Suburban Cycling Infrastructure in Aurora (Part 2 of 2)

posted by Joe on 9/06/2006 | 4 Comments |

Continuing on from Part 1, let's look at some of the only bikelanes I've seen in Aurora:

Problem 1 - putting bikelanes in subdivisions is fine and dandy (and I suspect it was done so Aurora politicians can say "we care about alternative transportation... we put in X km of bikelanes!", but the fact is that they are NOT needed.

Do you see cars on these streets? Suburbia is so spread out and planned so traffic is all on major roads and not on "residential" streets. Bikelanes are not needed. I biked around this subdivision for half an hour on a Saturday afternoon and did not pass one moving car.

Problem 2 - suburban streets don't actually go anywhere. The big roads do... the ones so hostile to cyclists that there is no option but biking on sidewalks. The little roads though, for the most part, don't go anywhere.... they are a maze of crescents and cul-de-sacs that have only a few entry/exit points to roads that go somewhere.

Problem 3 - Bikelanes in subdivisions really do nothing to battle the auto-centric planning of suburbia. This is a roundabout in the subdivision (a subdivision with token "New Urbanism" planning, like smaller front yards and porches on every house), and although the intent here is to make it look like it's friendly to pedestrians.... it's not. Look at all the pavement.

Just to the right of the above photo is a playground... wouldn't it be safer to SLOW traffic down (instead of just make it turn a bit)? Put in some brick paving... more trees... narrow the roadway.

Bikelanes are useless in suburbia. In addition to the above reasons, there is also a tendency for lots of people to park in these bikelanes (although I couldn't find any when I had the camera)... because there aren't very many cyclists.

You can see all the photos I took in Aurora on Flickr.

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4 Comment(s) so far:

The bike lanes in some suburban areas are not meant as such really. The idea is to narrow the lane so cars slow down, so they are often implemented as traffic calming strips. I ride one daily on a collector in Richmond Hill. As you've noticed on some of the arterials, speeding is a problem and it sometimes carries over to residential streets. You are probably right about the political aspirations of the inclusion of lanes on low traffic residential streets.

Even though many suburban streets are 'roads to nowhere,' traffic tries and does find a way to penetrate these local roads to (insert irony here) avoid the busy arterials to shave off a few minutes of the morning commute. Often, speeding and rolling through stops is a problem.

On my own 10km commute from Richmond Hill to Markham, I use roughly 1/3 local, 1/3 collector (w/bike lane) and 1/3 screaming busy arterial roads. I've also got the option of using a paved trailway, but unfortunately it replaces the 1/3 on the collector and not the arterial :(

Granted, I would rather see some better facilities for cyclists on the arterials and collector roads. Crossing the 400 series highways with an underpass is particularly daunting.

Parking in bike lanes is problem just about everywhere bike lanes happen to be, no?

By Andrew, at 1:23 PM

I was going to say the same thing as Andrew - are these really intended as bike lanes? I see no bike lane signs or bike icons in the lanes in your picture - were there any? It may just be a strip to try to slow down traffic.

By Tanya, at 1:27 PM

Yeah, there are little diamonds painted in them, although not very often. They are obviously bikelanes when you see them in person, but obviously the most useless ones I've ever seen.

By Joe (BikingToronto), at 1:38 PM

I grew up in the Aurora/Newmarket area, but have lived in downtown Toronto for the last 15 years. I recently rode up to Newmarket, taking Bayview all the way from Queen St. to where Bayview becomes Prospect in Newmarket. It never even crossed my mind to take side streets. It takes too long. The highway was not so bad at all. In fact, I was astonished to discover that Bayview has been extended from between Stouffville and Bloomington. I was expecting to take a detour around Oak Ridges.

Though highways are clearly more dangerous than sidestreets, they actually take you somewhere. Honestly, I'd rather have a transport truck pass me at 80km/hr than ride downtown and have to watch out for j-walking pedestrians.

That's an amazing idea you have about a bike path on the hydro lines. I may be mistaken, but I think up around Collingwood/Owen Sound they turned old railway lines into bike paths.

By Timon, at 9:44 AM