The disadvantages of a Sherbourne St. bike lane

Lanes come with No Stopping Anytime laws which means businesses will suffer and disabled drivers won’t be able to park near medical facilities

By Ken Andrews –

Rendering of proposed Sherbourne St. bike lane with mountable curb

I’m not against bike lanes per se, but part of the installation requires “No Stopping” (anytime) regulations, which of course rules out parking; one is subject to a ticket for merely stopping to pick up a passenger or to drop one off, even in front of their residence or business!

This is the situation on Jarvis.  I know people who live on Jarvis, who find it difficult to be served by vehicles, so they usually walk to/from a side street to enter a taxi or car…(altho police unofficially will not ticket a vehicle for a brief stop, especially in front of a business such as the Rabba store just south of Gerrard).

Sherbourne has a lot more businesses than Jarvis for its length, and a goodly number of residences.  Almost all of those businesses have no off-street parking for their patrons (example, No Frills store near Isabella), so they’ll have to scramble somewhere to do business with the store.

In my case, I will not be able to drive to see my doctor at the very busy St. Michael’s Hospital Family Practice Unit (410 Sherbourne), nor will I be able to flag a taxi (remember: “No Stopping”!), although I understand buses and other transportation vehicles are exempt from the regulations.  There is a parking lot nearby, so they’ll probably do a “land office business” and raise their rates accordingly.

I have no intention of changing to St. Michael’s Esplanade clinic nearby.  My disability permit is helpful is accessing a destination, but it is ineffective on bike lane streets.

Although Sherbourne Street has always had bike lanes, there were spaces for parking; this new system of physically separated bike lanes precludes that.  (With a note of sarcasm, the lanes will be level with the sidewalks, so it will even be easier than before for bikes to transfer to/from the sidewalks!)

In an ideal world, everyone (including physically disabled in some form) could ride everywhere in any weather on a bicycle.