The Bloor Viaduct is getting some fresh paint this week. On Tuesday night, city work crews laid out the first hint of what’s to come, painting thin guide marks for the full lane markings to follow. As Dan Egan detailed at our public meeting on Wednesday, the project will considerably widen the existing bike lanes along the entire length of the Viaduct and add new treatments to address the conflict zones at the DVP on-ramps identified in our 2008 Bloor Viaduct Safety Report. The new lanes are not only wider, but will also feature a small buffer zone to put even more space between cars and bikes.
We’ll have more information about the new configuration on the Viaduct once the painting is complete, but we thought you’d like a sneak peek into the work in progress on Thursday night. The whole repainting project is scheduled to be completed by next week.
The work crew sets up on Danforth for an evening of re-striping the lanes.
The new bike lanes will be much wider than the old ones, with the extra space gained by shaving a little off each of the mixed-use lanes.
When you ride the new luxury bike lanes on the Viaduct, you can thank Chris and Rob for doing the work. Thanks, Chris and Rob! And thanks too to everyone else at the City who are helping to make crossing the Don Valley safer for all cyclists.
Ward 29 Bikes once again took part in Monday’s group commute, the official kick-off to Bike Month in Toronto. For the second year in a row, riders welcomed perfect cycling weather bright and early in the morning. Hundreds of cyclists from the east, west, and north converged on Yonge and Bloor before heading down to CIty Hall for the annual pancake breakfast.
This being an election year, we were pleased to be joined on the ride by five of the six declared candidates to replace retiring Ward 29 Councillor Case Ootes. Thanks to Chris Caldwell, Mary Fragedakis, Jane Pitfield, John Richardson, and Jennifer Wood for joining us for the ride.
Here are a few pictures from the ride:
Riders, including candidate Jennifer Wood here, pause on Yonge Street south of Bloor to allow stragglers to catch up so that we can all head downtown as one big group.
Hundreds of cyclists, including candidate John Richardson in the yellow helmet, stream into Nathan Phillips Square, locking up their bikes on the way to the pancake breakfast.
Our own Vincent de Tourdonnet was interviewed by Radio-Canada.
Councillor John Parker (Ward 26) took Jane Pitfield for a spin in a quadricycle from Centre Island.
The group commute is always a great way to start the best cycling month in Toronto. There are dozens more Bike Month events throughout the city over the next four weeks, including our own east end cycling advocacy meeting on Wednesday, June 9. Be sure to head out to at least a couple of events in June and help make it the best Bike Month ever!
Comments Off on Bloor Viaduct gets a new paint job 
Themocracy