One Final Push For Bloor

This month has brought lots of good news for Toronto’s cycling community! First, Toronto city council approved the Bloor bike lane extension from Runnymede Road to Six Points with only one councillor opposed. This past Monday saw Torontonians elect bike-riding Olivia Chow in the mayoral by-election! And yesterday, Mississauga City Council finally approved the Bloor Street Integrated Project using Alternative #6 consisting of two traffic lanes, one centre turning lane, and protected bike lanes! Let’s find out what this means for the soon-to-become intercity bikeway.

Runnymede to Six Points

The upcoming stretch from Runnymede to Six Points was largely made possible by Community Bikeways’ “We Belong On Bloor” campaign. They got over 100 signatures for their community letter – including 65 businesses within the extension area – while a related petition got over 1900 signatures. They will be celebrating the occasion with an event on Sunday, July 9 (12:00 PM) at Tom Riley Park. Construction of the 3.7 kilometre Runnymede to Aberfoyle Crescent stretch will start later this summer, while the remaining one kilometre to Resurrection Road will follow next year to connect with the existing Six Points cycle tracks.

Victory in Mississauga

On June 7, 2023, Mississauga’s General Committee held their initial debate about the Bloor Street Integrated Project. That debate – and yesterday’s City Council meeting – saw the Applewood Hills & Heights Residents Association (AHHRA) led by Athina Tagidou oppose the project in a way which was disrespectful to Mississauga’s city council and staff. That General Committee meeting saw a remarkable change in attitude in Mississauga with the debate shifting from whether to install bike lanes on Bloor to how to build them well despite opposition from AHHRA. Councillors Chris Fonseca and John Kovac – whose wards cover Bloor Street – were divided in which Fonseca supported the staff recommended Alternative #6 and Kovac preferred the previous Alternative #5 with four traffic lanes. This split opinion prompted the deferral to yesterday’s meeting in order to try to achieve a consensus.

Despite this consensus not being achieved, the final vote was 6-4 which included Mayor Bonnie Crombie voting in favour. Here is a screenshot of the voting record thanks to Natalie who regularly tweets about cycling in Mississauga.

Motion to move forward with alternative 6 for the #BloorBikeLanes just passed by @citymississauga Council! Did I hear correctly? If so, woohoo!#bikeMississauga pic.twitter.com/dO677aTBLJ

— n (@nataliehhhh) June 28, 2023

With this approval, construction of the Bloor Street Integrated Project from Central Parkway to Bridgewood Drive – 300 metres short of Etobicoke Creek – is expected to take place in 2024-25. The final 300 metres would require co-ordination with the City of Toronto which leads to the following question …

What about Six Points to Mississauga?

Assuming construction in Toronto and Mississauga stays on track, a four kilometre stretch would remain from Beamish Drive to Etobicoke Creek by 2025. Now that we know the three lane configuration (Alternative #6) will be pursued in Mississauga, this should make design and consultation on the Toronto side considerably easier given the 2009 proposal was similar except for the lack of protection (which didn’t exist for Toronto’s on-street bike lanes at the time). However, there are some things to take into consideration for the final push.

Bloor Street from Etobicoke Creek to Highway 427 is not only expected to be resurfaced over the next few years, but the ward councillor is Stephen Holyday; the last reliable opponent to safe cycling remaining on City Council. I was also informed to expect opposition from residents in Markland Wood which is west of the 427. The Highway 427 to Six Points stretch is split between Holyday and Councillor Amber Morley who championed the recent extension.

One final obstacle is Highway 427 which falls under Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation. The Province has historically been resistant to making their highway crossings safer for people who bike, though one advantage Bloor has over nearby Dundas Street and Burnamthorpe Road – Mississauga’s primary east-west cycling corridor – is the lack of a highway interchange which means less high speed crossover traffic.

Finish The Job!

Despite the lone bike-hostile councillor, negative reception from certain residents, and a resistant provincial government – especially under Premier Doug Ford – the writing is on the wall that filling the four kilometre gap is inevitable. It’s irresponsible to leave the gap dangerous for vulnerable road users and any move to fill it by City Council – especially under incoming Mayor Olivia Chow – would almost certainly pass based on past council votes. Even so, we must keep the pressure on City Council to not just finish the job on Bloor, but also extend the Danforth bike lanes into Scarborough and along Kingston Road.