Resisting Doug Ford's Agenda

Since Doug Ford became Ontario’s premier in 2018, he has become one of the province’s most controversial political leaders (at least since Mike Harris). Early on, he scrapped Ontario’s cap-and-trade program only to see it replaced with a federal carbon tax, froze the minimum wage at $14/hour, and cut Toronto’s city council in half during the municipal election campaign. While there was a time early in the pandemic when Ford appeared reasonable, he has since returned to his populist antics which prompted several campaigns to oppose his agenda.

#StopThe413

Map of proposed GTA West Highway a.k.a. Highway 413 (via Environmental Defence)

In early 2018, Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals scrapped plans for a GTA West Highway (a.k.a. Highway 413) running from Vaughan to Milton which would have paved hundreds of acres of Greenbelt and prime agricultural land. An expert panel at the time deemed it would not have addressed the GTA’s changing transportation needs. Doug Ford’s “Progressive” Conservatives revived these plans and fast tracked the environmental assessment process in order to get this highway built which would cost at least $6 billion and save drivers only 30 seconds on their commutes. Funds which would have been better spent on public transit and active transportation.

Crossing Toronto's Rubicon - Part 2

Last July, I wrote about the need to look beyond the currently proposed Bloor bike lane extension to which would eventually lead to Toronto’s crossing of the Rubicon (a.k.a. the Humber). Several developments have happened since then which increases the chances of this happening. Instead of High Park, the extension is now planned to go to the existing bike lanes on Runnymede and Bloor West Village. Mississauga’s updated cycling master plan calls for bike lanes on Bloor and Dundas right to the Toronto border. Finally, it’s already happening at Six Points which will see raised cycle tracks on Bloor from Prennan to Resurrection (500 metres) completed by this spring.

The slides from this community meeting can be found here

Fixing the College and Dundas Intersection

On November 26, 2019, Councillor Ana Bailao’s office and City of Toronto staff hosted a public meeting to show local residents plans for improving the safety of the College and Dundas intersection for people who walk or bike. About 20 to 30 people attended what I would call a very engaging discussion with no shortage of ideas brought up. This development is important for my Parkdale neighbourhood, given many people living there use Lansdowne Avenue and Dundas Street West to get to the West Toronto Railpath which is an uncomfortable experience.

The Pedestrianized Folly of yongeTOmorrow

Thursday, May 9 marked the first yongeTOmorrow open house, which aims to reconstruct Yonge Street from College to Queen Streets with a second phase extending north to Davenport Road. With pedestrian volumes making up between 50 and 75% of mode share there and low traffic volumes compared to nearby streets, the focus has been more on improving the pedestrian realm while public consultation documents mused about “installing cycling facilities on Yonge Street or a nearby north-south street”. Ryerson University’s City Building Institute posted an article citing their preference for bike lanes on adjacent streets; claiming bike lanes on Yonge would lead to pedestrian-conflicts and a reduced ability to host special events. While I am normally supportive of Ryerson CBI’s initiatives and acknowledge their support for Transform Yonge in North York, this is one of the few cases where we have to disagree.

Time to Extend the Bloor Bike Lanes!

This month has seen a renewed push for extending the Bloor Street bike lanes from Shaw Street to High Park. Cycle Toronto issued a press release confirming the bike lanes get almost one million riders annually, while the David Suzuki Foundation launched a form letter campaign calling on supporters of the extension to e-mail Mayor John Tory. Next month, there will be a public meeting to rally support with a focus on the history of Bloor, the business case, the view from council, and what supports can do to make the extension a reality and reverse the current turtle pace of Toronto’s bike plan implementation.

Montréal left Bloor, Danforth, and Yonge in the dust with this bike lane turtle derby!

However, some people are wondering how can bike lanes be accommodated on Bloor. With a little help from Google Maps to measure street widths and Streetmix to do the basic layout, I will walk you through on how the bike lanes could fit.

