advocacy

TCAT has surprised me with two reports announced at the same time, the Benchmarking Active Transportation in Canadian Cities report and the Building Better Cycling in Cities: Lessons for Toronto report.

Benchmarking Active Transportation in Canadian Cities, compares the performance of active transportation in Toronto against other cities in Canada, the United States and Europe, and I've just started getting into its meaty content. Some of its results include confirming the "safety in numbers theory" - the more cyclists and pedestrians the safer it is for both; low active transportation mode shares equal high private automobile shares; low gas taxes often mean higher private automobile shares.

TCAT/Clean Air Partnership researcher, Kevin Behan claims there are many ways Toronto could improve conditions for pedestrians: “More people walk to work in Montreal and Vancouver than in Toronto. Both of those cities have pedestrianized streets and lower speed limits in residential areas. Toronto opened its first pedestrian priority streets after the conclusion of this study but doesn’t have lower speed limits in residential areas. "

(Photos by Tino)

From the Urban Repair Squad folks a two-way sharrow on Macdonnel St in Parkdale. The Torontoist has a good post and interesting comments:

Longtime Urban Repair Squad documentarian Martin Reis says he first spotted the symbols over the weekend. "Toronto has so few real good north-south connections, especially in the west end," Reis explained to Torontoist. "I mean, the west end is a giant black hole of no bike infrastructure." Add that to the experience of biking north on a street, facing-down cars travelling south, and "it's a bit nerve-wracking," Reis says.

The official City inventory of bike infrastructure includes one-way sharrows and also contra-flow lanes to allow cyclists to go both ways on one-way streets for cars. The URS "innovation" is interesting, even if there are bound to be reservations about encouraging cyclists to travel over the same sharrows in both directions. If there was some reasonableness in this idea, perhaps there should be sharrows on both sides of the streets so cyclists can bike on the side they'd normally be expected to bike. But that isn't entirely the point, likely. A two-way sharrow catches the eye and makes one think "Why not?"

The comments includes the precautionary ones:

A few weeks ago a positive cycling article came out in - of all places - Wheels, the Toronto Star's car fetish section. The author, Mark Richardson, rode country roads alongside Eleanor McMahon, founder of the Share the Road coalition. The article is interesting for not only its focus on McMahon's strong push for better cycling infrastructure and her experience working with politicians and policy-makers, but also for the fact that Richardson has had an increasing personal interest in cycling. As he notes in a May article, Cyclists aren't leaving, and add Editor to ranks:

Yes, the editor of Canada’s largest automotive publication also rides a bicycle. I wrote here last summer of how my cruel and unusual wife, a keen cyclist, has been prying me from the broad saddle of my Harley-Davidson and onto the spindly seat of her old Fisher hybrid. My kids bought me Lycra cycling gear for my birthday, and on a pleasant afternoon, the two of us will head out on the country roads near our home in Milton.

And then in July, Richardson's wife convinced him to go on the 730 km Great Waterfront Trail Adventure from Niagara-on-the-Lake to the Quebec border.

Hi Rocco, Rocco and Himy, where are the others? Oh, there you are Joe, in the back.: Photo: Toronto Cyclists Union

Eight mayoral candidates accompanied the bike union on a downtown bike ride on Monday (oops, stale news!). Three of the main candidates didn't go for the ride: Smitherman hoped to arrange a one on one ride; Thomson was probably planning her exit strategy; and Ford was afraid to look like a big hypocrite (he was probably also thinking about lurking nearby with his SUV, the "road shark", ready to pounce). According to the bike union, the half hour ride gave the candidates a full experience of downtown cycling:

...allowed candidates to experience almost the full range of scenarios faced on a daily urban commute by bicycle. The ride took candidates on arterials with bike lanes, without bike lanes, on roads with construction, roads scarred by utility cuts, on minor arterials, and on side streets, though because of time constraints, candidates did not experience the less welcoming suburban cycling environment where traffic speeds are higher and few if any cycling facilities currently exist.

Pantalone, because he never learning to ride, got a nice rickshaw ride by his assistant Mike Smith. (Rickshaw looks like it was provided by Streets are for People).

The Urban Repair Squad, back with the question: "Why the gap in the Harbord bike lane?"

Stencil and photo by Janet Bikegirl.

You have probably heard this already (especially on this blog): BIXI, the wildly popular bikesharing system (now in London, UK and Washington DC!), is coming to Toronto but only if 1000 people sign up for the year membership by the end of November. So far almost 600 people have signed up. Come out to this inaugural meeting for the "Help Promote BIXI Toronto Working Group", hosted by the Toronto Cyclists Union and myself. Show up with your thinking cap to the fourth floor of the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave.

If you find bikesharing important for Toronto and looking for a way to help promote it, come out to the Help Promote BIXI Toronto Working Group. This is a citizens group that hopes to help the city promote membership.

In order to meet the goal, we (Toronto Cyclists Union members) feel the community will need to find a way to help promote it to their friends, family and colleagues. We will explore ways to get the message out and the best strategies for encouraging individuals and businesses to sign up.

Here is the first serious platform presentation on cycling by Mayoral Candidate HiMY SYeD. It's a shame that all the mainstream candidates have only excreted patronizing and dangerous platforms. We are still waiting on Sarah Thompson's platform which might take cyclists a bit more seriously than the likes of Rossi, Smitherman, while anything is better than Ford's vision of cyclists giving up on cycling altogether else lest they take their lives in their own hands. You'd think that these guys had never been on a bike or been around cyclists.

Well done Himy.

"Vision 2020 - Another Toronto IS Possible" - Mobility - BikeCity

Toronto Mayoral Candidate HiMY SYeD has informally been sharing his BikeCity Vision with cyclists and the wider community since May 25 2010, the beginning of his Campaign in becoming The Peoples' Mayor.

' BikeCity ' is a key component in his integrated overall 10 year direction of hope in Toronto: ' Vision 2020 - Another Toronto IS Possible '.

' Vision 2020 ' is defined in three broad themes - Mobility, Sustainability, Identity.

The ' Vision 2020 ' theme of Mobility begins with ' BikeCity '.

The complete Mobility theme within Vision2020 will be expanded upon and shared later in mid-September.

Mayoral candidate George Smitherman's office put out a critique of mayoral candidate Rob Ford's stance on cycling. Witness the video where Ford state's that his "heart bleeds" for cyclists who are hit, but that in the end he feels that it is "their fault" for being hit, presumably because they shouldn't be on bikes at all.

This was an easy swipe at Ford and the video is making the rounds. The fact is, Mayoral Candidate Rob Ford is just not as suave as George Smitherman or candidate Rocco Rossi, though their basic stance is the same: take cyclists off the streets.

Smitherman, in his transportation plan, for instance, claims (unlike uncouth Ford) that he "supports Toronto cyclists and will make it easier for Torontonians to choose safe cycling". In order to that he will "rethink" the cycling plan. Then the first thing he will do is indefinitely postpone / cancel all bike lanes on arterial roads (Smitherman announced this soon after Rossi made a similar announcement). There are two major bones that Smitherman is throwing to cyclists, and both of them have their own issue (I'm ignoring the others because they're not really new at all):

1. build physical separation of existing bike lanes
2. "expedite" bike "expressways" through hydro corridors and ravines

My responses: