At yesterday's Public Works and Infrastructure meeting, positive advancements were made for the separated bike lane plan and the City-wide trails plan. The update on the Wellesley Cycle Tracks project was approved and the scope was expanded:
- PWIC directed the General Manager of Transportation Services to "expand the scope of the consultation, design and installation of the Wellesley Street Cycle Track Project to Parliament Street in the east and to St. George Street in the west." That is, this planning phase would include separated bike lanes on Hoskin.
- In response to Councillor McConnell's request PWIC decided that "consult with the Ward Councillors on the design and the consultation process for the portions of the separated bicycle lanes that are located in their Wards."
- Councillor Minnan-Wong made a motion to direct the GM to "assist in the consultation and design of separate bike lanes on Harbord Street between Ossington Avenue and St. George Street and report back to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee in the first quarter of 2013."
Politically, cyclists made some successes here. Completing cycle tracks on the whole length of Wellesley-Hoskin-Harbord from Parliament to Ossington will be a great boon to cyclists. Harbord is already the second busiest bike route in the city. This will help fill in the gap at Spadina to Bathurst, better connect Wellesley and Hoskin and make it a safer and more comfortable trip.
I hope that we don't get bogged down in consultation as it seems now that there might be separate consultations in each ward. Though I am encouraged that councillors are now starting to see how much people want separated bike lanes, off-street paths and quiet residential boulevards, both as cyclists and as "near cyclists" (the people who are likely to start biking if conditions improve).
Councillor Vaughan has come out as completely supportive of separated bike lanes on Hoskin. Vaughan said to me by email yesterday, "We totally support separated bike lanes to St George along Hoskin west of Queen's Park. No more consultation is needed." Vaughan had also reportedly stated that he would support separated bike lanes on Beverley, Peter and Simcoe in return for support on the pedestrianization of John Street.
Kudos to Councillor Vaughan for supporting separated bike lanes! We may not have agreed on where they should go but Vaughan's support for these lanes plus his other Ward 20 bike lane proposals means that he's committed to getting cycling improvements to his ward and they are complementary to the main separated bike lane network.
There will now be a seperate public consultation process for work on Harbord-Hoskin from work now scheduled to be done for Wellesley in 2013. Since Harbord-Hoskin has been approved by PWIC for planning the City's Downtown Bikeways Upgrade map has been expanded.
The City-wide Trails plan was adopted, with motions centred on ensuring public consultaiton work for each section, and the inclusion of local councillors. This is a good thing. Many downtown cyclists don't see a direct benefit for many of the trail improvements (myself included unless I'm making a longer trip to the suburbs). Some are pointing out that too much money is being put into trails that serve fewer people than downtown and that the trails won't be ploughed in winter or lighted. These are good points though instead of looking at ways to divide a small budget in a different ways, we should be calling for an even bigger cycling budget. Given the obesity health problem in our city, good suburban infrastructure is critical just as much as downtown cycling infrastructure is critical for safety. Most of the improvements in the trails infrastructure were already identified in the Bike Plan, and were always seen as important. But point well taken that we don't want to implement them at the expense of safe routes elsewhere.
Along with the trails approval, a motion was adopted to review the feasability of signal improvements at Strachan Avenue and the Waterfront Trail. The GM will report "on the installation of a northbound bicycle crossing within the signalized intersection of Lake Shore Boulevard West at Strachan Avenue to facilitate cyclists accessing the northbound bicycle lanes on Strachan Avenue from the Martin Goodman Trail." As a key access point for downtown cyclists and pedestrians to the waterfront, it's great news to see some progress being made to make this a safer and more usable intersection. Councillor Layton facilitated this motion on behalf of Ward 19 residents.
I hope the City can improve the pace of the work by bring consultants on board to deal with the backlog of off-street and on-street bike routes approved. On y va!
Comments
veronica (not verified)
Good suburban cycling
Fri, 05/18/2012 - 09:36Good suburban cycling infrastructure is even more important in the suburbs for safety reasons than downtown. Fewer residents cycle here because its even more daunting sharing a road with vehicles travelling at 70+ km/h than sharing a road where vehicles are travelling at much reduced speeds due to congestion, more lights etc. I do both daily, so I know what I'm talking about. If the cycling infrastructure were present in the suburbs, more residents would cycle here, as the distances between destinations are a bit far for walking but are ideal for cycling. Despite the lack of cycling, there are an ever increasing number of residents getting around by bicycle in the inner suburbs. Most of them cycle on the sidewalks which, IMHO, speaks volumes about the desperate need for cycling infrastructure in the suburbs. So in addition to your comment above Herb about lobbying for a bigger slice of the budget pie to direct towards cycling infrastructure, I also urge all downtown cyclists to help lobby for more cycling infrastructure in the suburbs. Trust me, it will pay off in the long run.
hamish (not verified)
This is a most important
Fri, 05/25/2012 - 08:55This is a most important point: rebuilding some existing bike lanes in the core actually condemns many existing non-city-core cyclists to ongoing roadkill roulette - and it may be as high as 95% as it's only a small little quadrant in the core that the F*kers are willing to maybe re-do.
