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The Sun is reporting that Rob Ford is again up to his anti-cyclist antics, but this time he's against charitable fundraising for the Heart & Stroke Foundation too:
I'm not worried that Rob Ford will convince any of his fellow Council members (who matter) to agree with him. I think he just likes seeing his name in the news, so he makes outlandish statements.
The time has come for Toronto council to seek alternatives to closing two major expressways for an annual charity event, says Councillor Rob Ford. ...
"It really upsets a lot of people," Ford said. "I don't think anybody is against charity. I know I'm not. It does raise a lot of money, but it does inconvenience thousands of people." ...
Ford yesterday questioned why the event couldn't be moved to Exhibition Place.
"I don't see why they have to close down major arteries in the city," he said. Ford said the closures hurt businesses because they discourage people from going downtown.
The Executive Committee of City Council is meeting today, and the Toronto Coalition of Active Transport (TCAT) is trying to get the issue of funding the BikePlan for a 2012 completion back on the table, after the Budget Committee decided that the Bike Plan was important, but not important enough to finish by when Council wants to have it finished by:
TCAT continues to call on City Council to take immediate action to get the Bike Plan implementation back on track by:
- Committing a minimum of $6.2 million to the 2008 Transportation Services cycling infrastructure budget
- Ensuring that the $200,000 Parks, Forestry & Recreation 'bikeway network expansion' funding that was cut in 2007 as a cost containment measure be reinstated to that budget
- Providing a minimum of $4 million in the 2008 Parks, Forestry & Recreation budget for repairing multi-use pathways in Toronto's Parks, to begin addressing the $20 million back-log
- Moving forward the Parks Forestry & Recreation funding for bikeway network paths from the 2013 to 2017 into the current 5 year plan
- Establishing a staff position in Parks, Forestry & Recreation that is dedicated to ensuring the integrity and connectivity of the pathway network
To read TCAT's letter to the Executive Committee click here.
Please take a few minutes this weekend to write to Mayor Miller, members of the Executive Committee, and your local councillor, and tell them you support TCAT's budget recommendations for implementing the Toronto Bike Plan by 2012.
Write to:
- Executive Committee secretary - pmorris@toronto.ca
- Executive Committee Chair, Mayor David Miller - mayor_miller@toronto.ca
Executive Committee Members:
- Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone - councillor_pantalone@toronto.ca
- Shelley Carroll - councillor_carroll@toronto.ca
- Glenn De Baeremaeker - councillor_debaeremaeker@toronto.ca
- Paula Fletcher - councillor_fletcher@toronto.ca
- Norm Kelly - councillor_kelly@toronto.ca
- Gloria Lindsay Luby - councillor_lindsay_luby@toronto.ca
- Giorgio Mammoliti - councillor_mammoliti@toronto.ca
- Pam McConnell - councillor_mcconnell@toronto.ca
- Joe Mihevc - councillor_mihevc@toronto.ca
- Howard Moscoe - councillor_moscoe@toronto.ca
- Kyle Rae - councillor_rae@toronto.ca
Please also copy TCAT (info@torontocat.ca) on any letters or e-mails you write.
More on the TCAT site, as well as on BikeToronto.ca
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
Eye columnist and Spacing contributer Dale Duncan has a nice piece in Eye this week about bikelanes. Specifically, the frustration that comes with seeing some city politicians talk about being "green" but then not supporting funding for the Bike Plan. Adding bikelanes to Toronto's streets is relatively cheap and easy to do, yet for all the plans, the money is still missing:
It’s strange to hear our city councillors claim that they’re going to make Toronto a green leader in one breath, and then treat cycling as an issue that doesn’t really have to be taken seriously in the next. When, on Nov. 14, Councillor Gord Perks moved to add $17.9 million to the cycling infrastructure budget over the next five years so that it would be possible for the city to meet its own goals, the budget committee shot him down. It’s as though there is a disconnect between plans that are approved and the money that is then dedicated to implementing them.It should be noted of course, that some politicians are trying to get funding put through - Gord Perks, Glen De Baeremaeker and Joe Mihevc have been particularly noteworthy in trying to talk their colleagues into putting money where their mouths are.
Agreed, Toronto continues to face troubling times financially, but somehow the city has found the money to pay for other, much more expensive projects. Take the Dufferin Street extension, priced at $32 million, or take a $35.6 million loan the budget committee recently agreed to provide for the construction of a new conference centre at the CNE. This isn’t to say that these projects aren’t necessarily worthwhile, but to prove that when council really wants something, it can often find the funds for it.
Know of another councillor who should be recognized positively?
