Location Correction: The meeting is at 2 Strathgowan Crescent (at the corner with Blythwood)
This coming Monday, there will be a public consultation meeting about bike lanes to be installed in a part of the city that has yet to get a taste of the Bike Plan. If approved, the lanes will be on Lawrence Avenue and Mount Pleasant Rd. The lanes need your support, especially those on Mount Pleasant.
Ward 25 Bike lanes for 2008
After years of lobbying and advising, the local cyclists, including members of Bike 25 and the Sunnybrook ICES BUG, have reached this key stage in the procedure. They need any support you can offer, especially if you can attend the meeting.
Bike Lane Design
Details of the designs will be presented at the public meeting. I can give an overview from what I remember from a recent meeting.
Lawrence bike lanes will go from Yonge to Bayview. Lawrence is wide here, so the 4 existing lanes (2 in each direction) will remain in place, with some adjustments. One or two left turning lanes will be removed. The main issue of contention will be residential street parking along Lawrence, but at our previous meeting, most seemed to agree that there's enough room along side streets to make this practical.
Mount Pleasant bike lanes will go from Lawrence to Broadway. This makes a nice connection between the two east-west routes. Mount Pleasant will change from being two lanes in each direction, to 1 lane, plus a bike lane, plus left turning lanes. Some parking in front of businesses will be accommodated, usually on one side of the street at a time.
Mount Pleasant will be a much more friendly street to cycle on and to walk along. The pedestrian benefits were of great interest to the local residents at the recent meeting. The main concern we heard was that car traffic would overflow from the redesigned Mount Pleasant onto neighbourhood streets. A number of us tried to explain the road diet concept, but we may not have been very convincing.
Monday is a big day for this part of the city. Please show up and voice your support.
Meeting details
Monday, June 9th at Blythwood PS (2 Strathgowan) from 7-9 pm.
Comments
vic
Ward 25 meeting
Tue, 06/10/2008 - 15:10Hey Darren,
How did this meeting go?
darren
Mixed results
Tue, 06/10/2008 - 16:23There was good and there was bad. I'm half way through writing something to post here, but I can give you preview!
There was a good number of cyclists there. There were also a lot of people who appeared to just be curious and quiet, maybe because they want things improved(?).
The residents who were originally opposed seemed to be closer to being OK with the bike lanes. They were very concerned with spill-over traffic from the road being narrowed. There were only a couple people who were vehemently opposed. Parking was a big issue for one person.
I am afraid there are going to be a couple compromises, and when it comes to having a complete network, a single compromise can make it a broken network. Who knows though. The councillor seems to really want to make a difference for cyclists.
I'll post more later.
-dj
Martin Reis (not verified)
Negotiable
Tue, 06/10/2008 - 17:42Thank you Darren, I am sorry that I could not be there.
Makes me sad that the safety of cyclists and pedestrians for that matter is a 'negotiable'.
Safe passage for bikes where it's convenient and does not disturb their car parking business.
The City is in the 'car culture protection' business.
darren
letters
Tue, 06/10/2008 - 22:09Yes, Tino. No problem. You do a lot of work for cyclists in Toronto. And sometimes it feels like there's a mountain in the way of that safe passage.
If anyone wants to write a letter, I hear June 11 is the deadline for submissions. Send your letter to Cliff Jenkins councillor_jenkins@toronto.ca
-dj