RANT - Toronto's Carservative Resistance

All right, folks! I need to rant.

During the seven years I have been advocating for safer streets for people who bike in Toronto, it seems no other city in North America has done more to resist improving cycling (or reducing space for cars) than right here. This kind of frustration has been felt by many including by those who have been advocating a lot longer than I have. One such advocate – Hamish – even had a term for this kind of culture which is “carservative”. To be fair, the recent push to create health corridors in Toronto is just the latest in a long tradition of carservative resistance.

The Gardiner Expressway has been a source of contention in recent years

Physical Distancing during COVID-19 - Part 2

Happy Easter long weekend! The idea of closing traffic lanes or parking to allow physical distancing during COVID-19 has been really catching on around the world. Since my last update about the car ban at High Park, I have heard of eight Canadian cities that have adopted some form of traffic lane or parking closure on their streets.

Even Brampton got the message on traffic lane closures. Why can't Toronto? (via Lisa Stokes)

• Calgary
• Winnipeg
• London
• Vancouver
• Montréal
• Kitchener
• Brampton
• Edmonton

Gil Meslin created a useful thread about these cities while Dr. Tab Combs created a crowd sourced list of cities around the world which took (or considered) some form of COVID-19 action.

Physical Distancing during COVID-19

Over the past month, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has dominated the headlines along with constant reminders to stay (and work from) home, maintain social physical distancing, wash your hands, and self isolate for 14 days after recent travel. Canadian cities such as Calgary, Winnipeg, and London have been closing traffic lanes to give people who walk or bike the space they need. Toronto has no plans to follow suit at this time over fears the street closures would entice people to congregate. However, there is one exception.

Etobicoke Creek Trail Update

Good afternoon, folks! Hope everyone is coping with COVID-19 to the best of their abilities. Earlier this week, I biked along the Humber River, Eglinton West, and Etobicoke Creek Trails while maintaining physical distancing and found some useful updates.

For something to lift your spirits, one of the trees on the Humber River Trail was decorated with Easter eggs. Something much needed during these unprecedented times.

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

Dawdling Along on Danforth

The last week in January saw two public meetings for the Bloor bike lane extension to Runnymede and one for the Danforth Study. The feeling I got after pulling a double header on Monday, January 27 was the two meetings couldn’t have felt more different though turnout was high at both. The Bloor meeting felt very optimistic with many participants feeling the proposed design was very good, though the intersection at Bloor and Keele needs a rethink. Fellow Toronto bike blogger Jun provided an excellent breakdown of what is proposed for the Bloor extension.

Hundreds of people attended the second Danforth Study meeting

The Danforth Study meeting – the second in the process – was more respectful without the shouting from a few bike lane opponents and the lack of a presentation, though there was still more opposition to bike lanes compared to the Bloor meeting. Instead, a bunch of panels from the three different studies – planning, retail, and complete streets – were put up including the feedback collected from the first meeting held in November. The feedback cited strong support for complete streets and pilot bike lanes, but that’s where the good news stops.

BIKE MINDS 2020 - Using Data to Effect Change

On January 30, 2020, I was honoured to join five other presenters at BIKE MINDS; a bicycle storytelling series co-founded by Matt Pinder and Michelle Kearns. The theme of the event was "Bikes and Growth" and featured the following:

• Julia Huys - A lawyer who shared her experiences cycling from London (Ontario) to St. John's (Newfoundland) with her father
• Kevin Dunal - A corporate executive who shared his story about how he and his wife became carfree
• Ryan Shissler - Cycle Toronto's Communications Lead who shared how the bicycle helped deal with his mental (and financial) health
• David Shellnut - The Biking Lawyer who reflected on his recent assault by a motorist and shared information on what to do in the event of a crash
• Agata Rudd - An environmental entrepreneur who talked about biking 5000 km in southeast asia with her partner

My story about about using data to effect change in Toronto's cycling community. I encourage you to read the recap of all speakers on Dandyhorse and view all videos here (except for Kevin Dunal's due to technical difficulties). This post includes the video of my presentation as well as the transcript.