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Dear Councillor Fletcher,

Regarding Eastern Avenue Bike Lanes:

As a health promoter at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre I work to support community efforts to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians. In this capacity I chaired two recent meetings to discuss the proposed bike lanes for Eastern Avenue. Your assistant Pablo was present for the first one. We had 9 people at the first meeting and 7 at the second. About half are from the immediate area (Eastern and Leslie) the rest are from this or neighbouring wards. Most of these people attended the public meeting you hosted with the planners. I was asked to summarize the two meetings held at the Health Centre.

In general, any support for the Eastern Avenue bike lanes was heavily qualified. There was unanimous support for a study of Leslie Street bike lanes. Safety is the overriding concern.

Eastern Avenue:

The group feels that Eastern would make a good commuter route from the east into downtown - connecting over the Don and into either Adelaide/Richmond or the Esplanade to Union Station (as proposed by West Don Lands groups). Coming from the west it should connect over Leslie Street at least to the proposed Knox Avenue connection.

Without these connections cyclists are unlikely to use the proposed bike lanes. If they do, cyclists should not be dumped at Leslie without any further protection. This is the dangerous intersection where Isaac Morkel was killed recently by a truck making an illegal left-turn. Routing cyclists through Price Chopper parking is dangerous. Without some commitments to the bigger picture connections, support for Eastern bike lanes is divided at best.

Toronto Transportation studies indicate that congestion is growing and that most downtown roads will, by 2011 become “grid-locked” regardless of future uses on Eastern Ave. At present there appears to be road capacity for bike lanes on Leslie. There is some concern that Eastern Avenue bike lanes will push peak hour car commuters onto Leslie making Leslie bike lanes more of a challenge. So measures will need to be put in place to encourage cars to re-route prior to hitting Leslie.

Leslie Street:

Leslie between Eastern and Lakeshore has become a destination. Loblaws, Price Chopper, Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire form a big-box format retail area oriented solely to cars. However over 40% of Toronto households don’t have access to a car and South Riverdale is no exception. Over time, smaller greengrocers on Queen St. have disappeared forcing non-drivers to walk or bike to this new retail destination. In addition, Leslie south of Lakeshore Blvd. is now a major attraction for walkers and cyclists including children who are seeking out the Martin Goodman Recreation trail and the Leslie Spit.

Unfortunately walking or cycling to these destinations is extremely unpleasant and dangerous. At least one person has died attempting to bike to Loblaws and many others have come forward to report injuries and “near misses” while traveling by bike or on foot along Leslie especially south of Eastern ave. Leslie has become a car-dominated “waste land” hostile to cyclists and pedestrians. “Intersections” have been artificially created at driveway entries with inconsistent paving, missing curb cuts and no safe pedestrian route to the existing stores.

On behalf of the group, we look forward to working with you, Deputy Mayor Bussin, staff and the wider community to re-integrate Leslie into the surrounding neighbourhood with bike lanes, wheel-chair accessible entrances and other “off-the-shelf” solutions familiar to urban design and transportation staff.

Other issues:

The group was pleased to learn of the bike lanes proposed for the Dundas E. bridge over the Don River and look forward to their installation.

We thank you for supporting cyclists and pedestrians with transportation infrastructure and look forward to a meeting to discuss next steps.

Yours truly,
Paul Young, health promoter, South Riverdale Community Health Centre
(416) 461-1925 ext. 241

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