There's also the massive imbalance in the resources going to park paths - at 115% of the Bike Plan goals already without counting the extra 77kms proposed, though funding will have to depend on it being approved every year, and the F*ists close libraries to save $100,000 etc.
The 30km of proposed trails will be costing about $30Meg.a million a km, which could give us 40km of painted bike lanes as we do them, and while yes, separated would be nice/better, are we cyclists being set up for castigated as "gravy" when the new Sherbourne dedicated lanes are built but unplowed in the wintertime and thus unused, so no more separated lanes folks.
What's really troubling about this is not that we're being manipulated, but more than a few of the "advocates" are enabling a costly disservice with real dangers for the great majority of urban bike commuters, including a lack of road repair.
herb
115% of what? If you compare
Sun, 05/27/2012 - 08:51115% of what? If you compare the proposed trail connections in this report to the Bike Plan I see very little difference. Almost all of these trails were in the Bike Plan and are now going to be worked on. I'm not sure why you think complaining about the cost of trail installation is a winning political formula. Don't you risk the right-wing just cancelling all bike infrastructure because it's simply "too expensive"?
It would be better if you asked that Council also ramped up the installation of bike lanes and separated bike lanes instead. But even with more money it doesn't mean that bike lane installation will start happening faster. You know as well as anyone, Hamish, how much local councillors can stop a bike lane within their ward. You'd still have to do all the political work to get the councillor on your side.
Bruce K (not verified)
I'm a suburban cyclist living
Fri, 05/18/2012 - 10:17I'm a suburban cyclist living very close to the Gatineau Hydro Corridor trail. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to get cycling infrastructure in the suburbs. There is absolutely no support from the the local councillors or the general public for bike lanes on arterial roads here. Off-road trails are our only hope. Its true that most current users of the Gatineau corridor are recreational cyclist but I use it to commute downtown and to Riverdale and there are increasing numbers of cyclists doing the same. Scarborough will never be a 'destination spot' but there a lot of people living here that want to use their bikes to travel to places that are.
anthony
Veronica, Bruce K, I urge you
Fri, 05/18/2012 - 16:58Veronica, Bruce K,
I urge you to watch the TO Bike Events listing here (on the left) or else directly on
http://www.bikeevents.to/
and watch out for the public consultation meetings for these new trails near (or even semi-near) the areas you live. Please attend them and speak, and also write, in support of these new trails. Let people know of your positive experiences with the trails that have been built so far as it will help to set aside many of the fears mentioned here:
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/cityhall/article/1357554--off-road-bike-trails-a-concern-in-willowdale-neighbourhood
Brandon
It is nice to read about some
Sun, 05/20/2012 - 05:59It is nice to read about some success here for the cyclists. However, I am still hoping for the day when politics will not play a part and things will just happen as they should for cyclists everywhere.
Making progress with a website finder is always a good thing, especially when it involves getting bike trails or bike lanes on roads so that people can ride.
locutas_of_spragge
Veronika, Bruce:
Mon, 05/21/2012 - 05:51Veronika, Bruce: word.
Anthony, you and I both live in suburban neighbourhoods relatively close to trails. I want to emphasize that making cycling a generally practical proposition means supporting suburban infrastructure. The fewer suburban residents who can cycle safely, the less support downtown cycling infrastructure will have.
Brandon: Cycling infrastructure involves allocation of public space and public resources, which means it will always involve politics. And unfortunately, people legitimately disagree about how things "should" happen for cyclists and the transportation infrastructure. But I agree that I hope soon we will get past the unreasoning hostility to cyclists and active transportation that poisons this debate.
anthony
Locutas, Winning these trail
Tue, 05/22/2012 - 11:42Locutas,
Winning these trail pieces in has big benefits for everyone; you and I know that because we live close to (segments of) trails already. One trail, which is really close to me, is so great that it has become a victim of it's own success to the point that city staff have been asked to look for ways to better accommodate all of the trail's users. If only more trails had this problem.
