Councillors want improvements to Bloor St. bike lanes after cyclist’s death

Thestar.com
June 21, 2018
Ben Spurr

Two city councillors are pushing for immediate changes to the Bloor St. bike lanes following the death of a cyclist on the route last week.

Dalia Chako, 58, was killed June 12 when she collided with a truck at the intersection Bloor St. W. and St. George St. She was the fourth cyclist to die in Toronto this year.

Councillors Joe Cressy (Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina) and Mike Layton (Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina) have put forward a motion on next week’s council agenda that calls for the city’s transportation staff to “immediately improve corridor safety” along Bloor St.

The motion would authorize city staff to make any changes to the bike lanes they see fit in the near term, and to accelerate plans to enhance the physical separation between the bike lanes and car traffic.

Layton said the current design of the bike lanes, which were installed in August 2016 as a $500,000 pilot project, don’t afford cyclists enough protection.

“When it was put in, we were all celebrating it. Just think, four years ago could you imagine us putting a bike lane on Bloor?” he said. “Unfortunately, the separation, in particular at intersections, isn’t as safe it should be.”

The bike lanes run for 2.4 kilometres between Shaw St. and Avenue Rd. The current design separates cyclists from car traffic using bollards that are spaced far enough apart to allow drivers to encroach on the bikeway. Approaching intersections, the separation disappears.

Layton said the design wasn’t more robust because the project was a pilot. But after council voted last November to keep the lanes, “we have the ability to make it as safe as possible and actually do some physical changes to the right of way,” Layton said.

Major physical improvements will likely have to wait until next year, when they would be completed in conjunction with planned road resurfacing and water main replacement on Bloor St.

But in the short term, Cressy said the city could make improvements with measures like painted markings and signage.

The pair’s motion also asks staff to include so-called “protected intersections” as part of the permanent improvements. Those specially designed intersections, which are used in the Netherlands and other countries, include a wider turning radius and buffers between cyclists and motorists. They’re intended to help prevent motorists and cyclists coming into conflict, particularly as drivers are turning.

Police have not yet released details of the collision that killed Chako. She and the truck were reportedly driving north on St. George St. when the truck made a right turn onto Bloor, striking her.

“Had we had a physically separated turning radius, it would have required a slower turn and a level of buffer between the cyclist and the vehicle,” said Cressy.

The councillor argued Toronto should stop building bike lanes as pilot projects, and instead install permanent, well-designed infrastructure from the start. He wants to extend the Bloor lanes further west to Dovercourt Rd. in 2019.

“We shouldn’t, in our city like ours, have a pilot to make the case that cycling lanes are needed,” he said. “It’s time to just build them right across the city, everywhere.”