[photo credit]
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
The Star already has reader-submitted opinions up stemming from the article this morning:
Toronto likes to boast that it is a world-class city, but it is absolutely parochial when it comes to its cycling policy. You can go to Tokyo and see full-service parking lots holding thousands of bicycles that are used as primary sources of transportation within the city. You can go to Europe and see thousands of kilometers of bicycle paths that are used as primary transportation routes by millions of bicycles. It's about time that Toronto learns that bicycles are not simply used for recreation, but are a primary all-season sustainable means of transportation that needs to be treated with more respect that it currently is.Check it out - they'll probably update the page as more readers submit. Even better - add your own opinion about if community councils should be able to veto bikelane installation.
[Joe Cooper, East York]
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
The Star has a "Speak Out" feature up about this morning's article about City Council working around local community councils who may oppose bikelane installation.
Go and have your say about "Should community councils be allowed to veto new bike paths authorized by the city?" - they post most comments on their website and a select few in the paper version.
UPDATE: The Star has reader feedback on the website now.
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
The Star has a short article this morning on City Council's plan to eliminate community councils from the Bikelane approval process - meaning that every January, City Council can decide which lanes will go in that year without having anti-cycling councillors holding up the process in their wards:
There are 50 km that have been identified as having "low opposition" on Council, so there are plans to okay them in January for installation in 2008. This should help catch up on the Bike Plan.Toronto should be able to add 50 kilometres of bike lanes to city streets in 2008 if a bureaucratic speed bump is flattened out, says the chair of the bicycle committee.
City council voted 38-3 yesterday to work toward streamlining the process that bounced approval of new bike lanes back and forth between community councils and the works committee.
A city staff report to come in January will recommend cutting community councils out of the process, said Councillor Adrian Heaps, who chairs the cycling committee. Councillors who oppose bike lanes have often managed to stall approval at that level, he said.
Heaps argues that since new transit routes and road construction don't need blessing from community councils, bike lanes shouldn't need it either.
More at the Star.
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
The Star is reporting today on the Bike Plan falling behind schedule:
More at the Star, and news about BikePlan funding was in the BikingToronto post from earlier todayThough it's been cited as a key part of the Toronto's transit strategy, the city keeps falling further and further behind on its bike plan.
At the outset, there were to be 1,000 kilometres of bikeways – a mix of lanes, signed routes and park paths – in place by 2011. Six years later, less than a third are built and the deadline's been pushed back to 2012.
"It's sort of like New Year's resolutions," said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who bikes to city hall from Scarborough. "It's one thing to write them down, it's another to implement them.
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
Tammy Thorne of Spacing just posted about the Budget Committee backing down from increasing the Bike Plan Budget to get it done by 2012.
While the original amount budgeted for 2008 was $3 million, the $5.5 million approved (while a substantial increase of 83%) falls short of the $7.7 million that some people say is needed to get the plan back on track to a 2012 finish.
The city’s chronic shortage of money has killed a move to add almost $18 million to complete an ambitious bike plan by 2012.
City council’s budget committee voted only to support the project in principle, with a report to come later on whether it’s affordable without cancelling other important projects.
The city’s 2008 capital budget allocates $5.5 million next year for bike lanes, but that should be raised to $7.7 million, said Franz Hartmann, executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance.
Councillor Gord Perks’ bid to add $17.9 million to the bike plan between 2009 and 2012 ran into opposition on the budget committee.
“I don’t want to increase the budget by $17 million right now,” said Councillor Shelley Carroll, the budget committee chair.
The Spacing Post also has some good advice for Toronto cyclists who want to get proper funding back on the table, maybe via the Council Executive Committee (email link to Exec. Committee Secretariat):
• contact your local councillor and ask them to support funding for completion of the entire Bike PlanMore at Spacing Toronto
• contact the Executive Committee if you want them to up the funding for bikes.
[photo credit]
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
Over at Eye Weekly, Dale Duncan has summarized some of the deputations from the public and organizations at Tuesday's Budget Committee Hearings (these are summaries, not verbatim):
Smog from cars kills around 440 people a year according to Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. The most effective way to get people to keep their cars at home is to give them alternatives. So how about moving forward with our Bike Plan? Since the plan's approval in 2001, only 20 per cent of the funds needed to complete it have been spent.
(Franz Hartmann, Toronto Environment Alliance)
The CAA doesn’t speak for me. I’d rather drive my SUV — yes I own an SUV — on a bumpy road with a bike lane than a smooth road without one. We need more than just bike lanes, we need promotional programs, ads that say “walk more, pollute less” on the TTC. Health care costs are rising, but we don’t have to go to the gym, we just have to walk. I’m here to urge you to spend more.
(Dr. Judy Adler)
More at Eye Weekly.
Martin Koob has posted a great synopsis of yesterday's Budget Committee hearings - and it sounds like some City Councillors are listening to and interested in the needs of Toronto's cycling community.