Budget Balancing Blues

This year’s Toronto budget is an opportunity for Mayor John Tory and City Council to set the stage for this fall’s election with $11 billion in operating expenditures and $25.7 billion in capital projects at stake. Unfortunately, the current plan fails to account for various council-approved initiatives such as low income passes and two-hour transfers for the TTC, as well as the TransformTO climate action plan. All this disappointment to satisfy the Mayor’s desire to limit property tax hikes to inflation. Social Planning Toronto has a good write up on some of the other unfunded priorities, though I will elaborate on the budget’s impact on cycling.

Copenhagen Does Toronto

Seeing a world-renowned planner like Copenhagenize's Mikael Colville-Andersen speak at last month’s Winter Cycling Congress is one thing. But twice in one month? That happened when he spoke in Toronto on February 27, 2017 during the Ontario Good Roads Association summit. Following Colville-Andersen’s “Getting Cycling Right” keynote was a panel he participated with Straphanger and Sacré Blues author Taras Grescoe and Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat. After Albert Koehl and Bart Hawkins Kreps wrote their takes, here’s mine covering some points that may have been missed.

Panel discussion with Colville-Andersen, Keesmaat & Grescoe

Beyond Ajax ... Cycling in Whitby and Oshawa

As far as Durham Region goes, Ajax is the Region's cycling leader and Pickering is the laggard. (more on this here) However, the Region has six other municipalities; those being Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Uxbridge, Brock, and Scugog. Thanks to a Strava map provided by Joe Arruda, I checked two more municipalities off my to-do list with a 29-kilometre ride from Whitby to Oshawa GO stations on Sunday, November 13.

Sheltered bicycle racks at Whitby GO station

Would you mind the Woodbine?

While the earliest a pilot project can be secured on Danforth Avenue (a.k.a. The Danny) is in 2018, there is another east end cycling project expected to be installed this fall, which is Woodbine Avenue from O’Connor Drive to Queen Street East. On Wednesday, June 22, I visited the consultation at Stan Wadlow Clubhouse to learn more on what is being done to improve cycling in the east end.

Streetfight in Toronto

Full house at PWIC

If there is one word to describe Monday, April 25, it is Streetfight! It all started with a packed room at the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting, which debated the Bloor Street bike lane pilot project. 30 community members took the opportunity to depute (26 supporters and 4 opponents), including some children and youth. Given the large number of speakers, deputations were cut from five minutes to three. In spite of this demonstration of support, 243 letters sent to PWIC (most in support), and 9,309 Bloor Loves Bikes pledge signatures after removing duplicates; the committee was deadlocked and sent the motion to next week’s city council meeting without recommendations. (link to motion & webcast) Councillor Holyday constantly questioned supporters which indicated his opposition to the pilot project, while Edward Keenan’s Toronto Star article called out Councillor Robinson’s objection over insufficient information. Councillors McMahon and Perruzza supported the pilot, while Moeser and Lee were absent.

Time to give Bloor pilot the green light!

It’s hard to believe work on Cycle Toronto’s Bloor Loves Bikes campaign started a little more than a year ago. A lot has happened since my last update in March (I lied about that being the last before the vote). For starters, the vote at the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) got delayed by two weeks to April 25 due to the inability to get quorum on April 11. With this delay means more time to collect signatures. Thanks in part to another e-blast done by the David Suzuki Foundation, the Bloor Loves Bikes pledge now has almost 11,000 signatures; exceeding Cycle Toronto’s original 10,000 goal! Cycle Toronto recently encouraged members to thank Mayor John Tory for being supportive of the campaign in January when he took my question on CP24’s Ask The Mayor show.

Community Building under the Gardiner

In November 2015, Project: Under Gardiner was launched with a $25 million donation from Judy and Wil Matthews.[1] It is a 1.75 kilometre or 10 acre linear park which goes underneath Toronto's Gardiner Expressway – currently undergoing a $150 million rehabilitation – from Liberty Village (west of Strachan Avenue) to CityPlace at Spadina Avenue, with community hubs planned along the route. The project is expected to start construction in October 2016 and open in July 2017. To learn more about this project from a cycling perspective, I took part in the first Under Gardiner walking tour on Sunday, April 10 hosted by Jake Tobin Garrett of Park People and attended by dozens of local residents. Representatives from Public Work (the engineering firm leading the project) and Waterfront Toronto were also present.

