Takethetooker

By Hamish Wilson 

Monday night Mar. 17 was a meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC). While the Bloor/Danforth bikeway issue wasn’t on the agenda as Councillor Heaps said it would be at the January TCAC meeting, various members of the committee were keen enough on this issue to give a half hour discussion on it, and  there was an interest in developing a working group.

Tuesday morning brought news from city staffer Mr. Harry Persaud that the Bloor/Yorkville area project had gone to tender, though the Road Reconstruction Plan has not been released to the public nor has it gone up to the Toronto East York Community Council, which is meeting on April 8.

These plans have not been sent to the TCAC for their input, and while this 1km in Bloor/Yorkville has been a topic of discussion at both committee and former sub-committee level, it is quite possible that the approvals process will kick in without any formal review or input.

The TCAC has been told that the plans have been drawn up to allow for bike lanes in the future, as the curb-to-curb distance will be sufficient to permit putting bike lanes in – but not now, as the merchants who are paying for this luxury rebuild don’t want bike lanes. They don’t even want to have post and rings on this public street.

Avoiding public input means that we can\’t explore re-doing Bloor St. like these examples in North America and from Europe:

or

Our bike lanes marked only with a white line tend to be occupied consistently by stopped cars. Many cyclists, and would-be cyclists would like to have something more European, with painted lanes, and if the road is going to be rebuilt for 50 years, why not think of all the options?
On this 1km of Bloor St. (between Avenue Road and Church St), the merchants have already agreed to remove all of the parking on both sides of the street, removing a large impediment to bike lanes. Our visibility could be heightened through the use of colour: red, green, or blue are common colours in bike lanes in other parts of the world.

It seems most unusual to have tenders for street reconstruction done ahead of any specific approval of the road approval by politicians (though Council did okay in principle the reconstruction of Bloor two-odd years ago). It may be due to the BYBIA paying back the $25M that the City is borrowing to do this work.

But if this is what a progressive private public partnership is, our progressives of Councillor Rae and Mayor Miller are dissing cyclists and their own advisory committee. Some have felt this advisory committee was already weakened by the recent truncating to 8 members..

One also has to wonder if Councillor Heaps knew that the project was out to tender, and if his pushing of the Bloor/Danforth off the TCAC agenda is deliberate or just more coincidence.

What to do?

Please apply political pressure to Mayor Miller, Councillor Rae and Councillor Heaps, and your own local Councillor, especially if you live in the TEYCC and downtown. Tell them you want bike lanes included in the Bloor/Yorkville reconstruction.

Email is Mayor_Miller@toronto.ca

councillor_rae@toronto.ca

councillor_heaps@toronto.ca

or councillor_lastname@toronto.ca

To find out who your councillor is call 416-338-0338 or go to the cities councillor listing . You can get their phone numbers here as well. Phoning is ever better than email.

Please think of whomever you know in Councillor Rae’s area and get in touch with them to pressure Mr. Rae to bring a bike lane to this Bloor/Yorkville reconstruction.

In the meanwhile, we will try to find out what the "normal" tendering process is. There\’s also been a  call for an EA for this project, and we\’ve heard about some interest by lawyer-types in some of the legal and liability issues.

It’s surprising that spending maybe $12,000 to $15,000 to paint a white line on fresh asphalt for safer cycling is so fraught with obstacles, while the ice caps and glaciers are melting.

On the positive side, spring is arriving, the City has improved their snow clearing of the Bloor Viaduct and Bloor lanes, and a sister group, the Bells on Bloor, is holding another big bike ride on Sunday May 25 rain or shine.