Bike plan

I'd be hard-pressed to put a good spin on this, though mayoral candidate Smitherman is certainly trying his best. Smitherman is jumping on the rhetoric bandwagon and is calling for a 'moratorium' on bike lanes in Toronto. In the meanwhile the 2011 money for bike lanes will go to repaving the bike lanes that are deteriorating such as Sherbourne.

Smitherman is reading the polls and figures that it's better to appease the loud car-centrists who are getting a lot of play in the media, rather than accommodate the needs of 8-years and 80-years old folks on bikes.

One the one hand, Smitherman certainly understand the importance of bike lanes on arterials and isn't promising to remove them, but on the other hand, it becomes increasingly hard to maintain the already very slow progress on bike lanes and infrastructure when a moratorium is put in place. And it certainly begs the question: if this is mainly a communication problem, why not just communicate better (or work better at winning the rhetoric war in the media) while improving the cycling infrastructure?

Someone needs to call Smitherman on this bullshit approach. Mothers, children, elders and all, are you willing to get in the face of Smitherman and Rocco to let them know you exist and want to feel safe cycling on the roads?

I usually prefer to maintain some degree of decorum on this blog, but this pisses me off to no end. So I'll float this slogan as a rallying cry:

City staff revealed a politically ambitious bikeway plan for downtown to a very packed house, Monday evening at Metro Hall. Even though the plan includes a number of items which don't require council approval, including bike boxes on Harbord and bike sharrows along streetcar routes, the most politically controversial may be such items as bike lanes on University (as the Post predicts as well). See the whole plan on the City's website (pdf) [this links only to the announcement and not the plan. oops!].

Councillor Joe Mihevc commended the staff for their ambition (even if it may still be just a stepping stone since some activists pointed out that it was still a fractured network). Then Mihevc explained how it was a really politically tough year; if cyclists present a strong, single voice to politicians, we may have a chance of getting this program implemented.

Cyclists seemed to be divided on whether this represented a turning point or not, but it is apparent that even if some cyclists see this as too little, there is a certain segment of voters and certain mayoral candidates (Rossi, and possibly, Smitherman) who see this is way too much "coddling" of cyclists.

Yesterday the public works committee of the City approved a number of bike lanes; accepted the request by Transportation Services staff for "New Strategic Directions" for an updated Bike Plan, including studying a bike lane on Bloor/Danforth; and authorized sole source negotiations for a bikesharing program with the Public Bike System Company of Montreal that also runs Bixi. All these items now go on to City Council for approval.

Gloria Lindsay Luby wrote to council saying that she supported the bike lane on Rathburn, but not on The Westway. With no good reasons to not move ahead, both were approved by the committee. Her token effort was not enough to thwart The Westway's Bike Lines.

Councillor Peter Milczyn had a very good reason to delay the bike lanes on The West Mall; there's an EA going on to bring North Queen to intersect with the West Mall, and he asked staff to both continue this year's rebuild of the road to include the potential for bike lanes, and to include the bike lane planning and implementation as part of the EA process. While this will delay the bike lanes, as long as we continue our push, there's no reason why these won't go in next year. I would suggest contacting Milczyn's office to find out more about that EA.

Roncesvalles is trying very hard to find the right balance as they re-prioritize their street for pedestrians, public transit, bikes, and delivery vehicles. Roncy is seeing all sorts of ideas being proposed to keep cyclists on the road whilst keeping the streetcar track clear [Ed: read more on the proposed elevated roadway "bump-outs" for streetcars that cyclists can ride over]. At the January meeting many people proposed removing all private motor traffic on Roncesvalles, except for delivery vehicles. Very progressive!

I briefly lived in Parkdale, but I moved to Mimico. And after seeing the difference in the attitudes towards city building, I kinda wished I hadn't.

As part of Transit City, it is proposed for Lakeshore's streetcar tracks to become part of the LRT network.

UPDATE: This morning the City posted a West End Bikeways Project Summary (6.4MB PDF) in preparation for the meeting. Read on to see what's coming!

I Bike TO has previously reported on the City of Toronto's "West End Bikeways" project. On Tuesday March 10th, there will be a final meeting at 6:30pm at the Parkdale Public Library where the City will present and discuss some of the bikeway projects that they want to implement in 2009 and 2010.

A summary of the project:

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blockquote>The Toronto Bike Plan recommends a Bikeway Network that spans the city, creating a 2 km grid of routes that are accessible within a five minute ride from all residences. The Bike Plan acknowledges that there is a gap in the Network in the downtown west end, where streetcar tracks on east-west arteries, disjointed local streets, and railway corridors all pose challenges to accommodating bikeways.

Councillor Glen De Baeremaeker wished for bike lanes this Christmas. Did he get his wish or just a lump of coal for going outside the Bike Plan?

De Baeremaeker revealed his wish list at last week's meeting of the city's public works and infrastructure committee, of which the avid cyclist is the chair, and no, he wasn't sitting on Mayor David Miller's knee at the time.

Using both his hands, De Baeremaeker ticked off his bike lane plan that includes four kilometres along Middlefield Road from Steeles to McCowan; three kilometres on McCowan from Middlefield to Ellesmere; 13 kilometres on Ellesmere from Victoria Park to Kingston Road; 11 kilometres on Markham Road from Steeles to Kingston Road; 16 kilometres on Kingston from Birchmount Road to basically the Rouge River; six kilometres on Progress from Kennedy up to Sheppard; and 14 kilometres along Eglinton from Victoria Park to Kingston Road.

Councillor Heaps pointed out the 2009 bike plan budget is already taking shape with a focus on downtown (this is the place where downtown cyclists rejoice) because it fits in well with his promised bikesharing initiative.

I congratulate De Baeremaeker for taking some initiative in finding some good, easy Scarborough routes. Though I think the City can serve most cyclists better by focusing on downtown, it's useful to have some cycling routes where the white lines practically paint themselves.

Cycle 26, a group of Ward 26 cycling advocates, copied me on a report they recently submitted to the City. Ward 26 is what normal people consider the inner suburbs. It includes Leaside, Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park; a very ethnically and economically-diverse ward. It includes the Don Trail as well as a number of planned routes in the Bike Plan, most of which are not close to being implemented. Thus the report (see attached).

From Cycle 26 member, Geoff Kettel:

Dan Egan, Manager, Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure at the City of Toronto spoke to the Leaside Property Owners Assn (LPOA) AGM on Wednesday and indicated the report would be used to assist in prioritizing work for 2009. We will be watching!! Councillor Parker also sounded supportive.

We are proposing to meet in January with TCU cycling coordinators from the adjoining wards - actually the central east region from Yonge to Victoria Park and from Steeles down to the waterfront. Cycling does not work unless it is linked in with routes across a wider area.

Cycle 26's steering committee is composed of Geoff Kettel, Brian Betsworth, Louis Fliss and Ian Hallett. Let's hope this spurs some changes in Ward 26!