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As is common with BIAs in Toronto the Bloor-Yorkville BIA was given a lot of control to decide the public realm priorities in the redesign of the stretch of Bloor between Church and Avenue. This included in letting the BIA decide if and how they would accommodate cyclists on their territory: how they would lock up their bikes and how they would bike along the roadway. The BIA chose to remove cyclists from the equation in the name of a minimalist and modern-looking design. Their choice, predictably, backfired.

The Bloor-Yorkville BIA's initial position during the redesign was to provide zero bike parking along this stretch of Bloor, presumably because bicycles are considered ugly and would take away from their preferred minimalism, much like the provision of bike lanes would have taken away from the wide marble sidewalks. The BIA was eventually forced by the City to at least provide some kind of temporary bike parking along the sidewalk, but they were given some control over the type of bike parking. Predictably they chose a design more for its aesthetics than usefulness; a design that cyclist to lock their bikes in awkward ways.

A decision will be made at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee this week about whether to approve Transportation staff's recommendation regarding Richmond/Adelaide separated bike lanes. The bike lanes have been in the official Bike Plan for the last ten years, but there are some obstacles. Instead of doing a pilot project sooner, staff is recommending we go straight to the required EA and install them in 2013:

City Council authorize the General Manager of Transportation Services to initiate a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment study for separated bicycle lanes within the Richmond-Adelaide corridor, between Bathurst Street and Sherbourne Street, which could include consideration of a pilot project to install and evaluate separated bicycle lanes on the preferred alignment during the course of the study.

For those who wish to make a deputation regarding the project, please contact Ms. Candy Davidovits of the Citys Clerks Division at pwic@toronto.ca or at (416) 392-8032 by 4:30 p.m. on November 2, 2011. For more details on submitting comments or requesting to speak, see the City web page: Have Your Say! (www.toronto.ca/legdocs/tmmis/have-your-say.htm)

Given all the construction on Richmond and Adelaide it seems likely that PWIC will approve this report to delay and do an EA. One noted improvement they could make to the EA is to extend the study area to connect to the Eastern Avenue bike lanes. Why have separated bike lanes on only part of Richmond/Adelaide?

The Chief Coroner of Ontario, Dr. Andrew McCallum, announced this morning that his office would be investigating cycling deaths over the last four years to determine ways to prevent them, reports the Star and CBC (read the announcement). Ten to twenty cyclists die every year in Ontario as a result of injuries on Ontario streets. A coalition of cycling and senior groups - Toronto Cyclists Union, Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists and the United Senior Citizens of Ontario - wrote to the coroner requesting the inquest, and an opinion piece was written in the Star in August by lawyers Albert Koehl and Patrick Brown, along with former president of the United Senior Citizens of Ontario, Marie Smith, explaining why they wanted the inquest.

A similar review of 38 cycling deaths in the city of Toronto over an 11-year period was completed in 1998. That review led to a number of cycling initiatives in the city, including the Bike Plan, the city-wide network of cycling lanes, and the establishment of the cycling advisory committee, which was disbanded earlier this year.

On Bicycles: 50 ways the new bike culture can change your life, edited by co-founder and former creative director of Momentum Magazine, Amy Walker, has high ambitions to be a volume that you can pick up and learn something new about bicycles and how it can fit into your life (if it hasn't already). The book is a collection of 50 essays (hence the title) by 33 contributors that covers the bases from bike style to internally-geared hubs to understanding "fixies" to cycling and Buddha to designing cities for bikes. The book is more about breadth than depth. You'll get a good overview of many topics to help people learn more about cycling and its growth in North America.

In her position at Momentum, Amy has met with a wide range of people involved in cycling in some way or another. I've had the pleasure of sitting down with her and colleagues at Momentum when they came through town and always found Amy - and others at Momentum - to be full of energy and passion for their unique position as both chronicler and driver of cycling "culture". You can see that reflected in this video in her speech on cycling.

