lot less responsive - and certainly feel less user-friendly than the push button. Very often, a cyclist that doesn't know about the sensor will be half on and half off preventing someone who knows about the trick from positioning themselves on the signal and triggering the light.
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Definitely agreed on the wayfinding - it's a lot easier to find a bike route in-the-moment (without having to stop and check Google Maps) in Vancouver than in Toronto; and Vancouver's feels like more of a complete, cohesive
network. It's more well thought out, whereas Toronto's is a bit of a hodgepodge of bike lanes wherever they can fit them (though as more and more get built, that becomes sufficient as an actual network). That said, there are a few major advantages in Toronto's favour:
- Better inner-city coverage. Vancouver's downtown network is arguably better than Toronto's, as are those of its suburbs. But downtowns are best suited to walking, and suburbs to driving - it's the mid to high-density inner neighbourhoods where cycling is most viable and most useful as a means of transport; and therefore, where the infrastructure gets the best returns.
- More coverage on commercial streets & major thoroughfares. Most of Toronto's bike lanes are on major commercial thoroughfares like Bloor, Yonge, Richmond, Adelaide, Roncesvalles, and so on. This is important, as these tend to be the most direct routes, are major trip generators/destinations, and have the highest traffic volumes (ie. where cycling is the most dangerous). In comparison, Vancouver's bike routes tend to be on adjacent side streets so as to not take away car capacity on thoroughfares like Broadway or Commercial. This makes sense from a traffic planning perspective, but is less natural as a user - and also have less
need for the infrastructure as they're streets with low vehicular traffic to begin with.
- Toronto is easier to bike in outside of the network. This is simply the result of being an older city with narrower, slower streets (the streetcars really help as well, by following a predictable path and controlling the flow of traffic) and a flatter topography rather than the work of any particular planning genius, but the end result is the same: people are more likely to use bikes to get around. This then has spinoff effects as it makes drivers more aware of cyclists, and in turn makes cycling safer & easier; which fosters a culture of more casual bike-users. In Vancouver, there are a lot more fast-moving arterials & bus lanes that can make cycling quite risky (or at least unpleasant) where there is no dedicated infrastructure.