‘Be careful out there’: Ford tells Toronto cyclists to avoid major arterial roads - Toronto | Globalnews.ca
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Ontario's premier and transportation minister are suggesting cyclists avoid Toronto's major roads as the province forges ahead with a plan to remove bike lanes from some streets.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22337621

An amendment, tabled and passed on Thursday, gives the government and contractors it taps to tear bike lanes out on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue protection from lawsuits, including if someone is injured on those roads.

The last-minute amendment gives the government the ability to remove bike lanes from the entirety of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, not just the most controversial parts the government has talked about.

Sarkaria said it was possible the routes could be removed in their entirety — but a final decision had not yet been made.

“We’ll examine the entire stretch to see which parts — ultimately all of it could be removed,” he said on Thursday.

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.worldOP
    81·
    1 month ago

    Once again a step backwards for Ontario.

    Turing traffic calmed, safe and inviting Streets that directly serve local residents, business, pedestrians and cyclists, into high volume, high speed Roads that will only add to serve suburban commuters.

    This is a battle between local Toronto residents and suburban morning/evening commuters.

    Yonge Street and Bloor Street are called Streets, not Yonge Road or Bloor Road.

    Streets are “destinations”, Roads get you from point A to point B without regard for whats along the way.

    Streets make a local community. Roads connect communities over long distances, and in this case will divide a established community in half.

    Its called Street Parking, not Road Parking. Have you ever seen someone park on a high speed road (or strode) to run into a shop or backery?

    If the plan would be turn Toronto Streets into Roads then I suppose Street parking would be completely removed with the addition of the second lane?

    • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      52·
      1 month ago

      Yonge Street was designated as such in the 1790s. Bloor is equally old. If you’re expecting the modern traffic level and thoroughfare status to be reflected in a name given more than two centuries ago, I’d like to know exactly how your time machine works.

      And anyway, as far as I’ve ever been able to tell, the difference between a street and a road is that a road was probably outside the municipal limits when named. Assuming that it didn’t just get designated “road” because someone on the urban planning committee was tired of “street”. There’s no generally respected hard-and-fast rule for anything except “crescent”, “highway”, and “freeway”.