{"id":10507,"date":"2010-04-15T12:07:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=10507"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:16:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:16:18","slug":"bike-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/15\/bike-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike fees: Misinformed, misguided and a step backwards for Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

From today\u2019s Toronto Star<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Giorgio Mammoliti boldly announced Wednesday that if elected mayor, he would introduce a $20-$30 registration fee for bikes. \u201cIt\u2019s an agenda that seems to be taking over so far in this election. It\u2019s all about the downtown core and the downtown agenda, and the suburbs don\u2019t want to continue to subsidize these pet projects,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With all due respect, he\u2019s got all his facts wrong.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cyclists live and ride all across the city, and there are major infrastructure projects happening in the suburbs right now to help ensure that cyclists have a safe place to ride in every part of Toronto.\u00a0 In fact, the city (along with federal and provincial funding) is spending $23 million in North York and Scarborough to build bikeway trails \u2013 far more than is being spent downtown.\u00a0 (The downtown bikeway projects will cost an estimated $330,000 this year.)<\/p>\n

So his math is completely backwards.\u00a0 Not only that,\u00a0 but according to the city\u2019s own Cycling Survey (2009), utilitarian cycling is growing faster in the suburbs than in the core. (download PDF report highlights<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Mammoliti\u2019s proposed bicycle fee would only bring in about $35 million a year (minus the enormous cost of administering a whole new system of licensing).\u00a0 City staff reports have repeatedly stated that costs outweigh any potential benefits when it comes to licensing or registering bicycles.<\/p>\n

From a 2006 staff report:<\/p>\n

“There are an estimated two million bicycles owned by residents of the City of Toronto.\u00a0 The feasibility of implementing an on-line licensing system for bicycles to generate revenue must be evaluated on the following points: the cost to implement such a programme, public education, practicality for enforcement of the programme, jurisdictional challenges, and, the effectiveness of such a programme for generating on-going revenue.<\/p>\n

In order to recover the administrative costs of the programme and to ensure that sufficient revenue is generated on an on-going basis, the cost of the licence would need to be set at a value that may be considered exorbitant.<\/p>\n

Other municipalities have looked into the costs of implementing and administering a mandatory bicycle licensing requirement. In 1991, the former City of Ottawa evaluated the financial feasibility of licensing bicycles to generate revenue to fund on-going cycling projects.\u00a0 Its investigation determined that it was unlikely to cover the administrative costs of running the programme, let alone to generate sufficient revenue, and the idea was abandoned.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So forget about that idea.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the real flaw in his thinking is the idea that cyclists aren\u2019t already paying their fair share of the costs of road-building and maintenance.\u00a0 The exact opposite is true.\u00a0 According to the Cycling Survey, most cyclists also drive cars (full report, page 64<\/a>).\u00a0 So most of them already pay the Vehicle Registration Fee.\u00a0 81% of recreational cyclists \u201chave access to a car always or several times a week\u201d.\u00a0 For non adult cyclists, the number drops to 67%.\u00a0\u00a0 So the entire notion of cyclist VS driver is baseless and misleading.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the vast majority of cyclists on Toronto roads are city residents and pay city property taxes. But many drivers are from the 905 and don\u2019t contribute to our municapal tax base (nor do they pay the vehicle registration fee).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the most important fact.\u00a0 54% of Toronto adults are cyclists.\u00a0 They many not ride every day, and they may own and drive cars.\u00a0 But they own bikes. And asking each and every one of them to register and pay an annual fee for each bike will just result in thousands of bikes gathering dust, a small amount of\u00a0 revenue, and a huge step backwards for Toronto.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Key Findings from the 2009 City of Toronto Cycling Survey (PDF)<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/cycling\/reports\/pdf\/2010-survey-backgrounder.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Full Survey Results and Comparison between 1999 and 2009 (PDF)<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/cycling\/reports\/pdf\/cycling_study_1999_and_2009.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Cross-posted from Mez-Dispenser<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From today\u2019s Toronto Star: Giorgio Mammoliti boldly announced Wednesday that if elected mayor, he would introduce a $20-$30 registration fee for bikes. \u201cIt\u2019s an agenda that seems to be taking over so far in this election. It\u2019s all about the downtown core and the downtown agenda, and the suburbs don\u2019t want to continue to subsidizeContinue reading “Bike fees: Misinformed, misguided and a step backwards for Toronto”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,20],"tags":[94,22089,14805,3944,426,14804,346,416,12,89,75,19,341,391,496],"class_list":["post-10507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-politics","category-urban-design","tag-2010-election","tag-bikes","tag-cyclist-vs-driver","tag-giorgio-mammoliti","tag-mayor","tag-on-line-licensing-system","tag-ottawa","tag-pdf","tag-planning","tag-scarborough","tag-suburbs","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star","tag-usd","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBike fees: Misinformed, misguided and a step backwards for Toronto - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/15\/bike-fees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bike fees: Misinformed, misguided and a step backwards for Toronto - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From today\u2019s Toronto Star: Giorgio Mammoliti boldly announced Wednesday that if elected mayor, he would introduce a $20-$30 registration fee for bikes. \u201cIt\u2019s an agenda that seems to be taking over so far in this election. 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