Map of Project: Under Gardiner

Twelve Days of Bicycles - Nine Lives A Saving

If you ask any person how many road fatalities are acceptable, chances are he/she will mention zero. Unfortunately, road fatalities are a common occurrence in which 38 pedestrians (including one on December 30) and four cyclists were killed in the City of Toronto this year alone. A recent report by the Pembina Institute called “Cycle Cities” cited Toronto had the highest cycling crash rate among five major Canadian cities (five per 100,000). In June, three cycling deaths over a two week period prompted Cycle Toronto to hold the city’s first “die-in” where over 100 cyclists lied down with their bikes at Nathan Phillips Square.[1] The following asks were made at the “die-in”:

Twelve Days of Bicycles - Seven Pots A Planting

Being involved with cycling advocacy requires keeping up with the latest urban planning jargon such as mid-rise buildings, cycle tracks, protected intersections, walkable communities, and transit-oriented development. Among these topics, there is another which unites them all and is currently being reviewed by the City of Toronto (and elsewhere) known as Complete Streets.

avenue Thiers in Bordeaux

Twelve Days of Bicycles - Eight Curbs A Calming

Originally developed in the Netherlands, protected intersections – consisting of four traffic islands and forward stop lines to guide cyclists safely – have recently started to gain ground in North American cities as a complement to separated bike lanes. While not yet introduced in Toronto, local cyclists there are already calling for protected intersections and Mobycon hosted an intersection design workshop on October 2, 2015. To get a Toronto perspective on protected intersections, I interviewed George Liu, MES (Pl), a Statistics Research Assistant with the Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank and Masters Candidate in Human Factors Engineering who attended the workshop.

A simple sketch of what a protected intersection looks like

Bike Plan from Cycle Toronto's Advocates Perspectives

On Tuesday, July 21, Cycle Toronto’s ward leaders were invited to City Hall to get updates on the bike plan consultation process, as well as to provide feedback on the draft plan unveiled in late June.

Draft downtown bike plan from survey (red/brown = new priorities)

Tear Down Gardiner East!

To follow up on the quest to revitalize Toronto’s waterfront, one obstacle prevents this process from reaching its full potential; that being the Gardiner Expressway. Over the past couple of years, there have been reports of falling concrete including one as recently as March; indicating the sixty year old expressway is nearing the end of its lifespan.[1] On June 9 – 10, City Council will have to decide between one of two options for the portion of the Gardiner east of Jarvis Street. Either that portion gets removed and replaced with an at-grade boulevard, or it is replaced with a so-called “hybrid” option which changes access ramps compared to the status quo.

2013 Ride for Heart on the Gardiner Expressway

Revitalizing Toronto's Waterfront

To follow up on a previous post about the Porter Plans debate, I will discuss the ongoing waterfront revitalization efforts, which was the subject of a public meeting held at the Toronto Reference Library on Wednesday, April 1. Waterfront Toronto President and CEO John Campbell presented the organization’s half-way report card, followed by a Q&A session.

Taking Advocacy Upstream

OK! So you may have found a good cause to volunteer for and have done that for a while. During your volunteering, have you ever wondered why a problem related to your cause keeps on coming back? Have you been asking yourself what could be done to overcome that obstacle, or who needs to be approached? Are there other like-minded organizations facing the same challenges which yours could collaborate with? If you find yourself asking these questions, sounds like you are ready to take your advocacy efforts upstream, which is something I have been exploring lately.

Spokes and Swapping Skills

On November 8 and 9, over 70 cyclists from all parts of Toronto (except Etobicoke) participated in Cycle Toronto’s second annual Skills Swap at City Hall. The first day consisted of speeches and advocacy workshops, while the second day was a bike plan pre-consultation with city staff.