Tomorrow, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is meeting and discussing the approval of the installation of 3 bikelanes for phase 1 of the 2008 bikelane installation plan, the first to be put in under the new streamlined plan (PDF). Under this plan, bikelanes are approved in "batches" without going to community councils (which could often hold things up for months or years) as this cycling infrastructure benefits the whole city, from both traffic and environmental standpoints.
Wellesley Street(from Queens Park Circle to Parliament, 2 km), Vaughan Road (Winona to St. Clair, 1.6 km) and Shaw Street (Barton to Dupont, 0.6 km) are all scheduled to get bikelanes this year, as explained in this BikeToronto post, by the ever-informative Martin Koob:
The report, 2008 Bikeway Network Program - Phase 1 Installation of Bicycle Lanes, contains proposals for 3 bicycle lanes that total 4.2 km to be built in 4 city wards. The report indicates that the 4 Councillors from these wards, Adam Vaughan Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina, Joe Mihevc Ward 21 St. Paul's, Kyle Rae Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale and Pam McConnell Ward 28 Toronto Centre-Rosedale are in support of these projects so there should be no hurdles left in getting these new bike lanes approved. ...
At a meeting with cycling community groups on April 21, 2008 Councillor Heaps repeated his promise that 50 km of bicycle lanes would be built and he outlined his strategy for ensuring that gets done. The first step was getting the approval process in place, the second was getting Councillors on side for projects in their ward. Councillor Heaps has been working behind the scenes for the past months to get a list of projects together that can be approved before City Council recesses for the summer. The 50 km of projects for 2008 has been divided into 3 phases. The next two phases should come to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee at its next two meetings on June 4th and June 27th, 2008.
Great additions to the BikePlan!
[image and much more info on BikeToronto.ca]
Labels: infrastructure, news
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