I’ve written before about the lovely little seam of usually lightly-trafficked roadways that has been known to appear near my place, yet sadly, the seam is slowly becoming only a dream. The problem is a bottleneck that happens on Richmond Street just before University Ave. The city, in its infinite wisdom, decided to turn the four-lane Richmond into three lanes plus a bicycle lane.
Now, I’m all for bike lanes. Though I’m not a cyclist myself and don’t even know how to ride a bike, I certainly understand the….
…what’s that? Oh, you don’t want to just skip by that weird little factoid about myself? Yeah, never really learned how to ride a bicycle. Tried it a couple of times as a kid, it didn’t take, so here I am, far too old to learn. My primary form of transportation as a kid was my Big Wheels, which sadly isn’t an option when you’re a grown man, which is HORSECRAP. If only adult Big Wheels were socially acceptable.
Anyway, back to the bike lanes. As I was saying, I’m all for bike lanes in the proper locations, yet Richmond/University is not one of those locations. The problem is that the “four-lane road” was essentially always a three-laner to begin with. The left lane was inevitably always filled with taxis, vans or just idiots with their emergency lights on making stops in front of the Hilton Hotel on that corner. Since that lane is always full, you then inevitably get people in the next lane over having to make left turns out of the second lane due to congestion and/or stupidity. The fourth lane was also usually jammed up as well due to cars making right turns and having to wait of pedestrians to cross the enormous University thoroughfare.
The problem is that now, that fourth lane is the bike lane. This leaves poor ol’ Lane Three, once a bastion of free-flowing traffic, into a jam session forced to wait while one dolt takes his sweet time strolling across the road.
There’s always been a bit of construction ongoing on Richmond because it’s Toronto and it’s inevitable, yet even that bit of construction normally didn’t matter in those glorious moments when the Seam magically appeared, Brigadoon-style. Now, between the construction and the bottleneck, the Seam is never quite so free, even during the Seamiest of times.
WHINE WHINE WHINE. My heretofore little slice of driving convenience is now no longer so convenient. I have to wait an extra *couple of minutes* getting down this road now. Sometimes even FIVE whole minutes! Oh the humanity. Truly, nobody has it harder than me.
Now, I’m all for bike lanes. Though I’m not a cyclist myself and don’t even know how to ride a bike, I certainly understand the….
…what’s that? Oh, you don’t want to just skip by that weird little factoid about myself? Yeah, never really learned how to ride a bicycle. Tried it a couple of times as a kid, it didn’t take, so here I am, far too old to learn. My primary form of transportation as a kid was my Big Wheels, which sadly isn’t an option when you’re a grown man, which is HORSECRAP. If only adult Big Wheels were socially acceptable.
Anyway, back to the bike lanes. As I was saying, I’m all for bike lanes in the proper locations, yet Richmond/University is not one of those locations. The problem is that the “four-lane road” was essentially always a three-laner to begin with. The left lane was inevitably always filled with taxis, vans or just idiots with their emergency lights on making stops in front of the Hilton Hotel on that corner. Since that lane is always full, you then inevitably get people in the next lane over having to make left turns out of the second lane due to congestion and/or stupidity. The fourth lane was also usually jammed up as well due to cars making right turns and having to wait of pedestrians to cross the enormous University thoroughfare.
The problem is that now, that fourth lane is the bike lane. This leaves poor ol’ Lane Three, once a bastion of free-flowing traffic, into a jam session forced to wait while one dolt takes his sweet time strolling across the road.
There’s always been a bit of construction ongoing on Richmond because it’s Toronto and it’s inevitable, yet even that bit of construction normally didn’t matter in those glorious moments when the Seam magically appeared, Brigadoon-style. Now, between the construction and the bottleneck, the Seam is never quite so free, even during the Seamiest of times.
WHINE WHINE WHINE. My heretofore little slice of driving convenience is now no longer so convenient. I have to wait an extra *couple of minutes* getting down this road now. Sometimes even FIVE whole minutes! Oh the humanity. Truly, nobody has it harder than me.
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