Bike lane update?

I'm guessing not a single centimetre of paint has has hit the pavement since the strike. A contraflow lane on Shaw would be nice though.

...and you'll get to hear all the whiny excuses from city staff about why it's so difficult to paint the plan.

Simcoe has been installed, not sure of any others.

...and to think I have to miss it. :(

But I can send a letter if that will help. Is it too late to be included as a letter for Monday's meeting?

Who was there? What was the update from Egan?

Dan Egan wasn't at the TCAC meeting, Lukasz Pawlovski attended on behalf of cycling staff. Egan was in Waterloo at the Ontario Bike Summit

You can follow the (lack of) progress of the bikeway network here:
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/network/network-project-stat...

Staff are currently working on the trails which recieved federal funding, as well as those stupid reports about licensing and helmets. The trails have to be built by 2011 for the funding to come through, so many other projects, like bike lanes on streets, are going to pushed to the back burner until staff time can be made free to work on those.

The biggest problem is thus: Too many councillors don't want to approve bike lanes in principle without the community having a chnace to look over the plan and give their feedback first. Some say that councillors are testing the waters, some say that councillors are giving their community some control over what happens in their communities, and other accuse councillors of looking for support to block any changes to their communities. Whatever. In the end it means that the approval cannot be done until the design work is done, which is very time consuming. Also, this does not mean that designs will get implimented. So staff put in many hours doing a plan, and then it does not get approved. Staff time was lost when other projects could have been pushed forward and worked on.

I'd rather see approvals in principle, design and then public consultation & feedback, changes to design, implimentation. What we have instead is: Design and then public consultaion, approval (or not), changes, implimentation.

But as councillors feel that it is important to micro-manage staff, thet's what we got.

Not so hopeful, then. What about the implementation of already-approved lanes. I mean, according to your link over 20 km of last year's approved lanes were never installed. ugh

It's difficult to get anything done in institutionalized places like the government or educational sectors. Everything is done by several layers of committees. Takes a dog's age to get even minor changes made. It's a price we pay for transparency.

Our duty as community members is to keep pressing as many layers of those committees as possible.

Nothing huge....but progress is progress.

Today crew's painted (to completion) the new Crescent Town Road bike lanes from Victoria Park Avenue to Dawes Road....

Also spotted, a Bell phone truck parking in the newly painted lane! (it was 4 hours old) ....

Crecent Town was in desperate need of a bike lane. Four lanes wide and very little traffic. There is MUT about 300 metres north of it for those who feared the heavy traffic on Crescent Town.

I see a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony has been announced for tomorrow morning at 11:30 am for new bike lanes and a pedestrian promenade on Yonge St. from Queens Quay up to Front St.
It's a short, yet significant section.

It will be held at the northwest corner of Yonge and Harbour St.

I didn't even know about Yonge Street. Can't wait to see it!

A left-hook-blocking curb bump-out was installed a few days ago at the Montrose counter-flow bike lane. Not much, but it counts.

I'm a pretty big and unabashed Miller fan. But man, he has not been successful with implementing this bike plan. This year's expected installation total? 36 km. Of which the majority is backlog from last year. I know the strike through the year off, but this is pathetic.

Denise Balkissoon in the Star (and Driver) today: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/703656

If you want to Bike Lanes installed, tell your Councillor! There are City Councillors that have flat out rejected the installation of APROVED Bike Lanes in their respective Ward, because they feel that cyclists are a minority that can (and are) overlooked for sake of appeasing the voting driver.

Get things moving at the community level and anything is possible! But DON'T think that sticking this on the Mayor is going to do any good. These things get voted on at City Council, a group that is made up of a number of individuals who dismiss cycling as a fringe issue that is without consiquence.

I emailed my councillor to ask for a contraflow lane on Shaw, and a few months later it turned up on an agenda. He never emailed back to take credit so maybe it's all just a big coincidence, but I prefer to think otherwise - more empowering that way.

As the Star points out today. Not that quantity should be equated with quality - some things are good like Simcoe St. and the start of Yonge St.
But the City is also missing obvious opportunities eg. Bloor in Yorkvvie,where Councillor Kyle Rae promised! there'd be bike lanes in his 2006 campaign bumph. But they can't even put down any sharrows on the minimal width by the old Metro standards.
And TCAC beware: if the City doesn't make the quota, what are the odds that there will be only four volunteers to do all that commitee work next year - that's how progressive we are here - blame the volunteers for not putting in enough bike lanes.

I was cycling eastbound on Bloor earlier today and had to navigate around vans that are painting sharrows on Bloor Street. Yippee!

They were painting sharrows around Yonge and Church streets (eastbound sharrows/south side of Bloor).

Dear Hamish,

Placing the blame on TCAC isn't going to do any good. TCAC refers motions to PWIC, who then present motions to Council for approval.

Fixing the problem by pressuring TCAC is like trying to start a car by flashing the headlights.

Get people to pressure their Councillors and you WILL see results.

Lastly, I really am confused as to why anyone would seek to eliminate a group of volunteers – or is that just your personal vendetta?

Was Hamish not pointing out that TCAC will be taking the fall for the failings of the City as opposed to suggesting that they be removed?

TCAC have terms of reference, like most any other group, if they cannot meet them they should be tossed. Being a volunteer offers no protection. Again, I think Hamish was pointing out that they will be taking the fall for someone else.

