::The Unbearable Frightfulness of Biking::
The Mayor says the City's Biking Culture is changing for the better.
Not everyone would agree.
By Leslie Scrivener The Toronto Star June 11
Toronto mayor David Miller rode his bike to work the other day. He made it to City Hall safely.
(read on in the comments)
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That may not seem like news, especially during the city's annual Bike Week (which ends today) but riding along Bloor St. W. during morning rush hour on the day of the wildcat transit strike, the mayor passed Albany Ave. — where, the next day, Susan Oppenheim, a regular cyclist, was knocked off her 20-year-old Raleigh as she left a matinee at the Bloor Cinema.
The 57-year-old community worker was clipped by a driver. As she tried to right herself, she fell under the vehicle, her left elbow pinned under the van's rear wheel. The driver got out, saw her on the street, got back in the van, and drove forward off her. She had tire marks up her arm.
Oppenheim ended up in hospital with a broken shoulder and a fractured neck. She says that a police officer who came to St. Michael's to investigate the collision told her since she didn't have witnesses, the driver would not be charged.
Oppenheim says she overheard the officer saying, "We really ought to get all those bikes off the streets of Toronto."
That doesn't exactly jibe with the city's stated plan to get more cyclists on the road, which will help calm traffic and make the streets safer for cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians alike.
The mayor "had to be exceptionally vigilant" on his recent morning ride, though he was part of a group commute celebrating Bike Week's theme of ride to work. He was a more regular cyclist when he worked downtown as a lawyer and could ride along the Martin Goodman Trail, which hugs the lakeshore and is a traffic-free route to the south part of the city.
He continues to cycle the trail with his family, including his two children, who are in elementary school. "But they do ride on the streets, and as a parent that makes me nervous."
The notion of cyclists and motorists sharing the road was at the core of the Sunday Star's Cycling Manifesto, drafted by Jennifer Wells in the May 28 issue, which demanded, please, hundreds of kilometres of new bike lanes, an east-west corridor, and a new philosophy in which Toronto embraces cycling "right to its very soul."
Though the mayor supports, and agreed to sign, the Manifesto, and says cycling has been a priority of his administration, progress has been slow.
Miller says that is changing. Money set aside for cycling has increased — to $3 million this year from $2.2 million last year — and things are starting to move forward. A bike path opened last month in the parkland west of Ontario Place, and the new waterfront design competition calls for closing the south lanes of Queen's Quay to traffic. That could happen on a trial basis as early as this summer, the mayor says.
What the city really needs, he acknowledges, is a strong east-west connection. "But I don't have the answer where... perhaps on Bloor or Dundas or Eglinton, because that cuts across every single former city that constitutes Toronto."
It's unlikely that the connector will be built any time soon, given that only one kilometre of bike lanes was built last year and only 12 kilometres planned for 2006. Some of the money budgeted for cycling paths last year wasn't even spent because the proposals got bogged down in community consultation.
"The challenge is, in some places when you propose bike lanes, people don't want them," Miller says. "We need to ensure that people are well educated about the benefits of the cycling network.
"We need cyclists in neighbourhoods to come forward [at public meetings] when pieces of the bike network are proposed in public consultation," Miller says. "They need to say, `This is important. I live in this neighbourhood, I use a bike for transportation, and I need this to get around the city safety.'"
With 5,200 kilometres of roads in Toronto, it's important to have cyclists across Toronto, Miller says, not just in the downtown core. He observes — though not all would agree — that biking culture is changing and more people are looking at their bikes as transportation not just leisure activity.
"That helps us. You get a virtuous circle, and it makes it easier to sell the bike lane to communities."
And, he adds, "You significantly change the political dynamic when you're debating the issue in one neighbourhood."
Toronto cyclists also argue there should be more rigorous enforcement and penalties for drivers who park or drive in bike lanes. Last year there were 1,185 cyclist-motor vehicle collisions; two cyclists — one a University of Toronto professor, the other a 16-year-old girl — were killed when they were crushed by trucks in April.
Meanwhile, Oppenheim has been visiting a physiotherapist and doing her best to track down witnesses who saw the collision, and pondering how to make cycling in the city less dangerous.
"Bike lanes," she sighs, "oh, I'd love to see more of them."
Well, that sucks. Let's not forget north-south routes though. Once you're north of Eglinton, good luck finding any sort of contiguous bike path/route.
Yeah, it's so sad. Our politcians just don't get
cycling. They may mean well but really it's just talk.
It's been like that for years now. There was a time
in the early 90s when things were looking okay but
it's been a back-peddle ever since.
Time to act.
well let's hope one of them get run over with a car then things just might change
Consult cyclists on bike lane plans
Jun. 12, 2006. 01:00 AM
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The unbearable frightfulness of biking
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June 11.
In the above article, Toronto mayor David Miller is quoted as saying: "We need to ensure that people are well educated about the benefits of the cycling network." The mayor neglected to say that city council has frozen the cycling education and promotion budget at a meagre $150,000 a year since 2001. This sum has to pay for staff salaries as well as promotion and it simply is not enough money to support a serious public education campaign.
The mayor is further quoted as saying: "We need cyclists in neighbourhoods to come forward (at public meetings) when pieces of the bike network are proposed in public consultation." The mayor is no doubt correct, but even if concerned citizens wanted to support bike lanes there has been little opportunity to do so because most bike lanes proposed for 2005 and 2006 have yet to go to public consultation.
The fault here is not with the public but with councillors who have neglected to hold the necessary public meetings. In addition, when a public meeting is held, notice is often only given to the residents on the street where the bike lane will be built rather than sending the notice to the wider community that will use the bike lane. It should be no surprise that pro-bike supporters don't show up if nobody knows of the meeting.
This mayor and council are more supportive of cycling than the lean years of the Mel Lastman era. But making Toronto a cycling city will take more than words. If Miller and council want the public to come forward with support for cycling, then they need to show that they are serious about ensuring that real change occurs on the streets of Toronto. Before the next election, Miller and council should ensure that all the proposed bike lanes for 2005-2006 have passed through public consultation. Cyclists will be waiting for the meeting notices in the mail.
Charles O'Hara, citizen member, Toronto Cycling Committee
TCC member O’Hara to be sacked?
http://www.torontocranks.com/?p=34
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