A plan to establish separated bike lanes along University Avenue was defeated Wednesday night - after a councillor made a voting mistake.
In a vote to remove a proposed segregated-lane pilot project from the city's larger bike network plan, councillor Paula Fletcher voted "yes" by accident, she said, passing what would otherwise have been a tied (and defeated) amendment.
That means that a 12-week summertime pilot project that would have established the bike lanes on University Avenue was spiked.
"It's extremely, extremely disappointing," said Yvonne Bambrick, executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union. "It was a forward-thinking pilot that connected three major east-west routes. ... We were so close to getting this passed."
When the plan passed at the city's public works committee last month, councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker said he was confident the pilot project would become permanent and be expanded across the city - it was a necessary step, he argued, in making cyclists safe.
Ms. Bambrick said she isn't optimistic the proposal will come back to council after the October election: Multiple mayoral candidates, including councillor Rob Ford, who was at Wednesday's vote, have opposed bike lanes in one form or another.
Rocco Rossi has said he supports a bike lane network on secondary streets, but not on such major arteries as University Avenue. George Smitherman has called for a pause on bike-lane development. Joe Pantalone supports them, and voted for the University Avenue pilot project.
Ms. Fletcher apologized for the error, which she and several other councillors tried unsuccessfully to correct. But changing a single vote that would have altered the outcome isn't allowed.
"I feel very badly. ... I've been a very strong advocate of bike lanes," she said, adding that she's confident it will come back to council after the election.
"I've spoken to many councillors who've said we will commit to getting this on University Avenue in the new round of council."
The bikeway network, which ended up passing by a wide margin, will establish new bike lanes on several roads - including Bay Street, Lansdowne Avenue and Spadina Crescent - as well as partially segregated bike lanes on Bay Street near Lakeshore.
The issue of University Avenue bike lanes didn't generate the same amount of anger caused by proposed bike lanes on Jarvis Street last year. But the prospect of removing lanes of vehicle traffic and replacing them with bike lanes caused motorist consternation, especially in a city facing growing congestion problems.
Councillor Anthony Peruzza, who voted against the pilot project, said as an avid cyclist he supports physically separated bike lanes. Just not these ones.
"I support bicycle lanes and I support safety for cyclists. ... I think you need to have some kind of physical separation between cyclsts and automobiles," he said. "They've turned this into a political hot potato."
