NOW magazine presents: Bikeable City – Are We Losing the Fight?
This panel discussion will be held at the NOW Lounge (189 Church at Shuter) Wednesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. The event is free.
Featuring:
- Adam Giambrone, City Councillor, Ward 18 Davenport. From his bio online: “As Chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, Adam has fought for new funding, and ensured that cycling stays on the city agenda.”
- Daniel Egan, Manager, Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure, Transportation Services Division, City of Toronto
- Wayne Scott, Toronto Hoof and Cycle Courier Coalition. Mr. Scott’s fight to have Revenue Canada permit foot and bicycle couriers a tax deduction for extra food as fuel requirements can be found here.
- Tanya Quinn, CrazyBikerChick
- Darren Stehr, ARC
- Hamish Wilson, Toronto Cycling Committee and Take the Tooker
- Mike Smith, NOW’s City Hall columnist, will moderate.
Today the answer to the title question looks like a resounding “yes, we are losing…” as the City has been unable to find any money under bushes or rocks to save the multiple award-winning BikeShare program. This sad story is in today’s Star.
Photo courtesy of the bikelanediary.
14 comments
As I rode south on bayview around york mills (yes brrr today) some guy yelled ‘get on the sidewalk’ man I haven’t heard that old chestnut in a while god cycling here is hell.
“Are we losing the fight for a bikeable city?”
of course we are.
first canadian place has actually *removed* about 90% of the bike racks from around the building since i started working here two years ago. they also took out the secure bike parking in the building’s garage. a locked, lone wheel has been occupying one of the few street-level parking spots for a year and a half. nobody here seems to care.
i was already disgruntled when i arrived at work this morning because of my daily brush with mortality on bay street, despite the signs restricting the right lane to buses, cabs and bikes. nobody cares when they’re driving on bay street; the cops don’t appear to care either.
it reminds me of how the committee of adjustment denied me a zoning variance for a bicycle shed in the backyard of my tiny downtown home, which has no other kind of parking. nobody there seemed to care about things like the bike plan. i had to go to the o.m.b. over my bike shed, which is an absurd use of resources in this day and age!
in my view, we are completely losing the battle for a bikeable city. our municipal government is the last institution i would expect to actually help.
I imagine this event will get violent. I’m sorry I won’t be able to be there.
Oh, and can we now finally state that Council as a whole is anti-cycling? The Mayor and others have been putting all the blame on Ootes for too long.
Miller is anti-cycling. So is Works Committee Chair Glenn De Baeremaeker. So what if he rides his bike to and from Scarborough every day? Councillor Thompson is black, but that doesn’t make him any less of a racist.
useful comments, thanks, and for post/promo/bikeshare prob (the Star may print a letter I sent, suggesting the interest on the $50/100M FSE monies could be used for BIkeshare).
Has every one heard the term “carrupt”?
does anyone know where one can get figures about how much bike infrastructure costs? i.e. $x for a bike post and ring, $y for a bike rack, $z for 1km of bike lanes, etc? these kinds of figures would be very useful when badgering politicians..
maybe we can ask Rob Ford…
also, does anyone know how MADD gets all those RIDE checks everywhere, all the time? how many people were killed by drunk drivers last year, compared to cyclists? why do the cops/politicians listen to them and not cyclists? I’m partly ranting, but if anyone has any factual information, that would be really useful, too.
thanks! keep ‘er greased up!
[…] Committee, Adam has fought for new funding, and ensured that cycling stays on the city agenda. Daniel Egan, Manager, Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure, Transportation Services … – More – […]
maybe MADD pays off duty officers out of their fundraising dollars, as other agencies have done when they want policing of events?
It seems like the cycling community never, ever shows any appreciation for the small positive steps that have happened. Instead of celebrating the bike paths that do get built, they complain about not having exclusive access. Instead of working with the councillors who support them, they go into attack dog mode at every perceived slight.
I’m sure there are reasonable cyclists out there, but the fundamentalist fringe is drowning them out.
Paul >>
If there WERE bike lanes to celebrate every fundamentalist cyclist would celebrate. But there were 6km built in 2006 when it should’ve been in the hundreds. That would be worth celebrating.
If there had been 60 km instead of 6 my bet is they’d still be griping. The idea that “it should’ve been in the hundreds” is an ideal, practically a pipedream, and attacking supportive politicians for not acheiving pipedreams is ridiculous.
Hey, Paul … You’re wrong. I complain but I also praise when there is positive change.
Ride on.
Paul – saying that 100s of kms is a pipedream is also wrong.
The City’s Official Bike Plan calls for 1,000 kms in the bikeway network…of that 460 (or 495 – depending on where you look in the report) are to be on-street.
That would mean that ACCORDING TO THE CITY’S OWN OFFICIAL PLAN we should get 97.75 kms of bike lanes per year to meet the 2011 target the City set…itself.
It is important that Toronto receives dedicated bike lanes, which protect the cyclist from traffic, rather than lines painted on the road- called ‘sharrows’. If you want more people to ride bikes, protect them, as this will encourage greater diversity on the paths and give people faith that they can ride safely.
Councillor Giambrone installed ‘sharrows’ on Lansdowne Avenue- they are just an arrow to an accident for the cyclist beside industrial traffic.