More bike lanes, but not on Bloor – yet...
As the public works committee today approved the installation of some 24 kilometres of new bike lanes in Toronto, defenders of the driver railed about the cost, while cyclists complained the city is neglecting the most obvious east-west artery – Bloor Street.
But for the chair of the committee though, addressing Toronto’s dearth of dedicated space for two-wheeled commuters has become a personal challenge.
“It’s not fair that people refuse to share the road with us,†said councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre), who cycles to City Hall from his suburban ward most days. “It’s a personal issue for me. I pay the same taxes as everyone in this room… This is a good investment that might save someone’s life, or the lives of the people we love.â€
The committee approved placing pieces of bike lane in almost every neighbourhood of Toronto. In the west lanes will be added to Rathburn Road for example; in the core they will be put on Argyle Street and Gladstone Avenue; in Toronto’s east, it will be Huntingwood Drive, and many other streets in between.
But councillor Doug Holyday (Etobicoke Centre) questioned the rationale of spending $70 million over the next few years to put in a patchwork of disconnected lanes with no semblance of a network taking shape and no proof people will use them.
“I’m not anti-bike,†he said. “I think this is about the most embarrassing, colossal misuse of scarce resources that has come up at council in many years… They say it’s not a war on the car. If it’s not, I don’t know what is.â€
Cyclists, on the other hand, lamented that the city isn’t going far enough to making way for bikes on Toronto’s roads.
Most notably, they deplored the absence of Bloor-Danforth on the roster of streets getting new bike lanes.
“There’s no place more logical in Southern Ontario to squeeze the car… than beside the subway,†said Hamish Wilson, citing reports that suggested the thoroughfare as prime bike corridor dating back to 1992. “That’s very, very frustrating…Come on guys, we’ve got to get going on this stuff.â€
While bike lanes on Bloor was missing from today’s slate, Mr. De Baeremaeker said such a plan is still in the works and that he is a “strong supporter.â€
“It’s a very well-used route. There effectively is a bike lane there today, it’s just not formal. There are just so many cyclists there, when you come to a stop light, seven or eight or 10 of them line up behind a cab and they take over the lane anyway. That’s not safe for the cyclists, it’s not safe for drivers, so a more formal route is a good idea,†he said. “But in our democratic system we have to sit down and talk to all the [business improvement areas], you have to talk to the residents, you hve to talk to the local councillors… The world unfortunately doesn’t move as quickly as we would like and there is our due diligence.â€