Co-owner of company that parked in Toronto bike lane speaks out

A company that works with delivery truck drivers is calling for improved bike lane infrastructure to help both cyclists and motorists get around the city in a safer manner.

Blaise Page, co-owner of Page Flooring & Concrete Solutions Inc., was subject to a slew of angry calls and emails after one of his company's drivers recently parked on the Bloor Street bike lane, blocking it off to cyclists.

Page said the driver, who had only been on the job for a month, initially parked in a Green P parking spot designated for cars but later moved the truck to be partially on the bike lane after he did not find a loading zone for trucks on the stretch of the road.

"The driver made an honest mistake," Page said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Monday.

"We do most of our deliveries before and after hours, and typically we can get into the loading dock, so we're not really interrupting these lanes," he said. 

Page said the truck blocking the bike lane drew attention on the road, causing the driver to panic and move the truck across the road onto another bike lane.

"We're not out here to be parking out in bike lanes … I just don't think [there] was clear marking on the road of where that parking was and he just kind of pulled right into that spot … It was right in the middle of a bike lane though," Page said.

"He got a little bit frantic when all this happened," he said. 

"There's people coming over [to take] pictures, yelling at him. Unfortunately I think it was just like a state of being frantic."

Page took issue with the city's infrastructure saying he would like to see more designated loading zones for trucks that need to make deliveries in the downtown core, adding that bike lanes across the city should have a physical barrier to separate motorists and cyclists in order to avoid similar incidents.

"Then there would have been no issues with vehicles," he said. "The delivery guys wouldn't even be able to get into those lanes."

Calls have been growing recently for the city to implement more measures to protect cyclists, after several instances of obstructed bike lanes have led to injuries and, in some cases, deaths.

Last week, the City of Toronto said it had laid bylaw charges against two companies that left a construction bin in the Bloor Street W. bike lane where a 24-year-old cyclist was killed.

Ontario Trucking and Disposal Ltd., a garbage disposal bin company, faces five infractions including encumbering a street, placing an object on a street, causing dangerous conditions, unauthorized occupation of a street and failure to provide proper signage to warn the public of an obstruction on a street.