Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam sent a February 7 letter (pdf) to Transportation Services cycling manager Dan Egan requesting that the Sherbourne separated bike lane be made into a "pilot" saying there needed to be further "consultation". Surprisingly she sent this letter during the consultation period which ended February 17 and she didn't copy Councillor Pam McConnell whose ward shares Sherbourne.
It was a bit of a shocker to find out that Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is getting cold feet on separated bike lanes for Sherbourne, thus potentially putting Toronto's first opportunity for better separation into jeopardy. It has come to my attention that Councillor Wong-Tam has filed a request for Sherbourne's separated bike lanes to be installed only in the North as a pilot for study and further community consultation.
True words by Albert Koehl in Rabble of how Mayor Ford is doing more harm to drivers than good with his archaic, anti-city approach to moving people:
Don Cherry has a lesson to teach Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
The City is in the first stage of its new Official Plan Reviews and currently in the midst of the September Open Houses. Next week the Open Houses are at York Civic Centre on Sept 26 and at North York Civic Centre on Sept 27.
Open Houses run 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and include facilitated discussions. If you cycle regularly you may be interested in attending one of the open houses and provide some input on how the Official Plan can benefit active transportation and, in particular, cycling.
Why would anyone build a road that abuts a park and links a waterfront trail to a pedestrian / cyclist bridge – and name it after Dan Leckie, to boot – and not put a bike lane on it? Only in Toronto, eh?
Ward 20 Councillor Adam Vaughan amended the PW5.1 Bikeway Network recommendations to redress this judgement lapse, and added several other bike-friendly amendments. But when PW5.1 came to a vote at City Council on July 13, it also included the motion to remove the bike lanes on Jarvis.
Let’s say you were a member of the Ford team, and you were tasked with suppressing cycling and rolling back existing cycling infrastructure. How best to accomplish this?
Try this:
Video shooting and editing by Lisa Logan (a big thanks Lisa!). Herb of I Bike TO and Lisa are asking the questions. Produced for the Toronto Cyclists Union and the Save Jarvis campaign. Join the Bike Union and come out on July 12 and 13 to raise your voice in support of bike lanes in Toronto!
It's a bit endearing to see a councillor be willing to look silly to support a proposal for the media. Perhaps cycling is now enough of a wedge issue that even a councillor that thought the Jarvis bike lanes were a "war on the car" is willing to play his political cards in support of an ambitious bike proposal. Cyclist and journalist Catherine Porter went on a Bixi ride with Councillor Minnan-Wong to check out the proposed protected bike lane network.
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who's ward includes Sherbourne, has been playing her cards closely. Today we learned that she at least agrees in principle to the separated bike lanes / cycle tracks plan for Sherbourne Street. On Twitter this morning Rob (@rmeynell) asked Councillor Kristyn Wong Tam:
Councillor McConnell is on board with separated bike lanes on Sherbourne, but @kristynwongtam is holding out. With respect, why? @bikeTO
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