{"id":54942,"date":"2016-05-11T11:52:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T15:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=54942"},"modified":"2016-05-11T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T15:52:24","slug":"top-5-reasons-roll-bike-plan-soon-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/05\/11\/top-5-reasons-roll-bike-plan-soon-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 reasons to roll out the Bike Plan as soon as possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cycleto.ca\/get-toronto-moving-top-5-reasons-roll-out-bike-plan-soon-possible\">A cross-post<\/a> from Cycle Toronto<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since 2014, we&#8217;ve been calling on City Council to build a city-wide <a href=\"http:\/\/minimumgrid.ca\/\">Minimum Grid<\/a> of 100km of protected bike lanes and 100km of bicycle boulevards by 2018.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/app.toronto.ca\/tmmis\/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2016.PW13.11\">Toronto is proposing a new 10-year cycling network plan<\/a> that would add 280km of bike lanes or cycle tracks, 55km of boulevard trails and 190km of quiet streets.\u00a0Major corridors identified include Bloor, Danforth, Yonge downtown, Lakeshore, Jane, Midland, Kingston Rd., among others in the suburbs.\u00a0City staff have provided five options for funding the new bike plan and have\u00a0recommended the $16 million option that would see 85% of the plan built out in 10 years. The City would look to the province and feds to fund the remaining 15%.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re thrilled that the number of proposed kilometres\u00a0exceeds our original ask but the $16 million option doesn&#8217;t build the network soon enough. City staff have also reported on $20 million and $25 million options. The $20 million option would build 100% of the plan in eight to nine years and the $25 million option would build 100% of it in six to seven years.\u00a0We think City Council should boost the budget to $25 million\u00a0and here&#8217;s why&#8230;.<\/p>\n<h3>Top 5 reasons to invest $25 million and build the Bike Plan as soon as possible<\/h3>\n<h3>1. Get the city moving<\/h3>\n<p>Up to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/legdocs\/mmis\/2012\/hl\/bgrd\/backgroundfile-46520.pdf\">55% of all trips<\/a> that Torontonians make are less than 7 km\u00a0in length, which can typically be travelled by bicycle in 30 minutes or less. Toronto will welcome 1 million new residents over the next 25 years and we need more efficient ways to move.\u00a0Rapid roll out of cycling infrastructure will not only make Toronto streets safe for all but is a way to fight congestion and get Toronto\u00a0moving.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Torontonians need safe streets now<\/h3>\n<p>Toronto is a city of cyclists. Over the last year, 1.5 million Torontonians have ridden a bicycle. And they want to ride more often.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sharetheroad.ca\/files\/STR2014Pollingsummary.pdf\">73% of Torontonians<\/a>\u00a0say a lack of cycling infrastructure is holding them back from riding more often. We can see why. The implementation of safe, cycling infrastructure has been slow with minimal investment in on-street cycling routes outside of the core over the last 7 years. What&#8217;s more, a\u00a0cyclist is hit by a car driver every 6 hours of every day of the year. The new bike plan is a critical way to make streets safe for all.<\/p>\n<h3>3. If you build it, they will come<\/h3>\n<p>Toronto built the Richmond Adelaide cycle tracks which closed a major gap in the cycling network downtown. 1 year after implementation, the number of riders on Adelaide tripled. Queen&#8217;s Quay is another significant success story. The summer after the opening of the new bike path along Queen&#8217;s Quay, a 24-hour cyclist count found it moving more than 6,000 people by bicycles. Cycling infrastructure can be rolled out\u00a0rapidly and\u00a0get Toronto moving.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Toronto is a world class city and has fallen behind<\/h3>\n<p>New York, Montreal, Vancouver,\u00a0Paris and London are all making significant investments to build their cycling networks.\u00a0Seville, Spain \u2014 a city of 700,000 people \u2014 grew mode share from 0.5% to 7% of trips in six years and they did this by installing a backbone network of nearly 130 km\u00a0of protected lanes throughout the city and a broad roll out of their bike sharing system.<\/p>\n<h3>5. We can afford it<\/h3>\n<p>Toronto&#8217;s 2016 capital budget is roughly $3 billion. That&#8217;s 3,000 million dollars. 25 million dollars is a fraction of this amount. Toronto is spending roughly $745 million on the Scarborough Subway, $526 million on the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension and $505 million on reconstructing the Gardiner. Cycling infrastructure is an inexpensive way to get Toronto moving now.<\/p>\n<p>The roll out of our on-street cycling network has moved at a glacial pace for years. \u00a0With a small investment we can make a big impact\u00a0and get Toronto moving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cross-post from Cycle Toronto Since 2014, we&#8217;ve been calling on City Council to build a city-wide Minimum Grid of 100km of protected bike lanes and 100km of bicycle boulevards by 2018.\u00a0Toronto is proposing a new 10-year cycling network plan that would add 280km of bike lanes or cycle tracks, 55km of boulevard trails and<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/05\/11\/top-5-reasons-roll-bike-plan-soon-possible\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Top 5 reasons to roll out the Bike Plan as soon as possible&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8306,"featured_media":54944,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikes","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - 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