As much as I'd like to go to every single meeting, I cannot. I have a family, and my wife does set reasonable limits on how many bikey events I can attend. She wants, and deserves, my help around the house, and as well, she thinks that I should be involved in the parenting our children. I simply cannot appear at every meeting. Further, my presence at Scarborough meetings means much less than they do at Etobicoke meetings; at least I live in Etobicoke so I can speak as a (reasonably) local citizen. Therefore I have to choose which meetings to attend, In part I choose by which meetings will most benefit from my attendance, and also which meetings means the most to myself and my family, as well as those meetings I think means the most to the city's current cyclists overall.
However, it has to be that more locals show up and speak at these meetings; not "outsiders" like you or I. If I, as someone from Etobicoke, were argue for the proposed bike trails in Scarborough then my words would carry very little weight. I'd risk being seen as someone who is trying to impose "our" way of life on an unsuspecting and/or unwilling community -- as someone who is trying to turn us into them (or is it turning them into us?) But should a local speak, it becomes simply "we". Because you and I have been to these types of meetings many times before, you and/or I could help prepare any locals who want to attend and speak with the appropriate counter arguments to common objections to these kinds of projects. But I cannot always be there to fight every fight.
David Juliusson (not verified)
I agree with Anthony. You
Sun, 05/27/2012 - 15:01I agree with Anthony. You can't be everywhere at once so I try and choose where I am of most use.
To me that means local. I too live in Etobicoke. My councillor is more willing to listen to me because I vote in his ward than he would from someone from another part of the city. I can talk to other local cyclists, get cooperation with other local groups and help with initiatives within my community much easier than I can somehwere else.
I can also contact my Councillor on subjects I am personally affected by such as the P gates at Ontario Place. Councillor Grimes is Chair of the Exhibition Board and has interest in the P gates because of it. Although Councillor Layton is doing much of the work on getting them opened because it is his ward, Councillor Grimes has made inquiries too. He has also been active in ensuring the Martin Goodman Trail is plowed in the winter.
Also, local work has crossovers to the rest of the city. Anthony, myself and other Ward 6 cyclist have been working on getting Safe Routes to School going at local schools. We have had some successes. Because of that we have been asked to present to the TDSB Transportation subcommittee on why bike parking is important in every school in the TDSB.
That was the original intent of the Ward Captain program when the Toronto Cyclist Union began. Local advocates can reach their Councillors. We can have input on issues within our wards and also on issues the Councillors are on the boards of. For example, my Councillor is Chair of the Etobicoke York Council. It means he votes on issues in Ward 2, well outside my Ward. Also Councillors vote across the City. When the Jarvis bike lane went in, it was a full vote of the Council. My Etobicoke Councillor voted for it at that time, though he is now against keeping them.
Finally, when the Bike Union was forming, Councillor Davis gave a talk to us on the bike lanes in then Councillor Ootes riding. More than 25,000 had signed a petition fo bike lanes in his ward. Councillor Ootes had an assistant go through the entrte list and check how many were in his ward. Any that weren't were crossed off. Local matters.
Political cyclist (not verified)
Pollitics is at the core of
Mon, 05/21/2012 - 06:12Pollitics is at the core of everything
You will never get large numbers of property owners on routes chosen for separated bicycle lanes to be enthusiastic
The only way we will get a separated network is relentless effort and turn out by those who want separated bicycle lanes
We will only get it meter by meter with resistance all the way
Dan Leckie a proenvironment city councillor couldn't overcome the opposition to Unseparated bicycle lanes on Harbord in front of the Harbord Bakery 15 years ago
Ward 20 had Leckie , then Chow another procycling councillor and now Vaughan.
None of them could get it done or tried to for that matter
There is a huge desire by ordinary people to have safer cycling and separated lanes
It will only happen if it is imposed by the larger community in the greater public good
There will be a public meeting in late June for separated bicycle lanes on Wellesley Hoskins between Parliament and St George
If you want them get everyone you know there
anthony
Political cyclist You will
Tue, 05/22/2012 - 12:56Political cyclist
I never intended to say that there would large numbers of property owners who were overjoyed about having separated bike lanes. I merely wanted point out that the new consultation process significantly weakens their reasons for objection.
And right now, you are right; unless there are a critical mass of people who want these separated bike lanes -- and who also get involved and actually say so publicly -- a councillor will not, in the current political environment, feel comfortable putting them in.
So we need to continue to show up for these public meetings, when they are held, and advocate for the new and/or improved cycling facilities. And we need to continue to our work to change the political environment to make it easier for these projects before they even start.
Seymore Bikes
I'm encouraged to hear that
Thu, 05/24/2012 - 01:05I'm encouraged to hear that Vaughan is supportive, as well as PWIC, but as long as Councillors have the authority to unilaterally obstruct the implementation of cycling infrastructure in their ward, this is all subject to political whimsy.