The Mayor Rob Ford administration has rolled over Toronto cycling advocates, handing them a pricey bike lane plan it insists will make them safer.
City council voted 28-9 yesterday to spend $410,000 to erase the year-old, two-kilometre bike lanes on Jarvis Street, as well as lanes on Birchmount Road and Pharmacy Avenue in Scarborough.
The same vote approved Ford ally Denzil Minnan-Wong’s plan for a 14-kilometre network of physically separated bike lanes on four downtown streets, and asked staff to try to avoid erasing the Jarvis lanes before cyclists have the alternative of a protected lane on nearby Sherbourne Street.
A council chamber gallery full of cyclists bemoaned losing any of Toronto’s hard-won 174 kilometres of lanes.
The protected lanes will be a first for Toronto but most will probably go on streets that already have painted lanes. Yesterday’s vote ‘ sacrificing Jarvis, Birchmount (2.5 kilometres) and Pharmacy (3.4 kilometres), while adding Dawes Road (2 kilometres) ‘ might shrink the overall network.
“We haven’t given up on Jarvis,” said Dave Meslin, a community activist who urged fellow cyclists to converge on city hall for the vote. “Cyclists depend on those lanes for safety, and we’ll keep fighting to defend them.”
Minnan-Wong surprised colleague Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose ward includes Jarvis, yesterday with a successful motion to reinstall on Jarvis a centre lane that reverses direction depending on the time of day.