Here are some excerpts from Martin, but check out his full post for much more info:
...In the morning several people showed up to make deputations to the Budget Committee in support of putting the funding in place to ensure that the Toronto Bike Plan can be completed by 2012. The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) submitted their deputation which included an analysis of the Capital Budgets of the Parks Forestry and Recreation Division and the Transportation Services Division. It found that the 2008 - 2012 five year capital plan as proposed would not achieve the goal of completing the Bike Plan by 2012. You can read their deputation on the TCAT website: 2008 Capital budget submission.
...
During the day Councillor Gord Perks Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park, a member of the Budget Committee, worked to ensure that the funds to complete the capital projects in the Bike Plan were in the 2008 - 2012 time frame... [including] a request that all the funding for bike plan related Parks Forestry and Recreation trail projects be moved forward from the 2013 - 2017 5 year plan into the 2008 - 2012 time frame. This ... has to be introduced formally as a motion at the budget committee tomorrow, November 14th.
...
Councillor Adrian Heaps Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest, the chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC) approached me at one point during the afternoon as I sat in the gallery and said "We're making progress". I think we actually are. It doesn't mean though that the cycling community can relent in keeping on the pressure to see action on the Bike Plan, but rather feel re-energized to keep pressing on.
More at BikeToronto.
Labels: infrastructure, news, politics
On Tuesday, November 13th, there will be public hearings about the City of Toronto's budget for next year.
How does this impact cyclists? It's all about the money for expanding the bikeplan to its full 1000+ km by 2012.
Thanks to BikeToronto for analyzing the numbers for Toronto cyclists:
Since the budget was just released on the 29th it has taken a bit of time to find out exactly how cycling related budget lines have fared in this proposed budget. The two budgets that have the most impact on the Bike Plan projects are those of the Transportation Services Division and the Parks Forestry and Recreation Division.
The presentation by staff at the budget launch showed that the Transportation Services Cycling infrastructure budget would be $3.0 million in 2008, no increase over 2007. However the analyst notes indicate that this budget will get an increase to 5.5 million in 2008 ($4.55 million to be spent in 2008 and $950,000 to be spent in 2009).
However, this annual rate of funding is still short of the funds that would be needed to complete the bike plan by 2012. The proposed 5 year capital plan 2008 - 2012 shows $30.1 million being spent on cycling infrastructure. That budget pays not only for bike lanes and off-road paths in hydro and rail corridors but also it contains the funds for the other items that are paid for out of the Cycling infrastructure budget such as Bike Parking projects, bridges and crossings, project management or any of the amenities that go with trail projects.
More than half of the funds needed to complete the Bikeway Network and the other parts of the Bike Plan are in the Capital plan for the years beyond 2012. The remaining $38.104 million needed to complete the bike plan are in the 2013 - 2017 Capital plan.
To complete the Bikeway Network by 2012 the budget committee needs to move those funds into the 2008 - 2012 capital plan.
If you believe in the possibilities of a full bikelane network encouraging more Torontonians to bike in our city, consider speaking to the Budget Committee next Tuesday during the public hearing session.
This is the only opportunity to voice your support for political funding of projects that improve the cycling environment in Toronto.
To find the public presentation and analyst briefing notes visit the City’s web site by clicking here.
To sign up to make a deputation on November 13th, contact the committee secretary at mmacdona@toronto.ca or 416-392-7340.
There's a new committee in town, and it's called the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee. The new "TCAC" replaces the old Cycling Committee in the interests of becoming more efficient and effective, and it's role is to advise City Council on all things bike-related in our fair city.
The changes from the old to new committee is nicely summed up by BikeToronto:
The committee will consist of 8 members at large and there will no longer be representatives of the local cycling groups nor a representative of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee on the new Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee. There had been attempts by cycling community members to have amendments made to maintain the representatives of these groups and have a more frequent meeting schedule (See previous article). These were ultimately unsuccessful. At the June 19th, 20th, 2007 City Council meeting, the revised terms of reference were passed without the amendments proposed by those in the cycling community.If I remember correctly, there was much "concern" in the cycling community about the proposed changes - as advocates thought the city was not interested in hearing what they had to say. The stated objectives of the changes were to make the committee more efficient and effective (I've heard anecdotal evidence about the old committee being disjointed and unproductive), and all we as citizens can do is hope that these objectives are achieved.
City Council recently (Sept. 26th) approved the list of the 8 citizens who will make up the Cycling Advisory Committee:
1. Paulette Blais;
2. Dr. Chris Cavacuiti;
3. Sonia Khan;
4. Chris Hardwicke;
5. Margaret Hasting-James;
6. Aaron Hershoff;
7. Fred Sztabinski; and
8. Tammy Thorne.
Their terms are set to expire on Nov. 30th, 2010.
See the Council Document (PDF file)
The Cycling Advisory Committee information is on page 47 of the document.
