At their September meeting Toronto City Council approved .5 km stretch of bike lane along Dundas and College Street.

The red lines show the stretch where Bike lanes will be installed on Dundas and College from Sorauren to Lansdowne. (Image from City of Toronto Bike Map ©2005. Click on Map to go to online version of the map on the City of Toronto's web site.)

The bike lane runs through the wards of Adam Giambrone - Ward 18 Davenport and Sylvia Watson - Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park. With their support the project was able to win approval at the September 19th, 2005 Toronto and East York Community Council meeting and the subsequent September 28th, 2005 Council meeting.

The thing to note about this project is that it introduces a new kind of bikeway facility that is not mentioned in the Bike Plan. The Bike Plan indicates that a bike lane is supposed to run on this section of College St. from Dundas to Brock. In September 2005 the Councillors only approved the bike lane from Dundas to Lansdowne. They replaced the rest of the bike lane with a "shared-use lane". The following is a quote from the report that council approved that describes what will replace the proposed bike lane.

Between Lansdowne Avenue and Brock Avenue the route would continue along College Street as a shared roadway bicycle facility. Bicycle lanes cannot be provided on this section of College Street without either reducing the number of vehicle lanes or eliminating the existing onstreet parking.

Shared Roadway Bicycle Route

As a minor arterial road, College Street, between Lansdowne Avenue and Brock Avenue does not fit the profile of a “signed bicycle route”, which is typically on a local or collector road. For this reason, the regular bike route signage for this section of the route will be supplemented with “shared-use lane” markings on the pavement surface. The “shared-use lane” markings have been successfully used in other jurisdictions in North America, particularly by the cities of Chicago and San Francisco. The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) is currently developing “Guidelines for the Design and Application of Bicycle Traffic Pavement Markings”, which will include the “shared-use lane” marking treatment. The new guidelines will be completed and published in 2006. The draft TAC guidelines state that the “shared-use lane” marking may be used on roadways with high cycling traffic volumes which are wide enough for side-by-side bicycle and vehicle operation but not wide enough for a bicycle lane. The “shared-use lane” marking is intended to alert motorists to the presence of cyclists and to identify correct positioning for cyclists within the lane. The “shared-use lane” marking is also used next to parked cars where it is intended to encourage cyclists to ride clear of the “door zone”, where conflicts may occur with opening vehicle doors.

Peak hour parking prohibitions on College Street will require a somewhat unique placement of the “shared-use lane” markings. Two sets of markings will be required. For the off-peak periods, when parking is permitted, a set of “shared-use lane” markings will be located adjacent to the parked cars. For the peak periods, when parking is prohibited, there will also be a set of “shared-use lane” markings adjacent to the curb. These markings will be placed appropriately so that during the off-peak periods, the parked vehicles will cover them. This configuration has been used successfully on Pender Street in Vancouver. Transportation Services staff will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the “shared-use lane” markings on this section of College Street, in consultation with the Ward Councillor and the Cycling Committee.

You can read the entire report here. Dundas Street West & College Bike Lanes

Shared use lanes have not been used yet in Toronto. In July 2005 the Transportation Services Staff presented them to the Toronto Cycling Committee as an alternate marking on the Section of Royal York Road where Council had approved a sub-standard 1.25 m bike lane. The TCC endorsed this as a pilot project. The desire was to see if these are in fact a good way to mark cycling routes before it is implemented in other areas. Before the Royal York Road pilot project proposal has been considered by Council, they have approved its installation on another section of roadway replacing another section bike lane.

The fear among cycling advocates is that this shared roadway marking will be seen as Councillors as an easy way to be seen as supporting cycling without doing the hard work of getting bike lanes approved in their Ward. The fear is that streets that should in fact have bike lanes will get these shared lane markings instead. The new markings may have a role to play in the Bikeway network. If this is to be a fourth type of cycling infrastructure as part of the bike plan it should be evaluated first before it is applied elsewhere. A proper study should be done of this project and Royal York Road before it is spread to other projects in the City.