Good point about pressuring councillors. This would play into the strengths of the bike union. Targetted lobbying starting with education of what is in the bike plan and the necessity of not only completing it but expanding on it would raise its profile with the unenvolved bicycling community. Members calling and emailing recalcitrant councillors may well induce the same to reconsider their support of further subsidising the motorholic insidioustry.
Come to think of it, one could enlist targetted lobbies via ibiketo. Chances are ibiketo readers are more willing to play the activist role than TCU members anyway. So where are the goods? Who is willing to lead? Knowing what is coming up in council a few days in advance would be a good start.
That said, some feel Councillor Heaps plays a mean shell game with TCAC volunteers. When the mink mile reminking was being considered TCAC was sheltered from its opportunity to participate. The irony here is the local councillor had previously stated Bloor through that ward would have bike lanes.
Pedaller you have good points. But please consider Hamish is one of the good guys. Despite Heaps bravado in donning a skin suit and his predecessors oddities, some feel the point of TCAC and its predecessor TCC was to obstruct the bicycling community while providing the appearance of accomodating the same. The bicycling community really needs an arms length body to twist the arms of motorholic councillors.

OK - perhaps I mistook the suggestion Hamish was making. Political pit falls aside - I see TCAC as a group who only advises on cycling issues, and its role is distinctly different from PWIC or Council.

A sitting Councillor is accountable to the residents that they represent - bottom line, I don't see TCAC as a group that offers much (if any) influence on the political process; Voters on the other hand, have the power to direct the political process, and we need to focus on that if we want things to change.

1.5 years later - the Queensway bike lanes have been painted. At least westbound. Looks like they didn't know what to do with the car lane that was removed, and they didn't realign the existing lanes so now there are two parallel bike lanes painted for 1+ km. Not sure if it's going to stay that way, but it's quite the buffer zone from traffic.

If only I wasn't dumped onto bad pavement in a narrow lane 500m short of the Stephen Dr bike lane at the end of the Queensway bike lane, I'd actually really like this route. Still - much better than it used to be.

With the City Workers strike this past summer, the recent media hype about 'The War on the Car', and the upcoming campaigning for the 2010 Municipal Elections, the slow pace of cycling infrastructure implementation is likely to become even more glacial before it gets better.

The next Municipal elections will have more to do about cycling than any other that have come before it. The time will soon come to ask those aspiring for a seat at City Council - "What are your plans for improving cycling conditions in Toronto?"

I want to come back to this one more time.

As opposed to seeking miracles....how about we hold the City Staff, and pols to one thing; their pre-existing, recent promises.

Let's see every inch of approved bike lane installed....... I'm waiting on Bellamy and Lawrence....less talk, more action....

Also; let's make sure that final installment of 40km of approvals comes forward to committee in November....and gets implemented in 2010, BEFORE the election.

Finally; let's get these new bike paths built, Gatineau and Finch are now Funded. Noe more excuses or time-wasting.

I want opening in 2010! ****

I got this from Tou D'Afrique newsletter. Thought it was interesting.

In New York, cycling is up 66% in the last two years.

This bolsters the evidence linking more and safer bike-ways to increased cycling. New York's bike network expanded significantly in the past 12 months, including protected paths on Broadway, Eighth Avenue, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge, Allen Street, and Kent Avenue in Williamsburg.
In total, NYC has created over 300kms of bike lanes in the past three years, and now they're reaping the rewards.

According to the official Cycling Toronto website this year Toronto added 12.4kms (yes that is twelve point four - not one hundred & twenty four!)
At that pace Toronto's modest goal of 495kms of bike lanes will be completed in 2042!

It takes political will to get bike lanes. We just don't have it in Toronto. At the Toronto Cylist union launch, I clapped when Councillor Heaps assured us all he guaranteed the goals of the bike plan would be met. I hear lots of excuses about why we don't have lanes. The strike this summer. Would get in the way of trucks turning on Horner Ave. (Councillor Grimes). Cyclists deserve to die (Councillor Ford). The reality is our council doesn't want them, even though the money is available to build them. There is less road room in London and New York than in Toronto, yet they got them. Montreal has a great bike system, even though it has geographic restriction beyond ours. We get great lip service, but no real action.

I mentioned this news off-hand somewhere else, to me it is very surprising that all these potential cyclists were just waiting in the ether until new york city provided a proper public space for them to materialize in.

In general the situation in Toronto and Ontario is quite darker. Our current leaders have mostly failed us in regards to providing cycling infrastructure. I feel, locally, cycling has been dealt a crippling blow with all the fatalities this year in the press, the media's obsession with the "War on cars" and the virtual public slaying of a cyclist(Darcy) by a figure from the highest and most respected level of our provincial government. Despite our paltry 12.4km of progress, in my opinion this year has in many ways drastically curtailed the public's interest in cycling. The repercussions of such a year will contribute to the stereotype that cycling is not a way to go about your business in Toronto.

If Toronto and Ontario wait any longer the ship on the current up swelling towards cycling as alternative transportation with simply sail away.

I agree with your points, David - there have been too many excuses. The will to get bike lanes is missing, but I'm not blaming council. The lanes are approved when they get this far, the Grimes, Fords, Ootes, Holydays etc. are out voted each time. The problem lies earlier when communities and businesses get their say and outnumber those who share cyclist concerns.
This process was supposed to be streamlined but I wonder if the situation is getting better.

Toronto City Council needs to hear from those who want better cycling infrastructure.

2010 is the perfect year to make the case for cycling in Toronto; just don't expect a Councillor to act in the interest of the environment, cycling, traffic congestion, or anything else unless they believe that their constituents want them to.

If enough people get organized and demand better cycling facilities there WILL be results, until that time you can expect more of the same.

Sources tell me that the fallout from Jarvis was so bad that councillors were telling staff not to expect much more from 2009.

I think too much political capital may have been spent fighting for some lanes on Jarvis that, while nice, were not part of the initial redesign there, nor the bike plan.