Caught in the headlights A voice for those who don't have gas

Bike Lanes get show and tell

So February started off with a bang for cyclists.  Well when one thinks of cycling you don’t think of February for an awe inspiring time.  But it was.  On February 1^st the city released what it hopes Toronto will look like in 2010-2011.

The meeting was held at Metro Hall, you know the ugly one down on John Street where no one knows where it is.  The meeting was well attended with interested cyclists wanting to know what was what.  Of course I arrived late thinking that it was just another one of those wander around and look at the pictures on the wall. Well it was, but it seemed that there was a lot of talking and asking of questions first.

What I heard was questions on Bloor Street, the fact that there is going to be a study done about bike lanes on Bloor Street that will not be finished until 2011.  That would mean that any kind of painting on Bloor will not happen until probably 2015.  There was an interesting question about how many people took canbike and when was the city going to force everyone to take a course.

The highlight of the night was when Hamish Wilson took the city to task of why there will be no bike lane through the Yorkville area and it would only be sharrows.  My first thought was because Holt Renfrew bought the block with their $20 million dollar donation and there was no way in heck they were going to allow dirty post and rings let alone a bike lane to go through their block.

After the talking was done, I wondered around and marvelled at the maps with their crayola coloured lines.  To me it looked like there was going to be a bike lane on every street.  The highlights was connecting the Harbord Street bike lane from Spadina to Bathurst as well as the gap that exists on the College Street bike lane west of Manning Street.

Was all of this for real, could this be happening?  Well it could be because a lot of its easy and there are huge holes in the plan.  At first what I thought were markings designating Queen and others to have bike lanes were actually sharrows.  The proposed bike lane on University ends at Adelaide, just a few hundred feet of linking up with a bike lane on York, the extension of the College Street bike lane were also Sharrows.

It is to early to say exactly what is going on with the whole plan.  I only had a cursory look at things and the whole plan should be on the city’s website tomorrow.  I still think there is room on College for a bike lane, but according to city cycling officials the TTC will never allow it to happen.

What Councillor Joe Mihevc said at the end of the question period is true, that if we want this stuff we are going to have to fight and fight hard.  This is going to be a tough political year for everyone, especially with people like Rocco Rossi running for Mayor.

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