bike lanes

The essay below is from Veronica, a cyclist active in Bike 25, a group working towards implementing the bike plan in Ward 25.

On Wednesday March 10, 2010 the City of Toronto will be holding a Public Open House to discuss planned bike lanes for Lawrence Avenue East, from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue.

At first glance, it would appear that this is another 'bike lane to nowhere'. But viewed in the larger context of the Bikeway Network, this is the first piece of a planned bike lane on Lawrence Avenue stretching from Avenue Road to past Port Union Road. While it's unfortunate that this bike lane is being assembled in pieces, I think that its important that cyclists keep their eye on the prize.

Even in its truncated version, this piece of bike lane links Lawrence subway station with the Toronto French School, York University's Glendon Campus and intersects Bayview Avenue quite close to Sunnybrook Hospital, the destination for a large commuter cycling contingency. If one continues further east along Post Road, it links to the existing Don Valley trails.

As for the argument that money should not be wasted on bike lanes in the suburbs because nobody cycles there, consider the following:

• residents do cycle in the inner suburbs, often under much more hostile conditions. Getting buzzed by a vehicle is not pleasant. Getting buzzed by a vehicle traveling at 70 kph, is even more unpleasant. Cycling infrastructure is even critical in these neighbourhoods;

Mayoral candidate, Rocco Rossi promised to 'review' and 'remove' bike lanes on major arterials: "common sense and safety tell me that bike lanes and arterial roads do not mix."

What if Rocco Rossi became mayor, overrode the advice of Transportation Services and put in his own version of bike lanes? This is what I imagine would result.

Rip out bike lanes on Dundas Street East, despite local objections and replace with "safe" alternative
Dundas East Bike Lane: Rossi's alternative 3x as long, but "safer" for drivers and cyclists

Cyclists aren't safe on Harbord. Take out the bike lane and replace with this plan
Rossi's "Harbord bike lane": You don't mind having to weave up and down, coming to work 30 minutes later, do you?

People would have to be crazy to cross the bridge in a bike lane! Send them through Riverdale Park
Rossi's "Bloor Viaduct bike lane": Who needs the Bloor Viaduct bike lane when you can go up and down the steep hills in Riverdale park? It'll only take you 4x as long.

In case you haven't noticed, it's an election year in Toronto, and right-wing candidate Rossi in a bid to win some right-wing votes has made some bold statements about stopping unsafe and environmentally unsound bike lanes.

Rossi doesn't want bike lanes on arterial roads like University, Bloor and Jarvis. But apparently he's a big fan of bike lanes all the same, so long as they are only installed where they aren't needed: on cul-de-sacs and quiet residential streets, apparently.

“I’m not only OK with bike lanes, I’m a big fan,” Rossi said. “I do believe in an expanded bike lane network, but we need to do it on a grid basis and we need to use safer routes to travel.”

He’d prefer to have a fact-based discussion about bike lanes rather than a mud-slinging fight, and base it on getting everyone around the city safely and quickly.

Of course, Rossi isn't engaging in some sort of urban planning, based on studies and reason; he's engaging in vote winning and he's willing to say whatever it takes. Rossi is trying to shape the conversation with a "father knows best" approach: "You poor cyclists, why do you want to risk yourselves on the all those fast cars? Those city planners are so irresponsible by trying to put bike lanes there instead of quiet side roads."

Humans, it seems, all love to watch a fight. And our media is only too happy to oblige; this time it's a rematch for Jarvis Street.

In Virginia, R-Braddock District Transportation Supervisor John Cook says "I don't believe a bicycle is a transportation device. I think it's a recreation device. The big problem is people don't want to ride their bike in the rain or get sweaty before work." (Washington Examiner, Feb 21 2010) I think that it is good to know what kinds of attitudes we are up against.

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.

There was a lot of trash talk about the supposed 'War on the Car' this year. There will be more next year I am sure. Last time I checked it was you and me and dare I say even those who drive
who suffer the effects of car culture, or shall we say, high-carbon consumer capitalism. So get ready for the next stage when car drivers fight back against bike lanes. You know it's coming.

[A big welcome to Hamish, a long time cycling advocate and our new guest blogger.]

One big and valid criticism of Toronto bike lanes is that we have a patchwork, and not a network. This is especially true in the western end of the older city, where a set of situations have kept cycling less safe and robust than it needs to be.

These conditions are: an irregular grid; streetcar tracks on the main streets; a set of restrictions from the Weston rail corridor that slices through the entire area on the diagonal; and political will.

What has resulted is a very large swath of older Toronto that remains extra dangerous, with resulting tragedies and harm to many cyclists, even though it's all inherently bikeable and lots of people still do.

This gap in safety problem has been 'fessed up to in the Bike Plan, though the City has known that there's heavier east-west bike travel demand from the west end for nearly 15 years. Finally, we're getting some trace of movement in slight improvements to this travel - the recent extension to the Harbord St. lane has been great, as was the small 1km of bike lane over the Dundas St. W. bridge.

But issues remain, including the "What next?" after crossing over the railtracks at Dundas/College.

(Photo: Tino. Whoops, that's not the right photo)

So bikes won The War On Cars! Isn't that great news?!

That's the update I got from jemadams, Twitter user, who says, and I quote:

Cars have officially lost to bikes. First snowfall and city of Toronto is plowing the Millwood bike lane ... in to the driving lane.

I'm too lazy and cozy to go bother look and confirm if the bike lanes are being plowed first all over the city, or even on Millwood. So if anyone can confirm this, then this may represent a small victory. I won't hold my breath since this jemadams may have just seen the first plow when a second plow may have come along to push it all back into the bike lane and sidewalk. Those in the know inform me that Toronto doesn't remove snow, but pushes it around in the hopes that it will melt before filling in the entire street.

So send us your photos of clear bike lanes! Before the snow melts!