There's a storm a-brewin' in cycling circles over Adrian Heaps proposed changes to the structure and meeting frequency of the Toronto Cycling Committee.

A good overview of Heaps and his bikeplan philosophy is in the Globe:

Mr. Heaps began his tenure by quietly disbanding the sprawling committee he inherited from Councillor Adam Giambrone, the last fresh face to be reddened by failure to build new bike lanes. The new committee will be smaller and more effective, Mr. Heaps promised, bringing a new approach to the job - and opening no fewer than 30 kilometres of dedicated bike lanes this year.

There are more details and the viewpoint of Martin Koob of on BikeToronto.ca

Councillor Heaps' recommendation reduces the number of citizens at large from 15 to 8 and eliminates all of the organizational representatives and reduces their involvement to being "consulted in the decision making process". There could be an argument that the total number of citizens at large on the main committee could be reduced if that was coupled with other means of increasing public involvement and maintaining strong liaisons with cycling organizations and the other organizations that have been on the TCC.

Personally, I'm reserving my opinion until I know more about the motivation behind the proposed changes. Heaps seems to have good intentions regarding speeding up implementation of the BikePlan, so this may fit into this well, as what was going on for the past 3 years wasn't working.

(Crossposted to I Bike T.O.)

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