On the day of the Complete Streets Forum in Toronto and just after the Toronto Cyclists Union said they would take their request for an Environmental Assessment on the Jarvis bike lane removal to the province, I was thinking about an outdated urban traffic planning - popular in the 1950s - that is favoured by some people on City Council.
The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) voted to reinstall the fifth lane of Jarvis and remove the Jarvis bike lanes after the installation of the Sherbourne Street separated bike lanes at its meeting on June 23, 2011. Cyclists, the Toronto Cyclists Union in particular, supported the Sherbourne separated bike lanes but were against creating a trade-off with the Jarvis bike lanes. The number one argument used to push for removing the Jarvis bike lanes was that it slowed down traffic (by about 2 to 5 minutes).
The contentious Jarvis bike lanes should be operational by the end of July. Transportation Services will be removing the reversible centre lane and hardware starting Friday July 16. Depending on who you are this will either be the end of the world as we know it, or a small addition to a street network that is safer for cyclists.
Read more about the Jarvis Streetscape improvements, and read the press release:
News Release
July 14, 2010
Hi all,
Mayor Miller is is trying to capture the positive energy that occurs at the start of Bike Month and channel it to encourage council to pass the Bike Lanes on Jarvis. To do this Mayor Miller has asked for the Jarvis Street Bike Lanes to be the FIRST item of regular business on the agenda to be dealt with Monday morning.
Recent comments