On Wednesday July 20 at 6:30PM the Toronto Bike Union is planning a “Ride for Jarvis” beginning in Allen Gardens (here’s the Facebook event listing). Here’s why you should go.
Last week was an excruciating one here in Toronto as we saw a number of bike lanes slated for removal from the city streets. Few, if any, cities would do this in 2011, and perhaps fewer would want to burn a vast amount of money in doing so. But many councillors working under a penny-pinching banner curiously did just that. However, as John Lorinc argued yesterday, perhaps the Jarvis is not the hill to die on if you’re supportive of City Building. But the symbolism of Jarvis for cycling in Toronto is massive, which is why it does mean something. The Jarvis lanes were problematic from the beginning, added at the last minute to a plan to return the street to its previous gentility and grandeur from the temporary 1950s highway it became during a few high decades of the automobile era (read about what was to be, and how we got into this mess, in Dylan Reid’s Spacing post). But we got them and they worked (for cars and bikes, there was no crisis, no gridlock — pedestrians got the pooh-covered end of the stick here) and they’re gone now, gentility-free too.
It’s important to remember a couple of things. First is that the Jarvis lanes were not the only ones voted into non-existence, there are ones on Pharmacy Avenue and Birchmount Road in Scarborough. This is where the name of Wednesday’s ride is unfortunate. This is a ride for cycling infrastructure and respect in all parts of Toronto. Respect is a word that’s had the meaning beaten out of it over the last year in Toronto, but let’s keep using it. It’s ok that the ride is on Jarvis — things happen downtown most visibly (Petula Clark didn’t sing “Uptown” she sang “Downtown” because it’s where things — political or not — happen) but our inner suburbs stand too loose a lot here as many people in these car-focused territories don’t, in fact, have cars. If you paid attention to council last week to the tweet-by-tweet details of what anti-bike-lane council members said about biking (paraphrases: “Biking makes body odour” and “I hope to never see bike lanes in Scaroborough again”) this must be countered with a big, non-partisan show on our shared streets.
And that last point may rub activists the wrong way, but biking is not a left, right, pinko or marginal issue. Everybody bikes for all kinds of reasons. The Fordists want it to be seen as a downtown Left thing so they can ghettoize it and keep dry humping the same soundbites. As has been pointed out many times now, under Mayor David Miller, not much actually happened for cycling in Toronto (in terms of things like kilometers of bike lanes installed) but there was an overt friendliness towards cycling lulling folks of all political stripes into thinking their interests were being actively looked after. In voting against these lanes, some councillors have said (to paraphrase the Globe) they had to die so new ones could be born. If you’re comfortable believing that, the 10 years of unfullfilled promise hasn’t made you a cynic, so bless you. But perhaps it’s time for a big show of numbers. Organization and strategy and suburban outreach can follow. Just as with Pride being the most politicized in nearly 20 years a few weeks ago due to the combination of an atrocious cover story in one of the alt weeklies and Mayor Rob Ford’s refusal to participate in any Pride activities, this moment is exactly when all cyclists need to stand up on their pedals and ride.
Bodies matter. Get out on the street.
26 comments
I wonder if there would not be more traction pointing out that having bike lanes is about supporting entrepreneurs.
Not everyone can afford a car, and the insurance/gas/etc. payments that go with it. But bikes are cheap. Give somone a bike, and they can get across town, run errands and above all work, and lift themselves up out of poverty. This is even more true with the graduated license system for cars.
If Toronto is going to be a city of dreams and opportunities, then it has to give those who dream an opportunity to get around town, without fearing for their lives or being bogged down in pedestrian traffic. We shouldn’t abandon opportunities for those who actually work to sustain priveleges for the wealthy.
(On the other hand, I panic when on city streets and a bike, can’t drive, so walk everywhere… so I support bike lanes if for no other reason that more of them means fewer of you lot on my sidewalks.)
R.
Its become beyond ironic that Spacing magazine is based in Toronto.