The Globe and Mail has an intriguing article today about a bunch of cycling and pedestrian initiatives due to come up before the City Council Works Committee next week:
A pedestrian-only street, a city-spanning bike lane from Etobicoke to Scarborough and automated cameras to bust illegal left-turners - all those and more innovative schemes are about to hit the city council agenda as transportation planners experiment with low-cost ways to ease Toronto's congested traffic.Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, I encourage you to contact the Public Secretariat and all the members of the Works Committee and let them know you want them to make Toronto more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly."What we're trying to do, it requires a public mind shift," Mr. McPhail said yesterday in an interview. "The public out there has to realize that the way they've been travelling historically ... just cannot continue."
Works committee chairman Glenn De Baeremaeker, an avid cyclist and key ally of Mayor David Miller, said the report would win council's support.
"To me it's a revolutionary document that's going to be the transportation bible for the next decade," Mr. De Baeremaeker said.
Councillors on the Works Committee
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Chair
Shelley Carroll
Adam Giambrone
Mark Grimes
Chin Lee
John Parker
Use this handy email link to email all of them at once :)
[image by Gabi]
Attention All Pedestrians, Cyclists, Bladers and Transit Users: South Kingsway on TPC Agenda
[This is courtesy of TCAT, and I mentioned this back in July too. ]
Responding to a letter from the Toronto Urban Renewal Network (TURN), the Toronto Pedestrian Committee (TPC) will be considering a motion to re-open the South Kingsway/Queensway Environmental Assessment (EA) on Wednesday, September 12th at 3:00pm. At issue is the opportunity for the City to use almost $1 million to make progressive pedestrian, cycling and transit access improvements that meet the City's Official Plan, Pedestrian Charter and Bike Plan or simply re-construct the 1950s style interchange virtually "as is".
Bill Saundercook, the local Councillor who declared the EA dead in July, will chair the TPC meeting. The TPC is comprised of citizen appointees and two councillors (see www.toronto.ca/tpc/#members). The meeting is open to the public so TURN requests that you attend in person and/or phone TPC members in advance requesting that they support the motion. This could well be the last chance to bring this fast and dangerous car-oriented area into the 21st century by making it much more people-friendly. For further information, contact Marty Collier at marty.collier
Thanks,
Marty Collier
Member, Toronto Urban Renewal Network (TURN)
**********************************
Toronto Pedestrian Committee Meeting
Wednesday, September 12 at 3pm
City Hall, Committee Room 3
Full TPC Agenda for Sept. 12th ( South Kingsway is Item #2)
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2007/agendas/committees/tp/tp070912/agenda.pdf
Background on South Kingsway pedestrian improvements
http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/south_kingsway-queensway/index.htm
(Cross-posted to I Bike T.O.)
Mike Smith of NOW Magazine, who moderated the NOW Bike Forum a few weeks ago, weighs in with his thoughts from the evening and how cycling will become the priority it needs to be - cyclists making themselves heard:
It almost seemed [City Councillor Adam Giambrone] was dropping a hint: get noisey now. The experience of a participant named Paul who was involved in the successful push for a Dundas East bike lane made the point.While prior proposals faced stiff opposition, "the difference was community organizing," he said. "There are a lot of people out there with rusty bikes in the basement. If you create a bit of a movement, there's more support." He also pointed out that while Business Improvement Areas have staff to help them organize, cyclists don't.
Egan agreed. "Dundas East was really interesting. The traffic implications were greater than most projects," he said. "If the community is behind it, it makes it easier. Whether staff should lead that, that's a good question."
Darren Stehr, no friend of Giambrone's, actually agreed:
"We've had too many projects stall," Stehr said. "We go to the public and there's opposition. Even a mild outcry and the councillor gets cold feet and pulls back." He confided to the audience that many projects have gone under simply because cyclists haven't organized, while over-cautious merchants and motorists have.So, we have to get organized and we have to get vocal.
That may mean bringing an organ to bike events to play those anthemic songs they play at hockey and baseball games - like We Will Rock You, or that "Charge!" one... the options are endless...
Now, who has an organ? :)
From the BikingToronto Inbox today:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-03-22/news_story5.php
Then there's Bussin's opposition to lanes on Leslie. "Sandra has the other half of that," Fletcher says, referring to the fact that Leslie divides their wards, "and she doesn't support it."
Bussin says Leslie is too complicated, and the lights at Loblaws only make it worse. "The original plan is the wise one: having a lane on Knox. It provides that north route and it's only a block and a half east of Leslie."
Bussin calls Fletcher's Eastern bike lane "industrious," but she's skeptical. "To use [bike lanes on] Eastern as a tool to stop traffic is not a good idea. It's going to create confusion, and trucks will go on Queen."
Bussin suspects that Fletcher's bik
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