[URBAN NOTE] Three Toronto links: TTC streetcars, Queens Quay, Cheesecake Factory

• Steve Munro shares some photos of the first of the Canadian Light Rail Vehicles, TTC streetcars, from 1978.
• NOW Toronto points out that Queens Quay, a popular pedestrian and biking area, does not do that good job of separating these two streams of traffic.
• This Toronto Star review of the Cheesecake Factory, newly present in Toronto at Yorkdale, was fun to read. A dessert there might be worth trying.

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[URBAN NOTE] Four notes around the world: New York City, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Mexico City

• Bloomberg notes global warming can expose New York City to heightened flood risks every five years, not every 500.
• Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg notes, plans to build a new city from scratch.
• VICE notes that Hong Kong, with its dear real estate, is running out of space for its dead.
• Spacing looks at how Mexico City is expanding its cycling infrastructure as part of its bid for world status.

[URBAN NOTE] Six links on Toronto, on mass transit and infrastructure generally

• This story of a TTC worker who took a day’s fares home with him, where they got confiscated by police, and then compensated by union pressure for having been suspended without pay … wow.
• Edward Keenan makes the point that cost overruns for city infrastructure need to be taken seriously. The quoted price for a park staircase is just off.
• Daily Xtra notes the sad state of repairs of the rainbow crosswalks of Toronto.
• CBC reports on Twyn Rivers Drive, a Scarborough route some say should be marked as off-limits for heavy vehicles.
• NOW Toronto reports on how Mississauga is starting to outshine Toronto in the department of bike lanes.
• Torontoist’s Tricia Wood writes about the almost impressive dysfunction at Metrolinx.

[URBAN NOTE] Three articles on cycling bike lanes in Toronto

• NOW Toronto‘s Tammy Thorne looks at the reasons given for the lack of bike lanes on the Entertainment District’s John Street.
• The Toronto Star‘s Ben Spurr reports on the success of bike lanes on Bloor Street.
• The Star carries Liam Lacey’s Canadian Press article on Gregory Becarich, maker of ghost bike memorials in Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] “Six Things We Learned from Ryerson’s Cycling Report”

Torontoist’s Cayley James shares her summary of six key points from a recent report on cycling in Toronto. There is definitely a lot of potential for it to increase.

Ryerson University recently released a report that is the first of its kind in Canada. Cycling Behaviour and Potential in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area [PDF] is a nearly 100-page document that analyzes current cycling patterns, with an eye towards how Metrolinx and the municipalities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) can increase cycling.

Written by Raktim Mitra, Ian Cantello, and Greggory Hanson, three researchers from Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, as well as Nancy Smith Lea from the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), it received funding from Metrolinx, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

There are 14 million trips made on a daily basis in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Anyone can tell you that Toronto has a travel problem. The roads are clogged with cars, there is a dearth of hard-rail transit that Metrolinx is trying to remedy slowly but surely, and those who could be cycling aren’t. For me, a commuter, a cyclist, and someone who can’t drive, a lot of the problems brought up in the report were common knowledge. What was enlightening was the breadth of these problems across the region and the surprising areas that potential is hidden.

[URBAN NOTE] “Majority of Torontonians favour bike lanes, new survey suggests”

The Toronto Star‘s Alina Bykova reports on an encouraging new poll of Torontonian opinion.

Seven in 10 Torontonians support bike lanes generally and a majority approve of the new lanes on Bloor St. W., according to a new Forum Research poll revealed this week.

The survey showed widespread support for bike lanes from multiple demographics that were surveyed, including people who drive, take public transit, bike and walk to work or school, those in different income and age brackets, and men and women alike.

Downtown Toronto and East York, where most bike lanes are located, had the highest approval rates, at 79 per cent in each region. North York’s approval rating was the lowest of all the regions surveyed, at 61 per cent.

“These lanes have obviously been something of a success, and even the majority of drivers favour them. This bodes well for more bicycle infrastructure if as ambitious a project as this can meet with so little opposition,” said Forum president Lorne Bozinoff.

Fifty-six per cent of those polled approved of the new bike lanes on Bloor between Shaw St. and Avenue Rd., a pilot project installed in August. The approval rating was slightly higher in the case of those surveyed in downtown Toronto, who were 63 per cent in favour of the bike lanes, and in East York, where 72 per cent were supportive.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• blogTO notes a bike licensing proposal has been killed.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to a study of the surfaces of magma exoplanets.
• Language Hat notes untranslatable Maltese phrases.
• Language Log is taken aback by Donald Trump’s juvenile language.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money thinks that Trump’s stance on trade might be an advantage.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer does not understand what Ian Bremmer means by saying that the presidential election does not matter to business.
• Savage Minds shares an indigenous take on anthropology and its charting of indigenous secrets and lives and cultures.
• Towleroad notes that survivors of the Orlando massacre and others are starting to get compensation from the OneOrlando fund.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russians believed their propaganda today and argues Russian autocracy will always threaten Ukraine.