Over the next five years, toronto will spend nearly $2 billion on automobile infrastructure and just over 3 per cent of that – $70 million – on cycling.
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And if we were being completely fair, most of the latter would be counted as the former, since it’s mostly for consultations, mostly concerned with placating motorists.
It took me three sentences to say all that, while it takes just one breath to say “War on cars,” the newest right-wing shibboleth.
Now cycling activists wonder if that breath hasn’t blown away a Bloor-Danforth bike lane.
Last Wednesday (June 3), the Works Committee aired up the sagging Bike Plan: 24 kilometres of new on-street bike routes for 2009, up from the average of 5 km a year since the 80s. “I’m delighted,” said member Councillor Gord Perks, “that the new normal around here is to bring big chunks [of the network] to us at a time.”
But an anticipated staff report on the feasibility of a Bloor-Danforth bike lane was a no-show at the same meeting. Instead, a decision was made to have a consultant study how to build it without affecting cars.
And with no deadline.
“We want an objective opinion from a recognized expert in alternative transportation,” says cycling committee chair Adrian Heaps.
Some insiders suspect the “war on cars” rhetoric has also heated up enough to make Mayor David Miller wary of another bike lane in his name soon after the Jarvis pile-up. And certainly, whatever the consultant says – either way – council will be able to say it was the consultant who said it.
But it may be that cycling staff, feeling a lack of strong political support, want to ensure they have every possible chart and figure to take its place.
They could never, after all, out-shrill Doug Holyday.
“This is the most embarrassing, colossal misuse of resources that’s come up at this council in many, many years,” said the Etobicoke Centre rep of the approved new lanes. Yes, he actually suggested that the Bike Plan ranks with the MFP leasing scandal and the Sheppard subway.
But, perhaps in spite of himself, Holyday was offering some useful advice. When he asked about the number of cyclists using Toronto roads, no one could supply it. “Take a smaller area of the city, connect the bike lanes and make them go somewhere,” he said. “If we see that it does work, it gets people out of their cars, then I’ll be the first one to say, ‘Fine, let’s spread it out.'”
Though it may just be the stopped-clock effect, I do believe Douglas Holyday just made sense.
Talking with Dan Egan, manager of cycling infrastructure, I get the feeling cycling is the poor relation of the transportation department. “We don’t have great numbers for bikes and pedestrians. Frankly, they get counted last, and the numbers aren’t that reliable.”
He says they’re developing a tracking scheme. But, he warns, “There are places that could benefit from a lane even if they don’t have [many] riders. There’s a chicken-and-egg thing.”
TTC chair Adam Giambrone spoke of bike lanes as a way to cut transit costs. (“If you get just 1 per cent of people out of cars and TTC onto bikes, this city saves millions of dollars.”) When we chat later on, he mentions the reason for running near-empty buses like those on Dupont: “It provides that skeletal network that allows you to [remain] a transit rider” – because there will always be that one time you need it.
The same would seem to apply to bikes. Giambrone goes on to talk about TTC growth. “You need to invest in corridors where you already have demand. That’s where Transit City draws from.”
Why not apply the same principle to bikes? Surveys of cyclists have shown, and common sense confirms, that the most useful biking routes are main arteries. Yet most of the new routes, while appreciated, are a winding mishmash of lanes with “shared roadway” routes grafted on.
There are many east-west possibilities, contrary to the Bells On Bloor argument. For instance, College already has a partial lane and surface transit. Take away the parking, give the streetcars dedicated lanes and turn College into a showcase non-motorized corridor.
Egan says staff are now easing up on suburban lanes to “beef up” the downtown network. “The more we build, the more pressure there will be to connect it up,” he says. “But the biggest problem is people complaining about the network being disconnected while saying we have to make sure we don’t lose parking. Sooner or later, we just have to say we’re losing 30 parking spots – that’s the price.”
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