While Cycle Toronto’s charter challenge against Bill 212 is less than three weeks away and their injunction request was denied earlier this month, Toronto’s cycling community continues to put pressure on the Ford government to scrap their bike lane removal plans for Bloor, Yonge, and University. To follow up on last week’s direct action by Fridays for Future Toronto, a Critical Mass ride was held last night. Not even the rain could stop more than two hundred people from attending.
Yesterday, over 1000 people gathered at Queen’s Park for the second “Fight for Bikes” protest two weeks after their highly successful début. It marked the third protest in a week against Bill 212 including Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance and Thursday’s delivery of two ghost bikes. Unlike other events which had feeder rides meet at a central location, this rally split into three rides along University, Bloor, and Yonge Streets.
Happy Halloween, everybody! With Halloween and this Sunday’s daylight savings time change being among the most dangerous times of the year for vulnerable road users, Doug Ford’s war on bikes has taken an even scarier turn. When Bill 212 was originally announced on Monday, October 21, Schedule 4 only stated it would require municipalities to get provincial approval to build bike lanes which remove traffic lanes, as well as conduct reviews of existing bike lanes. Today, the Ford government confirmed Bill 212 would be amended to require the removal of bike lanes along parts of Bloor Street, University Avenue, and Yonge Street while the Environmental Registry has been updated accordingly. It’s beyond disgusting how the Ford government would throw almost fifty years of calls for bike lanes on Bloor out the window and it’s worth providing an update on where things stand.
Last June, I wrote about the need to connect various trails in southern Ontario. Since then, I have identified a fair number of developments which warrant a follow up. These include the Orangeville Brampton Railway trail conversion, the Simcoe County Trails Strategy, and the Humber Trail in Vaughan. Let’s go through these developments to see how they will address these trail gaps.
Since 2008, Cycle Toronto has become Toronto’s main active transportation advocacy group. You may have seen them speaking at a recent press conference about Yonge Street, handing out lights during the October “Get Lit” campaign, hosting “Bike Valet” parking at special events, or organizing group rides such as the “Coldest Day of the Year” Ride happening on Saturday, February 10. I spoke with Alison Stewart – their Director of Advocacy and Public Policy – on Sunday, December 17 to learn more about what the group accomplished over the past year and her perspective on cycling in this city.
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| Alison at a 2025-27 Bike Plan consultation in November 2023 |
With my Two Wheeled Politics blog marking ten years next month, a reflection is warranted. Many of us Toronto road safety advocates like to claim our city is not doing enough for cycling – which underscores the need for us to vote in the June 26 mayoral by-election – but we have come a long way over the past decade. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to understand what has changed.
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| Front view of 2012 Toronto Cycling Map |
The City of Toronto held their initial consultation for eglintonTOday in June 2022 in order to pursue a quick build complete street on Eglinton Avenue along the underground stretch of the Crosstown LRT. A second consultation was held last night at Marshall McLuhan School near Avenue and Eglinton which saw dozens of people take part. Let’s look at what has happened since last June, as well as some of the points participants raised.
While Wednesday saw great news for Yonge4All and other road safety advocates in Toronto with the Midtown Yonge Complete Street Pilot being made permanent by a 22 to 4 vote, there is another disappointment which dampened the celebratory mood and deserves a rant. Despite the overwhelming positive staff report, an unanimous vote at IEC, and over 8500 signatures for the Yonge4All petition, Mayor John Tory threw all of that under the bus by supporting Councillor Jon Burnside’s motion to extend the pilot. A move which proves he is a coward when it comes to road safety, as well as contradicts his own earlier push to shorten the staff recommended extension from July 2023 to January 2023.
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| Mayor John Tory showing a printout of the so-called "landlocked streets" (via YouTube) |
On April 6, 2022, Toronto City Council voted to extend the Midtown Yonge Complete Street Pilot until January 2023. Nine months and a municipal election later which saw nine new councillors elected, the pilot has been confirmed for debate at the January 30, 2023 Infrastructure & Environment Committee meeting (and at City Council on February 7, 2023). A petition from Yonge4All got almost 7,000 signatures at the time of writing in support of making the pilot permanent, while a counter-petition calling for the pilot’s removal has over 5,000 signatures.
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| Even by foot, the Midtown Yonge pilot is safer for Mozzie to walk! 😊 |
On Sunday, July 3, about 70 cyclists joined Mayor John Bauters of Emeryville, California for a ride around Toronto including on Yonge Street. After the ride and some ice cream, I had the chance to interview Mayor Bauters to learn more about Emeryville and his thoughts on cycling in Toronto and other cities.