Nah, it’s boring in other cities. Bike lanes make you soft.
I kinda agree more with Lornic’s argument that Jarvis is ‘not the hill to die on’ but I’m coming to this ride anyway
And I agree with Lorinc — but this is also an ecumenical galvanizing moment for cycling in Toronto. Not to be wasted.
But…it’s going to be hot.
Ironic that the only bike in the photo is on the sidewalk…
Is ironic there are no cars on the road either? Just a picture.
Absolutely going to support this!
I can’t help but laugh at the fact there is a cyclist on the far side of the street riding on the sidewalk. Right next to a bike lane. With no parking lane to it’s right (i.e. no door-prize). I have been face-palming myself far too often the last two weeks!
I see bikes on the sidewalk there a lot (live around the corner) usually it’s punters going a block, not commuters. I face palm a lot too.
People are still freaked out by the traffic speeds thru there, I’ve heard of pedestrians that were afraid to walk on the sidewalk until the bike lanes went in as a buffer zone.
Can’t wait to see how many cars start stopping and parking illegally when the bike lanes are gone again. Going to be a real shitshow.
Somewhat related: coming down Jarvis today, some numbnuts on one of those fruity ebikes passes me on a red light, talking to me too, and proceeds to continue at 10km/h in front of me. Dude, I’m in full kit YEAH I’m gonna have to pass your ass in car traffic. Frickin tool.
“keep dry humping the same soundbites”: is the perfect definition of all neo-con working of ‘wedge issues’. Excellent ‘bon mot’.
Richard, you make any number of unwarranted assumptions. Let’s start with your starting principle that anyone can bike. What about people with disabilities, or people who can’t learn to bike, or people who don’t feel safe even with the best bike laneways possible?
There’s also the question of whether biking is the best way of commuting for everyone. If I live in Etobicoke and work in Scarborough, how would it make any sense for me to commute by bike? What about environmental factors, like the sweltering heat we’re going through right now or winter or rain or high winds?
“If Toronto is going to be a city of dreams and opportunities, then it has to give those who dream an opportunity to get around town, without fearing for their lives or being bogged down in pedestrian traffic.”
Car drivers don’t work? And cyclists automatically fear for their lives?
Um.
“(On the other hand, I panic when on city streets and a bike, can’t drive, so walk everywhere… so I support bike lanes if for no other reason that more of them means fewer of you lot on my sidewalks.)”
A question for you. If bikes are given such importance by transit planners, shouldn’t they also be regulated?
I like biking, and I like the idea of expanding the role of bikes in Toronto. I think that arguments like the one you’ve just made will do little to persuade people skeptical of biking to change their minds.
Good luck to you but I will not join you for this one. I didn’t agree with bike lanes being added at the last minute despite the EA public process recommending otherwise. I do not think Jarvis is the fight cycling advocates should get behind.
baray> I mentioned as much I think — but this ride really isn’t about Jarvis anymore — or at least it shouldn’t be.
Hi, just wondering if the Facebook event was taken down? When I click the link it says page not found. I would like to know where to meet etc. Thanks!
The link still works for me Jan, but i also say where/when it happens in the first line of the piece^
Jan — it should be working again
It is sad when the argument turns to discussing the regulating of bikes…yes they are a mode of transportation that is used on our streets, and yes you can break Highway Traffic rules while on one but really regulation. This is the thing that you yearned for by the time you were entering kindergarten and rode around the neighborhood to see friends, pickup groceries from the variety store for your parents….etc. They are not a complex machine made of a tonne of steel moving down the road at 50+ km an hour. Have collisions with them resulted in deaths? yeah I guess it happens. More times then not a cyclist is in no better position than a pedestrian. So please for the love of god take it easy on the “regulation” issue….the odd cyclist not coming to a complete stop at an intersection is not posing anymore risk than a pedestrian who crosses the road. Both are aware of the risks and both will lose the battle with the car if it came to that…Bike haters just remove yourself from the conversation you don’t bring anything to the table.
