Councillors push bike lanes on University Avenue as part of COVID fight

Yorkregion.com
May 22, 2020
Francine Kopun

Two Toronto city councillors are hoping to get a bike lane running down University Avenue established as part of the city’s response to COVID-19, while a third warns now is not the time to be implementing potentially costly and disruptive new projects.

“The need for Toronto to build an expanded, city-wide grid of protected bike lanes is more pressing now than ever before,” according to Coun. Joe Cressy and Coun. Mike Layton, in a letter to Barbara Gray, general manager, transportation services.

The councillors are calling on Gray to include the bike lane as part of the city’s ActiveTO plan to expand outdoor spaces to allow pedestrians and cyclists to move more easily through the city while maintaining a safe distance from others, in an effort to stop the spread of the pandemic.

The councillors want to see a protected bike lane running along University Avenue, Queen’s Park Crescent and Avenue Road, from Davenport Road to Adelaide Street.

The idea has been kicking around for more than 20 years, is long overdue and will establish a vital north-south link in the city’s cycling network, say the councillors.

Cressy points out that it would connect up with some of the city’s busiest bike lanes, on Davenport Road, College Street, Richmond Street, Adelaide Street and Bloor Street.

It’s also located along a subway line, identified as priority areas for ActiveTO, as it’s expected many people will be reluctant to ride the subway as they return to work over the next few weeks. The street is also lined with hospitals, employing thousands of front-line health-care workers.

“Not only has it been decades in discussion and is directly connected to a network of bike infrastructure, but in the era of COVID recovery it is directly adjacent to the key hospital corridor where we have thousands of front-line workers, many of whom will need to be able to get to and from work safely, while physically distancing,” said Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York).

Coun. Stephen Holyday (Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre) said he doesn’t support the idea because it doesn’t allow time for proper public input and the city needs to carefully watch its spending as a result of the costs incurred fighting the pandemic, estimated at $1.5 billion this year.

“Nobody knows what traffic volumes are going to be like in the fall or in a return-to-work period in the city’s inner core,” said Holyday. “It is fairly easy to guess that ridership on the public transit system will be lower and potentially there could be record levels of congestion as people turn to their cars and so, removing physical lanes or making significant infrastructure changes should be approached with more caution that ever.”

Holyday said some interest groups are using the pandemic as an opportunity to push forward with initiatives that may have met with resistance in the past or could be expected to be met with resistance when the pandemic ends.

A report is expected soon from city staff recommending how to implement ActiveTO.

City council is scheduled to meet next week.

Cressy said he is looking to staff for different design options. While both councillors believe it would work well as a permanent fixture, they argue that setting it up now, as quickly as possible, to provide more services to residents during COVID-19, would also allow the project to be properly studied and evaluated.

Layton said an additional advantage is that University Avenue doesn’t have the density of pedestrian foot traffic that, say, Yonge Street does.