Back on February 9, Mayor John Bauters of Emeryville, California put up a poll asking where bike advocates wanted him to go for a ride this summer. He then replied to @SusieH33 saying he would do Toronto if 100 people separately replied with “Toronto”. In true #BikeTO fashion, we flooded his Twitter account with replies calling on him to visit this city. On Sunday, July 3, Mr. Bauters made good on his promise to ride with local advocates, as well as helped out the Toronto Bike Brigade on Saturday.
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| Eglinton Connects rendering (Via SvN) |
Yesterday, Sabrina (Brie) Young posted in the Cycling in Toronto Facebook group a flyer she received calling on residents to e-mail the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, Mayor Tory, and City Council to remove the ActiveTO complete street pilot on Yonge Street. To add insult to injury, the “Be Green. Be Rational.” tagline was used along with easily debunked arguments such as bike counts during the winter months, greenhouse gas emissions while idling, and the ability for first responders to get through. Sure, the line about the Yonge bike lanes being narrow may have some merit, but it should be noted Bloor Street from Spadina to Lansdowne Avenues is similarly narrow at less than 13 metres wide and the bike lanes worked fine. A petition was started about six months ago calling for the removal of the Yonge bike lanes which got more than 1200 signatures at the time of writing (which I won't share here for obvious reasons).
Given opponents have been organizing ahead of the March 29 IEC meeting which could see the ActiveTO complete street pilot get debated, it’s time for supporters to flip the script by urging the committee and city council to take the true green and rational action of making the Yonge pilot permanent. In addition, supporters need to call for bike lanes on Yonge to be extended north and south as soon as possible to connect with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and future projects in Downtown and North York Centre.
Below is a sample e-mail you can use for your action, though I would encourage you to personalize it to share your story on why a complete street on Yonge is important to you. Cycle Toronto sent this action alert via e-mail this morning about Yonge, along with a link to their Yonge petition which has more than 3000 signatures.
About 30 to 40 people took part in Sunday’s 2nd Annual Cycling Good Cheer ride which started at Hendon Park in North York (a.k.a. the North Pole 😉) and ended at City Hall using Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue. Janet Joy Wilson – a fellow founding member of the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition – put together the ride while Albert Koehl was Santa. Many of us had antlers attached to our helmets while some opted to decorate our bikes. It was great having lots of people honk and wave at us with approval.
For a proper recap, I encourage you to read Jun N’s blog post and watch this video from Heather’s and Pier’s Bromptoning blog. I will instead focus on three cycling mishaps which deserve lumps of coal, as well as some hope as 2022 nears.
Below is a letter I submitted to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, Mayor John Tory, and my councillor (Gord Perks) ahead of next Tuesday's committee meeting which will discuss next steps for ActiveTO. The deadline to submit your own comments on Motion IE20.12 (ActiveTO) to iec@toronto.ca (and copy your councillor and Mayor Tory) is Monday, March 22 at 4:30 PM. You can also check out Cycle Toronto's action alert for their own analysis.
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| ActiveTO on Lake Shore Boulevard West in May 2020 |
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Greetings, Members of the Infratructure and Environment Committee.
Last year was historic for cycling in Toronto with a net 31 kilometres of on-street bike lanes installed that year, as well as the well received major road closures on Lake Shore Boulevard and Bayview Avenue. While I am pleased with the idea of ActiveTO returning this year, I am disappointed that the proposals do not go far enough for several reasons.
After almost eight years of blogging, I am pleased to announce this marks my 200th blog post! With yongeTOmorrow on the agenda for the January 11, 2021 Infrastructure and Environment Committee meeting, what better way to use this milestone post than to revisit where things stand for cycling on Toronto’s iconic north-south arterial?
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| Map of various Yonge Street initiatives (via Hafeez A on Twitter) |
About ten people from Parkdale High Park Bikes took part in an audit ride on Sunday along with Nicholas from Councillor Ana Bailao’s office. The aim was to inspect the recently installed Bloor bike lane extension and other neighbourhood hotspots such as Brock-Florence, Seaforth, Macdonnell, and the Lansdowne-College-Dundas triangle. Fellow blogger Jun wrote his take here.
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| The recently installed Dundas East cycle tracks are part of the 25 km approved under ActiveTO |
