War with white paint

As the City takes baby steps towards a more sustainable city 'caritics' accuse it of a 'war on cars'; New Yorkers are enjoying a flourishing of people-friendly streetscapes; and Toronto's Urban Repair Squad is still getting a lot of media attention for its guerilla - yet affordable - bike lanes. Pictured is Martin Reis, I Bike T.O. blogger and URS photographer.

The unfortunate fact is that it's not just a few crazy councillors that are declaring a war on cars, but there's still a strong assumption by many small business owners that removing car parking spaces will kill their businesses.

Greektown BIA, Faiza Ansari states:

“Let’s face it, in this economic time, small business is struggling, absolutely struggling,” she said. “And if all of those small businesses were to actually close then that has a huge negative effect on the city in the long run and our city won’t be as vibrant and nobody will want to come whether they’re in cars or on bikes.”

Meanwhile, Briar de Lang, general manager of the Bloor-Yorkville BIA, tried to encourage the City to put bike lanes on Adelaide and Richmond instead of Bloor, as if cyclists could easily use these streets as an alternative to Bloor.

Organizations like the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation still have work to convince small business that bike lanes could actually help their business. They've done the study, it just needs to get out. Let's hope the City's outside consultant for the Bloor-Danforth study also does a proper cost-benefit study.