This morning, the Toronto Star revealed which bike lanes Ontario Premier Doug Ford wanted removed first which were Bloor from Resurrection to Clissold and Yonge from Merton to Millwood. While I was surprised The Kingsway part of Bloor would be left untouched given that’s where the hostilities were coming from, there are not any credible alternatives that can be taken for either of these two stretches. However, there is another problem associated with Bill 212 which urgently requires Toronto’s cycling community to call out Mayor Olivia Chow and City Council on.
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| Rendering of Sheppard Avenue East (via City of Toronto) |
Case in point is Motion MM33.5 from Councillors Carroll and Burnside which calls for the deferral of the Sheppard Avenue East complete street project from Bayview to Leslie. Sadly, this is only the latest evidence of the wheels coming off Toronto’s bike plan. Another motion approved earlier this year postponed the Beltline Gap Connections project (including Marlee), while a bike lane upgrade on Jones was cancelled due to more parking spaces needed to be removed and the contraflow proposal for Logan and Carlaw was effectively gutted. If that wasn’t bad enough, the City of Toronto paused the Dupont Complete Street public consultations while the Danforth portion of the Danforth-Kingston Complete Street Extension was deferred until further notice. Finally, the media confirmed Bill 212 was the reason for delaying road safety improvements on Parkside Drive despite the speed camera being cut down seven times and local residents repeatedly pleading for action!
Given how far behind Toronto has been with installing bike lanes, these delays are unacceptable and the City of Toronto needs to start publicly calling out the Ford government for continuing to refuse to disclose the approval criteria for future bike lanes which remove traffic lanes. If they still refuse to provide this information, the City has the obligation to its residents with their Vision Zero and TransformTO climate goals to defy Queen’s Park and proceed with the bikeway installations until they are forced to come clean with the criteria! After all, safety delayed is safety denied and we don’t need any more ghost bikes because of this!
Here is a brief letter I sent to City Council (councilmeeting@toronto.ca), Mayor Chow (mayor_chow@toronto.ca), and my city councillor which you can adapt to reflect your own experiences.
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Dear Mayor Chow and Members of Toronto City Council:
RE: MM33.5 - Protecting Public Investment and Advancing Interim Solutions Along Sheppard Avenue East
I wish to express my deep disappointment with Councillor Carroll’s and Burnside’s motion to cancel the tender of the Sheppard Avenue East complete street project from Bayview Avenue to Leslie Street and to defer until provincial approval can be granted.
Sadly, this is not the only time Toronto City Council has deferred (or cancelled) bikeway projects recently including the Beltline Gap Connections (including Marlee Avenue), Jones Avenue Upgrades, and proposed contraflows on Logan and Carlaw Avenues. The eglintonTOday project is also at risk with the road being recently resurfaced without bike lanes due to repeated Eglinton Crosstown LRT delays, while proposed bikeways on Dupont, Danforth (east of Victoria Park), and Parkside were put on hold because of Bill 212.
These bikeway delays are unacceptable as they go against Toronto’s own Vision Zero and TransformTO climate action goals. The City of Toronto needs to start publicly calling out the Ford government to release their approval criteria for bike lanes which require removing traffic lanes. If they fail to do so, the City needs to start defying the Ford government and implement the Sheppard complete street as soon as possible along with others across the city given how far behind Toronto is with their bikeway construction targets. Through the hard work done over the years by city staff, we know that bike lanes make streets safer for ALL road users, improve business activity, help achieve climate action, and lead to minimal traffic impacts which get routine tweaks over time.
Please vote NO to this motion and instead stick to the plan of building the Sheppard Avenue East complete street project from Bayview Avenue to Leslie Street!
Thank you,
Robert Zaichkowski
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