Beyond Bike Lanes
I love biking across the city, but I also appreciate the convenience of loading my kids into the backseat of my car for quick errands (they’ve outgrown the bike seat!).
We often dream of having the urban experience we admire in so many European cities. But there’s still a long road ahead. I remember cycling in Berlin years ago, and buses would pass by 6 feet away from me, if not more. Here, I once had a TTC bus press me against the curb on an empty street.
This issue goes both ways; most bikers don’t obey signs. Never. A neighbor of mine, an elderly woman, ended up with bruises after being hit by a cyclist who ran a red light. Meanwhile, cyclist fatalities in our city remain heartbreakingly high. Toronto isn’t alone in facing these challenges—Try to bike in Chicago or New York, for that matter.
If Toronto truly wants to become the world-class city it aspires to be, we need compromise and civility from all sides. Bike lanes are essential for safety, and better infrastructure and well-thought intersections are needed, but cyclists must also be mindful—respect pedestrians, obey traffic signals, and, please, no earbuds. Removing bike lanes won’t change the fact that downtown will continue to densify. Bikes aren’t a silver bullet for transit, but they do contribute meaningfully to soften and enrich our urban fabric—much more than sitting in inevitable traffic jams, whether there’s one lane or two.
As a city, we need to accept that downtown accessibility can’t revolve around cars anymore, just like it happens in all those other world-class cities we love to visit.