Some highlights from last night’s Davenport consultation. This wasn’t a project on our radar until very recently but City staff saw an opportunity to upgrade old-style painted lanes to current standards. Davenport is one of the only safe ways to cross Dupont from Midtown.

The gist is that bike lanes on Davenport between Dupont and Yonge will be getting protection and will move inside parking and the curb, per current best practice. Some sections of the lane will be raised to curb height.

Staff took great care around parking and managed to keep enough to meet peak demand. While it’s frustrating we keep having to talk about parking in the same breath as life-saving safety protections, City staff have made it difficult to make a parking argument against this project

Not all cyclists are keen on moving the bike lane inside parking. City staff have data to suggest that doing so reduces collisions causing serious injury and death, and so while this arrangement may slow experienced cyclists down it should encourage all-ages-and-abilities cycling

It was pointed out that making a left-hand turn as a cyclist on Davenport is made even harder is this arrangement, although it already takes a brave cyclist to make a left-hand turn across four lanes of motorvehicle traffic travelling on average 53 km/h, in a 40 zone.

City staff are going to examine possibilities for making crossing Davenport safer for cyclists and pedestrians particularly at unsignaled intersections. This is very hard to do in practice since it generally involves adding signals

So in conclusion, this is a welcome upgrade that makes using Davenport safer, but not safe. No road will ever be truly safe until vehicles travel slower and this project doesn’t address that. A win is a win though @TO_Cycling @m_layton https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/9318-Davenport-Bikeway-UpgradePublic-ConsultationFeb-2021Compressed2.pdf