My wife and I will be there after work.
The thing that gets me on the whole bike lane thing is that anti-bike people see bike lanes as some kind of ‘reward’ for cyclists. You never have to go far in any comment thread about this issue to see people going “blarrgh, I just today saw a cyclist blow through a stop sign, buncha idiots, why should my tax dollars fund lanes for them, arrglbargl” (of course, ignoring the fact that motorists routinely speed, do rolling-stops, floor it on the yellow, etc. etc.)
Bike lanes are as much for cars as for cyclists. They help keep us out of each other’s hair. Activism should focus on that issue. They are not a ‘reward’ or gift to cyclists. Hell, a true gift to cyclists would be to ban cars from the downtown core entirely. But this is tied up more with tribalism and thinking that cyclists are smug, fair-trade-coffee drinking downtown liberals vs. suburban conservatives with long car commutes and big houses in the 905 that just want to drive to work unimpeded. Unfortunately that kind of tribalism is incredibly difficult to dislodge.
Good luck with the protest. I don’t live in TO currently but I was born and raised there. When I was bike commuting in the early 90s, there were no bike lanes anywhere.
I’d love for today’s ride to be marshalled into the Jarvis bike lanes – one batch going south, one north, and looping around at the north and south ends.
It could potentially send a positive, unifying message: Bicycle infrastructure gives us all a safe and effective space on the roads. It would also surprise people and maybe sidestep the tired stereotypical ‘wharblgarbl’ of Critical Mass. (strange how traffic jams from sports and arts events are normal, but people on bicycles riding the streets “for fun” is a mortal insult).
Unfortunately I can understand why the organizers are sticking with the usual “take the entire street”. Fitting 1000+ people into bicycle lanes would take time and marshalling, not to mention well-known dangers from right-turn conflicts and crosswalk interference (especially turning around at endpoints).
Still, a guy can dream…
Man that photo is depressing. Wood telephone poles, concrete curbs, cheap asphalt buffers instead of tree pits and pavers, ugly galvanized traffic lights, near-useless non-separated bike lanes … an image like the below would be so much easier to go to war for:
http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/gudkov_Prospect-Park-West-Bike-Lane-1.jpg
But I recognize that the Fordians are so fundamentally backwards in their thinking that all those nice things (including a properly beautified Jarvis) will never happen if they don’t get a sharp rebuke as to how the world really works in 2011. You just don’t rip out bike lanes in favour of car lanes anymore — it’s simply not done.
Good luck with the ride, and don’t let the media spin it into some annoying lefty-pinko event. It must come across as representative of all intelligent citizenry who aren’t asking for the world, just that Toronto be more like the peer cities that have long surpassed it in terms of how to optimize streets for complete use by cars, bikes and pedestrians.
I don’t get this. They are protesting a separated bike lane one block over?
It is called give and take. Giving up the Jarvis bike lanes for separated bike lanes on Sherbourne and other downtown roads is a damn good if you ask me. At the very least, let’s wait till those lanes are at capacity before removing lanes from other routes.
There’s a reason that I don’t bike in Toronto, I walk instead. Biking in a “bike lane” marked by some white paint with fast moving traffic inches away from you is dangerous. I am not brave enough to bike in the Jarvis “bike lanes”. Plus the bike lanes end south of Queen and north of Bloor. Build bike lanes properly, with separated lanes like they have in the Netherlands, and make sure they don’t end abruptly, or don’t bother building “bike lanes” at all.
I don’t get your confusion, Ben. You’re talking about this as if it was a negotiation, or a compromise. It wasn’t. There is no financial, structural, or political reason why the Jarvis lanes would have to come down to allow construction of bike lanes on other streets. It was just a unilateral decision to dismantle existing infrastructure.
It’s not a compromise if someone steals your stereo and then offers to buy you a transistor radio.
@Ben Smith: Couldn’t agree with you more…
@Paul: Actually, you have it backwards. Someone is stealing your transistor radio and offering to buy you a stereo on Sherbourne.