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Road to ‘total bikeability’ not clearly marked

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The NOW magazine bike panel was certainly an enjoyable precursor to their current bike issue. (The issue includes panelist Tanya Quinn’s open letter to motorists — a must read.)

The panelists all had very smart and — this might come as a shock to many members of the general population — positive things to say about cycling in our city. I won’t write about everything everyone said, as this BlogTO post sums up the evening quite nicely.

For me, it was panelist Darren Stehr, of ARC, who most thoroughly surveyed the state of biking affairs in Toronto. A full version what he had to say is posted on the bikelanediary. In part:

The City has become, by far, the best at selling us plans and promises that it never has any intention of bringing to fruition or that hold simply no promise at all. We have a Bike Plan which only serves the politicians. When cyclists ask for something new we are told “no” because it is not in the Bike Plan, we then ask for something that is in the Bike Plan and are told no because it is not possible. We have faced a litany of excuses why the aspirations of cyclists cannot be met, even those in the Bike Plan. As an example politicians will blame cyclists for not begin vocal enough yet when they are vocal they label us extremists.

Please note: the link included in “extremists” is my addition and was not part of the original text or bikelanediary post. Also note that Mr. Stehr has never actually spoken to the author of the linked article.

This brings to mind something Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18 Davenport) said before he left, shortly after the introductions.

He said that we would soon “get up to” the 25 to 26 km of bike lanes per year that would get us back on track for the Bike Plan. This number didn’t sound quite right so I thought I would take a look at where we are actually at with the Bike Plan. (I also enquired with the councillor’s office for clarification.)

So, if we have 69 km right now and the bike plan calls for 460 km of on-street bike lanes — out of the 1,000 km-plus proposed for the total bikeway network — by 2011 the City will need to install 97.75 km of on-street lanes per year to meet its own goals.

The City’s more recent Climate Change Plan proposed that the bikeway network be completed by 2012— a year past the original proposed completion.

TCAT’s proposal for 285 km to be constructed during this term of council (by November 2010) is perhaps more realistic, but that still means over 71 km per year over the next 4 years.

It doesn’t look promising. At a measly 25 km per year we would still be well behind many other cities.

Now, I realize that bike lanes are not the be-all and end-all of biking infrastructure. (And, there will be more to come on the advantages and disadvanatages of bike lanes during Bike Week.)

Even Councillor Giambrone said: The Bike Plan is just the “first stage” of what needs to be, or can be, done for biking in Toronto.

I have to wonder how we will ever get past this first stage, when we can’t even agree on what actual goals are.

I’ll leave the last word on bike lanes to Darren Stehr:

While bicycle lanes are important to the road to total bikeability we should already be past that subject and on to building the complete picture. We should be working on the next steps. Year round bicycle centric maintenance of cycling routes, cycling as a tourist activity, and shower facilities at workplaces just to name a few.

…..

Update: I received comment back from Adam Giambrone today. Here it is:

25km is the amount for this year (perhaps closer to 30km). We would need close to 40km a year for 10 years to achieve the 450-500km of bikelanes the bikepath contemplates.  It was a 10 year plan, but it is now more likely a 15 year plan based on a lack of poltical support in THE PAST.  See Glenn De Baeremaeker’s comments today int he Star about moving the Bike plan forward.  25km is not enough, but in the context of the last 5 years it is a much better result.
Photo by Martin Reis on Flickr

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5 comments

  1. I was at this forum and, while I felt that it was, on the whole, pretty good, I have one lament. The one issue in this city that does the most to make me depressed about the state of cycling is the total lack of enforcement of the bike lanes. This is the one area of the street that’s really reserved for cyclists, where cyclists can ride in safety, and motorists just ignore it, stopping and parking in the bike lane with impunity. The police do nothing, even when I complain directly to them.

    This issue was mentioned a few times during the night, but I felt that it wasn’t given the kind of emphasis that is needed. Unfortunately, Adam Giambrone left early, but I really would have liked to see some people (perhaps myself included) really lay into him for this sad state of affairs. The current complaint-based enforcement scheme does not work at all, and it’s time for the municipal politicians to take responsibility.

    Putting bike lanes in and then ignoring them does nothing to help cyclists. It forces cyclists to weave in and out of the flow of motor traffic, placing them in danger. This city needs a serious, practical plan to enforce the bike lanes. I’ve contacted various councilors and the police and suggested many possibilities, but all I get in response is empty rhetoric and no action. The complete lack of interest in this issue is mind-boggling and leaves me with a sour taste of this city as a whole.

  2. We hope that Adam Giambrone will do as much for the TTC this year as he did bicycling last year.

  3. There’s an even more basic problem than not doing the Bike Plan in a timely way – the Bike Plan isn’t good enough, especially in the west end core. It doesn’t have the direct length on routes that matter to cyclist and I know I’m biased, but simply repainting Bloor St. for bike lanes beside the huge transport capacity of the subway would be a quick major fix to many of our ills, though it doesn’t solve the problems in the southern end of the west/central core.
    Another flaw of the Bike Plan is not linking it to getting to schools.
    The Bike Plan is amended all the time – why can’t we just do Bloor St. this year?
    The glaciers and ice caps are melting faster than we are moving to address emissions in the critical transportation sector.

  4. I appreciate any bike lanes being added, imperfect as they are. It encourages more cyclists and that helps in improving safety for all.
    But please, why do cyclists have to risk their health and limbs to maintain the status quo? We know full well by now what the outcome will be.
    Seems like Adam is content to play a callous game of politics with the goodwill and more , of those providing a real solution to so many things that are wrong with our city.

    Let’s scrap the bike plan. It’s dead, they never took it serious to begin with and start over with a real urgency to create permanent solutions that benefit everyone.

    We can do this ourselves.