bike lockers

Hot on the heels of last week's West District Design Initiative public meeting, there will be a public meeting to discuss the proposed changes to the Islington and Kipling transit stations.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Open house: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Presentation: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Islington United Church, 25 Burnhamthorpe Rd (map)
More info here and here.

The main reasons for the revitalization of these stations are: 1) Free up the Islington Station lands for better re-development, 2) Move the Mississauga Transit terminal west from Islington to the new Kipling regional bus terminal, 3) Expand Kipling station into more of a regional bus terminal, and 4) Improve access to these stations for buses, kiss-n-riders, disabled people, etc.

Q: As a cyclist, why should I care?

Well, there are many reasons! The documentation online has a distinct lack of any mention of cycling amenities. Come to the meeting and tell Ward 5 Councillor Peter Milczyn, the TTC, Mississauga Transit, GO Transit, and the city planners that you want them to consider the following ideas (add your own too!):

Councillor A.A. Heaps, the new chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee announced today that the City will be doubling the number of bike lockers around the city over the next four years.

Many of the new locker locations will be at transit stops.

"We want it to be similar to the Kiss-n-Ride program, only this is Bike-and-Ride. We want people to know that bikes are not the poor brother of the City and are in fact a major part of our environmental plan, and a major part of our transportation network."

The most immediate new installations will be at Rouge Hill GO station and Cedarvale Park near the west entrance of St. Clair subway station. There will be six new lockers at each location.

The City will be installing more than 90 new bike lockers across the city in 2007.

Currently, the City has 82 lockers in use, with about 54 people on a waitlist.