The weather’s bad. I’m hauling too much stuff. The tires need air. I haven’t cycled to work yet this spring, and these are some of my excuses.

The real reason, however, is that I haven’t mustered the courage to venture onto the streets and pathetically inadequate bike lanes for another season.

In between fretting, I have been pondering mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi’s proposal to confine bike lanes to secondary routes rather than installing them on arterials such as Bloor Street.

Rossi envisions bike lanes along routes such as Sherbourne, Beverley and St. George streets in the downtown, and Mortimer and Lumsden avenues, parallel to the Danforth.

“It’s a question of trying to come up with a solution that takes into account that the vast majority of people who are getting to work and are taking their kids to hockey (and other activities) are using cars versus bikes,” he says. “To say in the city that cars are bad and therefore I’m going to make it exceptionally difficult for people to go about their everyday lives, I don’t agree with that … All I’m suggesting is we need a balance.”

Let’s take a look at Rossi’s notion of balance. First, his plan does not envision lanes that physically separate cyclists from cars and pedestrians.   

“If we’re using the safer secondary streets, I don’t see as big a case (for protected bike lanes),” he said in an interview. Maybe it’s just my chicken-hearted nature, but I don’t feel particularly safe on secondary streets.

Livable cities advocate Gil Penalosa challenges other aspects of Rossi’s scheme. Cyclists, like pedestrians, want to travel the shortest distance and that’s usually via arterials, he observes, noting that similar initiatives failed in Portland and Copenhagen. What’s more, he adds, people on $30 bikes should have access to the same thoroughfares as the drivers of big, noisy, polluting vehicles worth $30,000.

The biggest problem, however, is that Rossi’s proposal is an argument for the status quo. His plan for financing the construction of new subway infrastructure to lure motorists out of their cars has more holes in it than a kitchen colander and will lead to major delays in transit expansion. Under a Rossi administration, bike lanes will still consist of pathetically inadequate painted lines on still-busy streets. And the automobile will still reign unchecked and supreme.

There may be reasons to vote for Rossi. His bike plan isn’t one of them.

– April Lindgren teaches at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, where she specializes in local news and urban affairs reporting; april.lindgren@arts.ryerson.ca.