{"id":1772,"date":"2007-04-13T15:44:21","date_gmt":"2007-04-13T19:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1772"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:49:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:49:12","slug":"road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/","title":{"rendered":"Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=1743\">NOW magazine bike panel<\/a> was certainly an enjoyable precursor to their current <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowtoronto.com\/issues\/2007-04-12\/guide_listings.php\">bike issue<\/a>. (The issue includes panelist Tanya Quinn&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowtoronto.com\/issues\/2007-04-12\/news_story12.php\">open letter to motorists<\/a> &#8212; a must read.)<\/p>\n<p>The panelists all had very smart and &#8212; this might come as a shock to many members of the general population &#8212; <em>positive<\/em> things to say about cycling in our city. I won&#8217;t write about everything everyone said, as this <a href=\"http:\/\/blogto.com\/city\/2007\/04\/are_we_losing_the_fight_for_a_bikable_city\/\">BlogTO post<\/a> sums up the evening quite nicely.<\/p>\n<p>For me, it was panelist Darren Stehr, of <a href=\"http:\/\/respect.to\/wiki\/\">ARC<\/a>, who most thoroughly surveyed the state of biking affairs in Toronto. A full version what he had to say is <a href=\"http:\/\/bikelanediary.blogspot.com\/2007\/04\/toronto-bikeable-city.html\">posted on the bikelanediary<\/a>. In part:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowtoronto.com\/issues\/2005-06-02\/news_story5.php\">extremists<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Please note: the link included in &#8220;extremists&#8221; 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.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This brings to mind something Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18 Davenport) said before he left, shortly after the introductions.<\/p>\n<p>He said that we would soon &#8220;get up to&#8221; the 25 to 26 km of bike lanes per year that would get us back on track for the Bike Plan. This number didn&#8217;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&#8217;s office for clarification.)<\/p>\n<p>So, if we have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/legdocs\/2005\/agendas\/committees\/wks\/wks050629\/it023.pdf\">69 km right now<\/a> and the bike plan calls for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/cycling\/bikeplan\/pdf\/chapter05.pdf\">460 km of on-street bike lanes <\/a>&#8212; out of the 1,000 km-plus proposed for the total bikeway network &#8212; by 2011 the City will need to install 97.75 km of on-street lanes per year to meet its own goals.<\/p>\n<p>The City&#8217;s more recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/changeisintheair\/change.htm\">Climate Change Plan<\/a> proposed that the bikeway network be completed by 2012&#8212; a year past the original proposed completion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/torontocat.ca\/Build\/CA081338-882A-44A8-9BAD-EC1953E3BB1A.html\">TCAT&#8217;s proposal<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t look promising. At a measly 25 km per year we would still be well behind many <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowtoronto.com\/issues\/2007-04-12\/news_story9.php\">other cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I realize that bike lanes are not the be-all and end-all of biking infrastructure<em>. <\/em>(And, there will be more to come on the advantages and disadvanatages of bike lanes during Bike Week.)<\/p>\n<p>Even Councillor Giambrone said: The Bike Plan is just the &#8220;first stage&#8221; of what needs to be, or can be, done for biking in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>I have to wonder how we will ever get past this first stage, when we can&#8217;t even agree on what actual goals are.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll leave the last word on bike lanes to Darren Stehr:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>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.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update<\/strong>: I received comment back from Adam Giambrone today. Here it is:<\/p>\n<p><em>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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 See Glenn De Baeremaeker&#8217;s comments today int he Star about moving the Bike plan forward.\u00a0 25km is not enough, but in the context of the last 5 years it is a much better result.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/martinreis\/\">Martin Reis on Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NOW magazine bike panel was certainly an enjoyable precursor to their current bike issue. (The issue includes panelist Tanya Quinn&#8217;s open letter to motorists &#8212; a must read.) The panelists all had very smart and &#8212; this might come as a shock to many members of the general population &#8212; positive things to say<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4021,"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":[7,13,2,9,8,20,6],"tags":[629,379,3190,408,738,607,23,5345,905,1196,12,5266,5347,5346,19],"class_list":["post-1772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-green-space","category-politics","category-traffic","category-transit","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-adam-giambrone","tag-author","tag-bikeway-network","tag-councillor","tag-darren-stehr","tag-davenport","tag-environment","tag-even-councillor","tag-glenn-de-baeremaeker","tag-martin-reis","tag-planning","tag-tanya-quinn","tag-tcat","tag-the-now-magazine","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Road to &#039;total bikeability&#039; not clearly marked - 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\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Road to &#039;total bikeability&#039; not clearly marked - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NOW magazine bike panel was certainly an enjoyable precursor to their current bike issue. (The issue includes panelist Tanya Quinn&#8217;s open letter to motorists &#8212; a must read.) The panelists all had very smart and &#8212; this might come as a shock to many members of the general population &#8212; positive things to sayContinue reading &quot;Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-04-13T19:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T19:49:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tammy Thorne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tammy Thorne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\",\"name\":\"Road to 'total bikeability' not clearly marked - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-04-13T19:44:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T19:49:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b9c43e1c5cec910066c03921f25ab5d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b9c43e1c5cec910066c03921f25ab5d\",\"name\":\"Tammy Thorne\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb4dd1ed07af695d17ee8b21cc8dc122?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb4dd1ed07af695d17ee8b21cc8dc122?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tammy Thorne\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/tammy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Road to 'total bikeability' not clearly marked - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Road to 'total bikeability' not clearly marked - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"The NOW magazine bike panel was certainly an enjoyable precursor to their current bike issue. (The issue includes panelist Tanya Quinn&#8217;s open letter to motorists &#8212; a must read.) The panelists all had very smart and &#8212; this might come as a shock to many members of the general population &#8212; positive things to sayContinue reading \"Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2007-04-13T19:44:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T19:49:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Tammy Thorne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tammy Thorne","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/","name":"Road to 'total bikeability' not clearly marked - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg","datePublished":"2007-04-13T19:44:21+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T19:49:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b9c43e1c5cec910066c03921f25ab5d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/142\/320079207_f78252dec4.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/04\/13\/road-to-total-bikeability-not-clearly-marked\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Road to &#8216;total bikeability&#8217; not clearly marked"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0b9c43e1c5cec910066c03921f25ab5d","name":"Tammy Thorne","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb4dd1ed07af695d17ee8b21cc8dc122?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb4dd1ed07af695d17ee8b21cc8dc122?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Tammy Thorne"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/spacing.ca"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/tammy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38981,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions\/38981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}