cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21139835
The Ford government is promising to pay the cost of removing bike lanes from major city streets that fail to meet its unannounced criteria as it ploughs ahead with a plan to limit biking infrastructure and rip out some routes.
I love how in the article they call Yonge Street and Blood Street an arterial Road
Streets are for people that live along them, they are meant as “destinations”. They are meant to be traffic calmed as they are used more then just by vehicular traffic.
Roads are for moving motorised vehicles, they dont act as a “destination”, they dont serve the “local area” but are meant as a way to get you from one side of town to the other generally at high speeds (50~70kmh) with very little stops or driveways. Its not called “road parking” for a reason.
The trouble really is roadway classifications in North America. Traffic engineers need to stop designing every roadway as a “Strode”. Strodes act as neither a good street, or a good road.
Proper bike lanes with traffic calming is exactly what city streets need, and its a huge plus for the local residents and businesses. It transforms a highspeed “dead” road into a lively and inviting destination.
Final thought, the only well designed Road that I have seen in the GTA is a very small section of Allen Road.
If we did want to get our cities vehicle traffic moving, then this small section or Road connecting to a Street is a good example of this in practice.