Bike Parking at Castle Frank/Sherbourne

Integration of transit modes is key to a well functioning city. Over the years we have slowly been increasing the amount of bike parking at TTC stations, because it is sometimes convenient to bike to or from a station instead of walking, taking a bus or uber.

However there are some stations that have not really seen much increase in parking, despite massive changes in the neighbourhoods they are in. We are going to discuss two in detail, although there are many others that need improvements.

We believe that modern bike parking needs to take into account modern biking…that is, some bikes are relatively cheap, others can run up to multiple thousands of dollars in the case of e-bikes or cargo bikes. Bike parking needs to take into account and provide multiple styles of parking - free and premium, convenient, secure, multiple sizes and should include options for scooters and even accessibility devices.

We have written in detail about how we think Toronto needs a coordinated and extensive branded plan for bike parking here:

This article is going to discuss what we think should happen at Castle Frank, and Sherbourne subway stations.

Currently Castle Frank is under construction, there is also currently absolutely no bike parking available. This is despite there being a major bike lane, a school and major population centres to the north and south. This is also the first TTC station to the west of the viaduct, so almost every cyclist using Danforth will filter past here.

It is a perfect place to add a significant amount of onsite bike parking as noted in the red areas. We believe that one of these areas should become free parking with a large rack, and a second area should become protected/secure parking in the form of a bike locker, or a Ooneepod (https://www.oonee.us).

There is room in the park across the road for potentially even more secure parking if necessary.

At Sherbourne we again have a station that hasn’t kept up with the times.

Despite two sets of major bike lanes, and a pedestrian bridge, Sherbourne only has six spots for bikes. We believe that the west entrance should have a major bike rack where the fence and gas infrastructure currently is. Additional post and rings should be added where the under-utilized newspaper corals are.

On the east side, there is currently construction to replace the pedestrian bridge, and we believe a ramp will be built from bloor down to the subway entrance. A ooneepod (https://www.oonee.us) should be also added in this area.

We believe that with the increased usage of the new pedestrian bridge, and the major population centres to the north and south, that this area needs a significant amount of new bike parking.