Mayor John Tory wants pause on study of bike lanes on major streets
Pilot on Bloor St. should be completed before city looks at bike lanes on Yonge St., Danforth Ave., Tory says

TheStar.com
May 30, 2016
Jennifer Pagliaro

Mayor John Tory says the city should wait to study building bike lanes on major roads until after a pilot on Bloor St. is complete.

Ahead of council next week and after kicking-off Bike to Work Day with his own ride to Nathan Phillips Square on a borrowed Bike Share bicycle, Tory said he supports a revised report approved by the public works committee earlier this month.

“I don’t think (the revised report) can be described as a watering down,” Tory said, pointing to a near doubling of infrastructure investment proposed in the staff-recommended 10-year cycling plan that is now before council.

“That is more than any other mayor has spent on his or her watch going all the way back.”

Earlier at a public works committee meeting, chair Councillor Jaye Robinson, a member of Tory’s executive, pushed to remove the staff-recommended study of eight arterial roads, including Yonge St., Danforth Ave. and Jane St. The committee approved that decision, with final approval up to council.

Though the report considers 525 kilometres of new cycling infrastructure and funding of $16 million per year, those eight stretches represent 100 kilometres of the proposed additions.

Robinson has said those streets could still be considered as part of a 2019 review and no studies currently underway would be affected.

Tory agreed a pilot on Bloor St., which he has already backed, should be completed first before any other major roads are studied.

“I just think it’s prudent to learn . . . from the Bloor St. bike lane project before we go spending all kinds of money on similar streets to put in bike lanes,” he said. “We should wait for the answer and I think that’s a prudent thing to do.”

Jared Kolb, executive director of advocacy group Cycle Toronto, said the investment in cycling infrastructure, especially in trails, has improved but that it’s time to fill in the gaps on the grid.

He pointed out that there are currently only about 20 kilometres of protected bike lanes as part of the network — what the city calls “cycle tracks” designed to separate cycling lanes from car traffic — including the pilot on Richmond and Adelaide Sts., as part of that network.

“The gaps are significant and they’re only going to be filled by looking at arterial roads,” he said. Quite frankly, it’s too long to wait. I think we need to be making investment in protected bike lanes on our city streets.”

He said on-street safety is the biggest impediment to encourage more people to take to two wheels.

“We need to make big gestures to unlock cycling as a mode of transportation in the City of Toronto.”