50 No-handed bike moves. Favorite: approaching Squid. Thanks to Mark Shouldice for heads-up.

Queen Street may be starting to get its own well-deserved fix-up starting with the sidewalks west of Dufferin, yet it looks like cyclists will have to put up with passing dangerously past construction sites. The photo above by Hamish Wilson shows the typical Toronto construction site with barriers set up to force cyclists into the middle of the streetcar tracks. When they do consider the safety of cyclists, construction companies will illegally place signs that tell cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes. Note how the cyclists above have chosen to actually bike within the construction site where they are able.

In Hamish's own words:

It's truly delightful that some of the roughest road in core TO may finally be getting fixed up, starting with the north-side sidewalks on Queen St. W., west of Dufferin.

But once again, there's a lack of signage and a distinct lack of safety for cyclists, especially with the streetcar tracks.

The use of barricading fencing does delineate, but it seems that it's only as far out as it is for a construction vehicle which is only used for a bit, and surely there might be narrower loaders etc. to help haul the tonnage out, although there is need for room for the pedestrians/public that's true, when the materials are being moved. But the effect of the taking of the absolutely fullest extent of the lane to the edge of the streetcar track concrete is to put cyclists into tight spaces with streetcar track hazards, or to help them feel they can squeeze themselves onto sidewalks or between cars.

The City is in the first stage of its new Official Plan Reviews and currently in the midst of the September Open Houses. Next week the Open Houses are at York Civic Centre on Sept 26 and at North York Civic Centre on Sept 27.

Open Houses run 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and include facilitated discussions. If you cycle regularly you may be interested in attending one of the open houses and provide some input on how the Official Plan can benefit active transportation and, in particular, cycling.

The Open House material (discussion guide, presentation and display boards) will be posted under the "Events and Meetings" tab on the Review website.

People can also take the fast feedback survey which runs to October 17. It can be good alternative if you can't make one of the open houses. I completed the survey and found that they are already aware that cycling is important to take account of in planning our cities and would like to know more of how we think the official plan can reflect that.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong lives in nice, quiet inner suburb of Toronto (not unlike the one pictured above). Note the lack of sidewalks. Note the lack of pedestrians. If you lived there you would likely drive to every place you needed to go. If you drove downtown you'd probably also see a stark difference between your quiet neighbourhood and the hustle and bustle of downtown. On downtown Toronto streets such as Jarvis and Dundas it's not as easy to drive what with all the pedestrians and cyclists. Compare that quiet suburb with the busyness of the pedestrian scramble at Yonge and Dundas:

If you lived in a quiet suburban house where everything was only reachable by car, perhaps you too would assume that all streets are built for cars and then reach the conclusion that downtown streets must also be changed to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists stay out of the way of your private automobile as much as possible. So perhaps it's not entirely surprising that Minnan-Wong sees pedestrian scrambles as a "problem" to be solved, or that cyclists need to be funneled onto certain streets so that other streets can be kept clear for drivers:

NOW featured a letter by the daughter of the man hit and killed by a cyclist on the sidewalk this month. She felt people were quick to blame cyclists when in fact her own father loved cycling but found it hard to bike in the suburbs:

I want to thank Enzo DiMatteo for writing Dundas And Huron, A Complicated Corner (NOW Daily, July 11). Although my response comes almost two months after this article was published, DiMatteo’s insights are still current and appreciated.

My father passed away in the hospital after being hit by a sidewalk cyclist in the Jane and Finch area earlier this month. DiMatteo astutely illustrates the complicatedness of transportation issues. Cycling is an affordable mode of transportation for Jane and Finch residents. Unfortunately, the lack of bicycle lanes and the precarious traffic conditions along Finch West, and other inner suburban streets, for that matter, compel cyclists to ride on the sidewalk.

My father instilled a love for cycling in me since childhood. It is devastating for all of us to see his life being taken away by something we enjoy greatly. As a cycling advocate, I know the complicatedness of the situation that led to my father being killed by a cyclist. As DiMatteo points out, a situation like this in Rob Ford’s Toronto easily calls for blaming cyclists when the issues are far more complex and troubling. Thank you for the insightful journalism.