bike lanes

The "war on the car" is over, so I imagine we will move with steady determination to remove all impediments to automobiles on all streets. We must solve traffic congestion for the sake of all taxpayers in this city. Everything that impedes traffic - bike lanes, speed humps, crosswalks, streetcars, stop signs and traffic lights - will be removed. NIMBYs have for too long pushed for traffic calming on their residential streets. No longer will we allow them to ruin the freedom of driving a car.

Daniel Egan, Cycling Infrastructure and Programs Manager, Transportation Services, has clarified the modifications to the Rogers Road bike lanes, stating that it does not mean, as some have thought, that drivers will be allowed to park in the bike lanes (Councillor Layton, in particular, had expressed his concern in a letter to Councillor Palacio and staff):

In politics there is usually compromise and negotiation. Politics is messy. In particular, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting last month was messy. Cyclists were demoralized by some bad decisions to remove bike lanes on Jarvis, Pharmacy and Birchmount that were unsupported by any evidence that they created traffic congestion. Traffic engineers be damned.

Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Parker are in full spin mode as they try to justify the vote to remove the Jarvis bike lanes, while they attempt to steamroller over Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee voted to take out Jarvis bike lanes in a surprise motion today, on top of the motion to take out lanes on Pharmacy and Birchmount. I don't think the councillors realize the blowback of Jarvis compared to Pharmacy/Birchmount (where removal is quite sad, but not much organized local opposition). Jarvis may yet prove to be a lightening rod around which cyclists will gather (to be energized?).

Tino of Bike Lane Diary, Peter - a Bike Union member, and I rode out to Pharmacy (in Scarborough) to talk about bike lanes and the Councillor's request to have them removed. Did you know that Pharmacy is only 10 km away from Spadina? An easy ride. I bet you also didn't know that not one person we spoke with actually knew the bike lanes were being proposed for removal by Councillor Michelle Berardinetti. Don't they deserve to know about this?

http://vimeo.com/25456590

Where have all the proposed new bike lanes gone? For those interested in a safer cycling environment a City Bikeway Network report has just been released recommending Toronto's first physically separated bicycle lanes for a small part of downtown. Unfortunately, the recommended lanes is smaller than that supported by many area residents as well as the Chair of Public Works and Infrastructure.

Dave Meslin organized a bike count a couple days ago to find out if the John Street Corridor EA's 2% bike mode share claim was correct or not. I joined the effort. What we found out, and suspected, was that it was quite unlikely that 2% could be accurate. The EA claimed that cycling rates on John Street were a steady 2%, morning, afternoon, weekday and weekend.

On John Street looking north towards Queen Street