Imagine if all wars were waged like the “war on cars,” the ostensible assault on automotive freedom about which conservative councillors spent all Monday, May 25, honking their horns when bike lanes were approved as part of the Jarvis Street beautification.
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Before any incursion, the aggressor would commit billions in subsidies for all repairs to enemy infrastructure during the fighting. And the invasion itself would largely consist of soldiers running around in bike helmets shouting, “Thank you for not killing me.”
Despite the next day’s headlines, bike lanes are just one part of a plan to rescue the former promenade from its inner-?city highway status through sidewalk widening and streetscape improvements.
But David Miller’s opponents, thrashing about for election issues, tried to cast bike lanes as the latest and most devastating salvo in the oft-?referenced war on cars.
The debate, dominating that day’s agenda, was a study in scattershot filibustering. But when Karen Stintz held up the Bike Plan as a venerated document, arguing that Jarvis lanes weren’t in it, and Doug Holyday waxed worried about installing lanes that don’t connect to a network, even the most exhausted bike-helmet-?clad cyclists in the gallery must have taken surreal satisfaction in hearing their own arguments.
Continuing on their recent populist tip, Miller opponents also accused Councillor Kyle Rae of pedalling through democracy’s stop sign when the lanes were added partway through an environmental assessment last January.
They were added because citizens said bike lanes were a no-?brainer. This was a high point for public input, and right-?wingers tried to bury its significance only because it happened on Miller’s watch.
But some subtlety may have gone unnoticed in the arguments: right-?winger Denzil Minnan-?Wong correctly reminded downtown folks that those in the suburbs are worried about automobility for a very real reason: “If you live downtown,” he said, “it’s easy [to take transit or bike]. It’s not easy from my ward.”
That’s to say the least. But when I asked Yvonne Bambrick of the Toronto Cyclists’ Union to respond, she had some advice to offer. “The city is doing what it can to give people in the further reaches of the GTA more options, and it is taking a while. But that’s partially because of discussions that get drawn out like this one.” In other words, Councillor, you’re not wrong. Just help us to help you.
Wide, tree-lined boulevard with room to burn.
Five-lane highway makes for rush hour mess.
Actually Cardiff. We’re just pedalling possibilities.
