City gets into gear on damaged bike locking rings
Like bees to flowers, locking rings for two-wheeled vehicles seem to have a magnetic effect on the fourwheeled kind.
There are few things on Toronto streets that are more plentiful and appreciated but prone to assault than bicycle locking rings.
Every year, the city repairs about 750 bike rings, almost all of which have been damaged by vehicles. It also adds to its inventory by annually installing 450 new rings — the version with a sleeved ring on a post — and retrofitting about 850 oldstyle rings so they’re the same as the new ones.
There are more than 17,000 locking rings in Toronto, including 11,000 or so that are the old postand-ring design, which are steadily being swapped out for new sleeved rings that are much harder to fiddle with. Larcenists had figured out how to jimmy the old rings and loosen them from their base, making it easier to steal the bike attached to it.
For riders, locking rings are essential for securing their bikes from rampant theft. They are built for just that purpose and are much better than locking up to a utility pole or a street tree.
But their location leaves them vulnerable to vehicles that mount the curb and mow them down, as evidenced by several notes I’ve gotten in recent months about damaged rings.
Grant Oysten emailed to say he lives “on a lovely residential street near High Park, and there are three bike rings on it that have been damaged by cars smashing into them.”
“They’re bent over so far they’re a danger to pedestrians and certainly no good for locking bikes to,” he said, adding he’s reported them several times to 311 and was told they’d be fixed on time frames ranging from a week to a month.
“Well, you know how it goes; eight months in and we’ve seen no progress,” he said, noting that two are near 393 Sorauren Ave., and another is at 363 Sorauren.
Barry Smith sent me a note about a bent-over bike ring on the south side of Adelaide Street East, between Frederick and Sherbourne streets, saying the damage was “probably done by a truck backing out of the laneway directly across the street.”
“It has been this way for probably three months now. Very dangerous. I have seen people and even dogs walk into it. Many calls to 311 but no action,” he said, adding he recently spotted orange spray-paint around it, an indication it is on the city’s radar.
Another reader told me about a badly bent bike ring that’s a likely victim of a wayward vehicle approximately at 803 Broadview Ave., about a block north of Danforth Avenue and the Broadview TTC station, which has been damaged for many months.
Status I sent a note to the city about all three locations and got a speedy reply from Laura McQuillan, a senior communications adviser, saying: “We appreciate you flagging these damaged bike rings. City staff are arranging for them to be repaired or replaced. The bent bike ring on Broadview Avenue has been repaired. Residents are encouraged to report issues or concerns to 311 so city inspectors can be sent out as quickly as possible.”
Okie doke, but two of the readers who emailed about the bent rings said contacting 311 didn’t work, at least not in a timely way.
But the good news is that, just one day after I notified the city, I got a note and photo from Oysten, saying the rings on Sorauren had been fixed.