Ward 14

Four sections of bike lanes were on the agenda at today's PWIC meeting: All carried. That is: what we are getting is what was on the agenda.

At dispute was a section of Annette from Jane to Runnymede; this section was not on the agenda before the PWIC but many cyclists felt it should have been. A total of 14 people gave deputations about Annette Street: 9 came out for the bike lanes, 3 were against.

We got a win; mostly. The bad news for many cyclists, and would be cyclists, is that we’re not getting bike lanes on all of Annette St. right now. The section in dispute has been referred back to Councillor Saundercook and city staff in order to meet with area residents and businesses owners to see if this matter can be peacefully resolved in time for the October PWIC meeting. This compromise was suggested by Councillor Grimes, and was the option eventually adopted by the committee.

Bike Plan: Annette St. and Dupont St.

Over the last few weeks, I have had some communications with Adam Giambrone and his staff. They informed me about the Dupont St. bike lanes that are being planned, and announced it publicly on Wednesday evening at a meeting of the South Junction Triangle Residents Association.

According to Chris Gallop (Adam Giambrone's constituency assistant), the current timeline for implementation is: "The report is going to the Works Committee next Tuesday, City Council at the end of the month, and if approved they should be installed by approximately the end of the summer."

Here is the map (PDF) of the proposed Annette and Dupont St. bike lanes, including the on-street parking configurations.

More background and design details about Annette, St., Dupont St., Pharmacy Rd. (Scarborough), and others can be found in this document (PDF) too.

I also just received this email from the City's Bike Plan people this afternoon:

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When: Wednesday March 5, 6:30pm

Where: Lithuanian House, 1573 Bloor St. W.

Why: Because the developments and changes at this intersection could have a big impact on the West End for cyclists!

I urge all cyclists to come to the Bloor/Dundas Visioning meeting this Wednesday. This is the second of three sessions put on by the City to get public opinion from residents about potential developments in the Bloor St. W. and Dundas St. W. area, and a good chance for cyclists to make their desires and needs known to the City.

I attended the first visioning session on January 16th, along with well over 100 other people. Area residents had many concerns about the potential developments that may happen here, as well as many ideas about what could be done to make it better. I saw a few other cyclists whom I recognized, and I could tell from the meeting notes that they got the word out about possibly adding bike lanes or other cycling infrastructure improvements. Some even got creative on the comment boards.

To quickly summarize, here are some of the concerns that cyclists may want to bring up at this meeting:

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Laziness getting the better of me, here is a copy and paste of TCAT's latest bulletin. All that follows is from TCAT's newsletter:

1. New Bike Lane Approval Process Adopted

As reported in the November 27 TCAT News e-Bulletin, following a motion initially moved by Councillor Adrian Heaps, City Council agreed to revise its bike lane approval process. At its meeting on Tuesday, the Executive Committee approved the new process.

Under the new process, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will now review all bike lane reports and recommendations submitted by staff, instead of the four individual community councils doing so. The idea is that this will allow staff to submit reports that contain multiple bike lane proposals, instead of having to submit various individual reports. However, the majority of bike lanes - those that require amendments to on-street parking, standing and stopping regulations on roads where there are established TTC routes - will still need final approval from City Council.

Whether or not this will actually speed up the bike lane approval process still has to be demonstrated, though City staff believe it will.

The Queensway at Windemere
As first reported just over a week ago by Martin Koob at bikeToronto, new bike lanes have been installed on The Queensway between Windemere Ave. and Claude Ave. (map).

I often don't like bike lanes, especially when they are poorly designed or implemented, or when their state of disrepair makes me want to avoid them altogether. However, I think this is a welcome addition to this busy arterial road, and through this part of the city. Over the past week I had a few opportunities to ride this section of new bike lane at various times of day. Read on for more of my thoughts and photos.