{"id":15314,"date":"2010-11-04T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=15314"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:13:07","slug":"the-new-council-on-walking-and-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/11\/04\/the-new-council-on-walking-and-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"The new council on walking and cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Before the municipal election, the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation<\/a> conducted a survey of candidate’s positions on walking and cycling issues. Given the uncertainty created by the change in both mayor and many council positions in the recent election, it’s worth having a look at the responses given by the new council to get a sense of what it might support in terms of walking and cycling improvements.<\/p>\n

The new mayor, Rob Ford, did not complete the mayoral survey this election, but he did complete the 2006 councillor survey<\/a> when he was running in the 2006 election. Although the questions and some of the issues have changed since that election, and he does not provide a lot of commentary, the survey is still illuminating. His positions were reasonably consistent with his overall approach — he is somewhat supportive of generic ideas for improvements in process, very supportive of good maintenance (pedestrian clearways, sidewalk and road maintenance), and opposed to most ideas that involve spending new money or hiring new staff. For bike lanes, he says he will do whatever his constituents support.<\/p>\n

In terms of new members of council, the response rate was not all that high — a third of elected councillors responded (candidates do get dozens of survey requests) — but generally fairly positive. Since there is clearly a bias in which the candidates more favourable to active transportation are more likely to reply, possibly the most interesting responses are those from candidates whose position is less predictable.<\/p>\n

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Peter Milczyn, for example, who is being touted as someone who may have an important role under Ford, gives a mostly positive response. Newly elected Ana Bail\u00e3o is something of an unknown quantity in terms of her approach to active transportation, but her replies are both detailed and mostly positive (other than opposing the already-established Lansdowne bike lane, unpopular in some parts of her ward).<\/p>\n

Here are the responses by winning council candidates:<\/p>\n