Cycling advocates gear up to fight the use of bike lanes by people with mobility issues
Using the lanes as loading areas would spell the end of protected bike routes, groups say.

Thestar.com
By BEN SPURR
Dec. 12, 2016

A coalition of cycling, pedestrian, and accessibility advocates is gearing up to fight a proposal that they claim could mean the death of safe bike infrastructure in the city.

The proposal, which will be debated at this week’s city council meeting, would make it legal for drivers with accessible parking permits to temporarily stop in physically separated bike lanes if they’re loading or unloading someone with mobility challenges.

Ahead of a press conference at city hall on Monday, a coalition that includes Walk Toronto, Cycle Toronto, and Stop Gap, issued a release that declared that if council approved the bylaw change it would spell “the end of protected bike lanes in Toronto.”

Burns Wattie, a member of the coalition, warned that the proposal would create “an extremely dangerous situation” for road users of all types. Wattie, a cyclist who often drives his wheelchair-using son in an accessible vehicle, said that allowing drivers to stop in protected bike lanes would force cyclists into traffic, and encourage wheelchair users into a space frequented by riders.

“You’d think as the operator of a wheelchair van that I should be delighted with this proposition, but I am not,” he said.

“I don’t know how it made it to council, but now that it is there, I would implore them to reject it for the safety of cyclists, for the safety of wheelchair users.”

The coalition argues that instead of changing the bylaw, the city should focus on designing streets to ensure that all road users have their own safe, separated space. They suggested providing unloading and loading zones for people with accessibility issues on side streets or at the rear of buildings.

The controversial recommendation to allow stopping in separated bike lanes stems from a review of the cycle tracks on Sherbourne and Wellesley streets. The report that went to the public works committee last month noted that although Wheel-Trans vehicles are allowed to load or unload passengers in separated bike lanes, private vehicles carrying people with accessibility issues are not.

“This is an impediment to those with accessible permits who require barrier-free mobility from a private vehicle,” the report said.

There are more than 120,000 active accessible parking permits in Toronto, according to the provincial ministry of government and consumer services. The fine for stopping improperly in a separated bike lane is $150.

Vehicles are already allowed to stop in painted bike lanes if they’re “actively engaged” in loading or unloading a person with mobility issues, but that rule doesn’t apply to physically separated bike lanes.

In an email, Jacquelyn Hawyard Gulati, the city’s acting director of transportation infrastructure management, stressed that the proposal, which she said was “consistent with practice in other jurisdictions,” would allow temporary stopping, not parking, in separated bike lanes. She rejected the idea it would create unsafe situations.

“The current condition where those with disabilities can no longer access their destinations at some locations because of the creation of cycling facilities has created a conflict. The proposed change aims to address this conflict,” she wrote.

In a statement Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre Rosedale) who chairs the disability, access and inclusion advisory committee, said she plans to move a motion at council to refer the proposal back to the public works committee for revision in order to find “the best way forward in achieving safer travel conditions for everyone.”

“Pitting one vulnerable group against another will not provide long-term constructive and successful conclusions,” she said.