Protected bike lanes: flowers in the manure

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. Even while right wingers tried to create a justification for urban highways on residential streets like Jarvis, they recognized that Rob Ford's bikes-in-the-park "bike plan" wasn't going to fly and that there needed to be something for urban cyclists, and the one thing they were willing to allow were improvements on other bike lanes with protection and buffers from car traffic.

Last week, myself and some other Bike Union volunteers spoke to cyclists and drivers on Jarvis Street and have found that the majority of people want to keep the bike lanes. The bike lanes are surprisingly popular with car drivers as well as cyclists (video coming soon from Lisa Logan and Bike Union). Unfortunately, the Ford block isn't forcing the removal because they were responding to an outpouring of requests, nor because they are interested in pursuing one of the other options from the EA - such as widening the sidewalks (as Councillor Parker claims). Instead, they are removing Jarvis bike lanes because of the baseless and ideological concept that making streets into highways will somehow eliminate traffic congestion and allow them to get to their downtown jobs by private automobile quickly, without the hassle of pedestrians and cyclists getting in their way (ionjody spoke with Rob Ford "Talked to @TOMayorFord at bike locker. He said he didn't like bikes getting in front of him on Queen. #bikeTO please explain why we must"). Reason be damned.

It can be hard to get anything positive for cyclists with such a car-centric view of our city. The beginning of a protected bike lane network was hopefully a flower in the shit that was the PWIC meeting. Existing bike lanes on Bloor Viaduct, Sherbourne, Wellesley, Beverley and Harbord/Hoskins would gain a buffer from car traffic with bollards, curb or something similar. A pilot protected bike lane project on Richmond Street would provide us with a crucial east-west artery across downtown. I won't argue that these gains offset the loss of Pharmacy, Birchmount and Jarvis, even though I imagine that Minnan-Wong thought it a worthy trade-off. In these days of Rob Ford's "bike plan" of suburban park paths, which has next to nothing for majority of cyclists in Toronto, cyclists are going to have to find ways to push back in places but also to find mutually agreeable improvements. Right now cyclists will have to fight back to prevent a process which might be forming whereby every improvement is met with a reduction in cycling infrastructure somewhere else, as if cyclists only deserve so much. Could you imagine this even with pedestrians? For every new sidewalk, some other neighbourhood will lose a sidewalk.

Here were the most important decisions from the report that didn't involve removing bike lanes:

b. Proceed with the installation of separated bike lanes on Bloor Street East, from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue, in 2011;
c. Proceed with the detailed design and consultation process for developing separated bicycle lanes on Sherbourne Street with the goal of implementing them in 2012 in conjunction with the planned capital work on Sherbourne Street;
d. Proceed with the detailed design and consultation process for developing separated bicycle lanes on Wellesley Street with the goal of implementing them in 2012;
e. Direct the Acting General Manager, Transportation Services to assess the feasibility of separated bike lanes on Adelaide Street and/or Richmond Street, from Bathurst Street to Sherbourne Street, and separated north-south bicycle lanes in the most suitable route within the corridor from Peter to Simcoe Streets, connecting the existing Beverley Street bicycle lanes to the Waterfront, as part of a larger overall transportation operations study of this area and report to the September 2011 meeting of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on Terms of Reference for the study; and

Requested the Acting General Manager, Transportation Services, to report to the October 5, 2011, meeting of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on a pilot project for separated bicycle lanes on Richmond Street to inform the larger overall transportation operations study of the area, for implementation in the Spring of 2012.

City Council direct the Acting General Manager, Transportation Services, to commence the design phase for separated bike lanes on Harbord - Hoskin and Beverley that includes community and stakeholder consultation and consideration of the availability of parking on local side streets, with a report back to the May 2012 meeting of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee.”

Given the anti-bike lane stance of the mayor and the Ford Block, it's still uncertain if Minnan-Wong is willing to risk his standing with Ford by pushing for the protected bike lanes, or to try to win back some goodwill with cyclists after throwing most of it away with the Jarvis decision. One thing is for certain, we can't let them off the hook until we see some real improvements.