By Krishika Jethani –
The city has added bidirectional cycle tracks to Parliament Street running north of Parliament Square Park as part of the Esplanade and Mill Street connection project to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users.
However, community members noticed a yellow guy wire in the middle of the track at Mill Street, raising concerns for cyclists’ safety. Transportation Services confirmed the guy wire was installed by Toronto Hydro but was not included in the track design.
Toronto Hydro spokesperson Kaitlyn Woods said the guy wire was removed on June 21. “We can confirm that our infrastructure assets were installed before a bike path was planned in the area,” she said.
“Upon hearing about the yellow tube in the cycle path on Mill Street, my office reached to city staff who work on cycling,” commented Ward 10 Councillor Ausma Malik. “They informed us that it was covering a guy wire installed by Toronto Hydro to support one of their new poles. Cycling staff promptly asked them to move it and I understand the trail is now open.”
However, local resident Mick Brighton was disappointed that lack of planning and communication led to a safety hazard.
“If somebody had planned this out in the first place, then we wouldn’t have had all these lovely paving slabs paved, we wouldn’t have had them dug up, we wouldn’t have had Hydro putting in the posts,” Brighton said. “Somebody could have planned it all out and saved the city a lot of money.”
1 Comment
I was a bit surprised by this very negative framing of this new infrastructure. Separating the bikes from the pedestrians is long overdue and makes things much safer for the many people who pass through the park. The infrastructure has been done very well, with clear markings and signage, separate traffic lights for the bikes, etc. Of course it won’t solve every problem, and some people will do what they like no matter what infrastructure you provide them, but it’s a good step in the right direction.
The rollout was a bit chaotic, but the issue described in this article was resolved within days. It also didn’t help that people were dragging the pylons aside to open the path before it was officially completed.