Hundreds of cyclists, concerned about their personal safety, have been e-mailing their Councillors and the Mayor about the looming removal of bike lanes on Jarvis Street. The Mayor’s office is responding to each message, with a form letter explaining his position. While the Mayor deserves credit for being responsive, most of the information in the letter is questionable and perhaps misleading. Let’s take a look:
Today at City Hall (Thursday), the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) will be discussing, debating and voting on a package of proposals for Toronto’s bike network. Some of the report is really positive, and some of it is a huge step backwards for Toronto. I’m writing a few quick blog posts about some of the highlights of the report.
You can also read responses from the Toronto Cyclists Union, Torontoist, Toronto Star and iBikeTO.
Part Three: Defending the Jarvis bike lane
Tomorrow at City Hall, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) will be discussing, debating and voting on a package of proposals for Toronto’s bike network. Some of the report is really positive, and some of it is a huge step backwards for Toronto. I’m writing a few quick blog posts about some of the highlights of the report.
You can also read responses from the Toronto Cyclists Union, Torontoist, Toronto Star and iBikeTO.
Part Two: Separated lanes on Richmond and Bloor
Tomorrow at City Hall, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) will be discussing, debating and voting on a package of proposals for Toronto’s bike network. Some of the report is really positive, and some of it is a huge step backwards for Toronto. I’m writing a few quick blog posts today about some of the highlights of the report.
You can also read responses from the Toronto Cyclists Union, Torontoist, Toronto Star and iBikeTO.
Part One: Birchmount and Pharmacy
Note: Please see update at the bottom
Over the last ten days, I’ve helped coordinate two volunteer traffic counts on John Street. We were counting cars, bikes and pedestrians in order to disprove wildly inaccurate information in a staff report.
The response has been overwhelming. From friends, colleagues and strangers, I’ve received a tonne of supportive letters and ‘thank you’s. When people see ordinary citizens getting directly involved with city-planning, it can be inspiring and it reminds us that we all have a role to play in building and shaping Toronto.
The media has also been incredibly supportive, playing their role in pressuring the city to admit the data is wrong. In the last week, we’ve seen articles on Torontoist, OpenFile, BlogTO, and three articles in the Star (1 2 3).
Meanwhile, the response from officials has been quite dismissive. This is rather unfortunate. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, and it would have been appropriate to simply withdraw the data immediately, admit the error, and perhaps even thank the volunteers who brought this to attention.
Note: Please see the update at the bottom
Last week, I helped organise a group of volunteers to do a traffic count on John Street. The purpose of the count was simple: to show that data found in the John Street Corridor Improvement study was inaccurate, fabricated and perhaps intentionally designed to support an anti-bike design for the street.
The discrepancy between our data and the city’s, was astounding:
This would have been a great opportunity for city officials to say “we’re gonna take a look at this. Something sure seems wrong”. Instead, both city staff and the local Councillor discounted our efforts and publicly insisted in the Toronto Star that the 2% number was indeed accurate. Continue reading
Note: Please see the update at the bottom
One year ago, I wrote a blog post about the City’s “John Street Corridor Improvement Study”. I called into question the validity of some of the measurements in the report. Specifically, the study claimed that there was not enough road width to include bike lanes and wider sidewalks. It was presented as a choice: bike lanes OR a wider sidewalk. I took advantage of a high-tech quantifying device called a “tape measure” and proved them wrong:
But the width measurement wasn’t the only questionable item in the report. I was astounded to see this piece of data:
A year ago I wrote a blog post about Route 35, one of Toronto’s longest north/south bikelanes. It starts up at St Clair and runs south along St George and Beverly, all the way to Queen – and then abruptly ends at a T-intersection.
The big question is: How do we connect this beautiful bike lane with the downtown core and the waterfront?
Right now, the best option for cyclists is to cut east (either through the Grange Park, or along Stephanie) and use John Street as the southbound route. This is ideal for a few reasons. John is a fairly wide street and can easily accommodate bike traffic. More importantly, John Street provides the only north/south signalised intersection for cyclist – anywhere between Augusta and Victoria.
But in the long-term, John is imperfect for cyclists. It’s frequently closed down for special events (like Much Music concerts), and there’s also a plan to re-design the entire road with an emphasis on wider sidewalks, narrower street width and more on-street events.
So, where should Route 35 cross Queen? One options is Simcoe, but that would require a new traffic signal at Queen and a complicated laneway route along Renfrew Place to connect to Beverly – which is 4 blocks away.
In 2007, a bike-sharing program called Vélib’ was introduced in Paris, putting 10,000 new bicycles on the streets. The bikes are designed for short trips, and can be easily rented from hundreds of terminals using a credit card. The project has been wildly successful and has already expanded to 17,000 bikes.
Montreal now has a similar program called Bixi (the name derives from the words “bicyclette and taxi”.) They started in 2009 with 3,000 bikes and quickly expanded to 5,000.
In Toronto, we had our own program called BikeShare, from 2001 to 2006. It was run by the Community Bicycle Network, and had 150 bikes across 16 hubs. Sadly, the program was shut down due to lack of funding.
But bike sharing is about to come back to Toronto, and it’s gonna be BIG. This spring, the company that runs Bixi in Montreal is going to be unveiling a system of public bikes in Toronto. The program will begin with 1,000 bikes at 80 terminals in the downtown area, and hopefully grow each year.
Note: ACTION ITEM – There is a link to the official “Comments Sheet” at the bottom of this post.
The longest uninterrupted north-south bike lane in central Toronto is ‘Route 35‘, which travels along Beverly, St George & Poplar Plains all the way from St Clair down to Queen Street. At Queen it comes to a dead-end, feeding into a black hole of car-priority streets with no bike infrastructure anywhere nearby. Ten years ago, City Council approved the Toronto Bike Plan, which includes north-south bike lanes on Spadina & Peter, and physically separated bike lanes on Richmond & Adelaide. Ten years later, including seven years under Mayor Miller, we still have no bike lanes in that area.
Now, to make things worse, the City is planning to re-design John Street and it looks like bike safety is not part of the equation. In fact, they seem quite ready to push bikes off the street completely.
The City has released a report that puts forward six ‘Alternative Solutions‘ which seem to be carefully written to ensure that cyclists’ needs are excluded from the final plan. One option goes as far as banning bikes completely. Another option includes bike lanes but without wider sidewalks (this option will surely be discarded as it contradicts the primary goal of the re-design: to enhance the pedestrian space). Strangely absent from the report is the most practical option: to add bikelanes and increase the sidewalk width. There is more than enough room to do this, despite the misinformation found in the report. Instead, the entire scenario is unnecessarily framed as a bike VS pedestrian battle.
