Toronto Bike Plan

Anyone who works in IT, or who is a traffic engineer, knows of the 80/20 rule of networks. The 80/20 rule is simple, it states that on any given segment of a network, 80% of the traffic is local. The exceptions for this rule are rare.

Collision studies show that 80% of crashes and collisions occur within 5 miles of one's home, that is they occur locally. That is because 80% of our trips, and therefore 80% of our time, is spent within those five miles.

5 miles is about the same as the upper limit people are willing to cycle from home to shopping and other errands on their bike. We spend 80% of our time driving 5 miles or less. Some of these trips can, and should, be made by bike.

The point of the city's Bike Plan is not to force everyone to make all of their trips bike, but to encourage, enable, and empower more people to ride a bike for at least some of their trips. And the trips which would be most likely to qualify are those in the 80% -- the shorter, local trips.

Many have mentioned the folly of the Toronto Bike Plan. One of the most common complaints is that the City is putting in bike lanes where cyclists don't really need them and ignoring the places most needed. Well, it's no secret. Councillor Adrian Heaps says City Council is "taking the path of least resistance" by focusing on the areas where it's easiest to put in a bike lane.

The places where it's easiest to put in bike lanes just happen to be in the far reaches of the city. Here are the locations that were debated at this week's Public Works meeting. Do you recognize any of them? Are they actually in Toronto?

• Brimorton Drive from Brimley Road to Scarborough Golf Club Road;
• Conlins Road from Ellesmere Road to Sheppard Avenue East;
• Horner Avenue from Browns' Line to Judson Street;
• Renforth Drive from Bloor Street West to Rathburn Road;
• The Queensway, from 250 metres east of High Street to Windermere Avenue.

Like most hardcore downtown cyclists, I would prefer to see a lot more work going on downtown, but I can't really begrudge that suburbs get a good network of lanes to help connect them to other parts of the city. It helps to encourage more people to bike, and it normalizes cycling. I also can't begrudge that the councillor has a plan. Technically maybe not the best plan, but politically the best plan for the moment.

As a member of the newly-formed Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, I will be attending a meeting next week with Antonio Medeiros, a project manager at Waterfront Toronto. He is working on the design for the Martin Goodman Trail at Ontario Place that will run along the south side of Lakeshore Drive directly south of Exhibition Place.

The Waterfront Toronto team is at the beginning stages of the design work and are hoping for some cyclist feedback and thoughts about the project. In particular, the design team is concerned with safely accommodating multiple trail users, as well as creating safe and easy-to-navigate intersections where vehicular traffic must intersect. Please read the following description of the project, as it stands now, and post your comments. This project is already approved and will be completed quickly, with or without cyclists’ input. The more ideas I can bring to the table at this time, the better. Thanks for contributing!

The City of Toronto wants to hear your comments and new ideas to set cycling priorities for the next five years. As we reach the 6th year of the Toronto Bike Plan, this first session will be an open house format to:

• learn about the status of current City projects from staff
• give feedback and comments
• participate in activities to help prioritize bike projects and timelines.

Share your thoughts and visions in moving the cycling agenda forward with projects that support both current and new cyclists. All public input will be used in: report to City Council-on-line record on City website and, forming the agenda for the next public consultation session.

Thursday, July 26th 6:30 to 9:00pm
St. Lawrence Hall
157 King Street East (at Jarvis) Valet Bike

Parking and refreshments will be available. Hope to see you there! For
more information, please contact bikeweek@toronto.ca or visit us online
at www.toronto.ca/cycling.