Fall 2022

Welcome to our Fall Newsletter!

…and if you’d like to elevate your status from passive newsletter reader to that of a TCBC cycling activist, send us an email at community.bikeways.toronto@gmail.com.

With the municipal election behind us, we look forward to working with the mayor and city councillors, including the many new faces, on issues that are central to our mission: road safety, social equity, and climate action.

In this newsletter, you will find information, and some opinions (of course), about a range of issues, including:

• our successful October 2 Light Up Toronto for Safe Streets rally;

• an election wrap-up, reviewing our Heads Up! Toronto Votes public education tool, our candidate endorsements, and our Road Safety Calls to Action;

• update on our We Belong on Bloor campaign;

• Velo Odds and Ends with updates on:

  • our call to the Chief Coroner for an investigation into the danger of large SUVs and pickups;

  • ongoing efforts to liberate bike lanes of dangerous obstructions; and

  • our third annual Cycling Good Cheer ride on December 18th.

Road Safety Rally on Yonge Street

Our October 2nd road safety rally was a highlight of our election work, organized and carried out with a broad coalition of groups ranging from Friends and Families for Safe Streets, ClimateFast and ttcriders to Bells on Kingston, whose members cycled from Scarborough.

Twenty of over 40 candidates who committed to our road safety calls to action were present. The 2,200-metre route from Ramsden Park to Dundas Square carried specific symbolism, given that 2,200 people have been killed or seriously injured in Toronto since city council’s adoption of the Vision Zero Plan in 2016.

In a CBC feature on the rally, Linda Ward interviewed participants, including two children who offered clear ideas of the problem and the solutions. Eight-year-old Andrea Claramunt Bravo said that “there should be more safety for bikes and people who are transporting with their own energy instead of just using gasoline.” Eleven-year-old Anton Dunbar added, "I think [the next mayor] should make it a priority to have bike lanes and safe streets for kids and everybody."

If children understand the way forward, why not City Hall? WCN’s Najia Zewari told the 150 participants at the rally that road safety isn’t “rocket science,” it’s simply a question of political will.

 Here’s a beautiful clip of the event from Heather and Pier, who go by @BromptoningLove on Twitter.

Election Wrap-Up

Instead of simply waiting, watching, and hoping for the best, we engaged directly in the October 24th municipal election.

In seven wards and the mayoral race, we endorsed specific candidates who we believed to be in tune with a progressive city-wide road safety, climate, and social justice agenda. We largely focused on ridings where the incumbent might be described as “needs improvement”, and where the challenger offered a refreshing, positive alternative.

Among the most satisfying ward results, Amber Morley defeated a long-standing incumbent in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, who had little enthusiasm for utilitarian cycling. Other successful TCBC-endorsed candidates included Scarborough’s Jamaal Myers and Davenport’s Alejandra Bravo. We congratulate all candidates for their courage and their dedication to our city. Running for office is no easy task.

Although mayoral candidate Gil Penalosa fell short of victory, he raised many key social justice issues and helpfully revived the debate over city council’s controversial 2015 decision to rebuild the Gardiner Expressway. The environmental crisis, the city’s financial crisis, and a rejuvenated council all herald an opportunity to re-open the debate.

One of our initiatives, in which our Political Engagement Committee volunteers invested countless hours, was the “Heads Up! Toronto Votes” education tool. This tool included a number of story maps that explained matters such as road safety, climate action, and councillor voting records on cycling infrastructure, along with a nifty graph (produced with the help of Sean Marshall) exposing the most dangerous city wards in terms of road safety.  

Over 40 municipal candidates, as noted above, committed to our three road safety calls to action. The fact that 12 of these candidates now sit on city council, provides more than enough motivation to continue to push for implementation of these actions, which we crafted to be concise, measurable, and achievable within this term of council.

Our three demands are:

• lower speed limits to 30 and 40km/h by 2024, exceptions to be based on a road safety rationale;

• triple Vision Zero capital funding, focusing spending on road re-design; and

• reallocate road space to walk/cycle/transit while assessing each road project for impact on GHG emissions, and completing, by the end of this council term, cross-town bike lanes on Yonge and Bloor-Danforth-Kingston Road.

We Belong on Bloor

The Near-Term Bike Plan includes an extension of the Bloor bike lane from Runnymede Road to Royal York Road in 2023, and to Kipling Avenue in 2024.

TCBC, Walk Toronto and FFSS have been building community support for these projects, as well as the extension of the bike lane to the western city border. The Bloor bike lane could then connect to a Bloor bike lane being debated in Mississauga. (One could then cycle safely from downtown Toronto to downtown Mississauga in about two hours.)

Our community letter has grown to include 50 local businesses and residents’ associations, among 90 total signatories. A related citizen petition has garnered over 1,000 signatures.

We will soon begin making presentations to local BIAs and residents’ groups in order to win new allies, and to dispel the typical, long-refuted, arguments we hear lobbied against bike lanes.

On September 28th, we held a free bike repair clinic in conjunction with the MabelleArts market in Islington Village. We kept our mechanics Geoff Bercarich and Michael Holloway busy for the event’s four hours, and a bit more. What a wonderful sight were the happy faces of local residents who could again ride their bikes, including two children who not only got their bikes repaired but had their training wheels, which they no longer needed, removed.

Vélo Odds and Ends

Pickups, SUVs, road safety, and the Ontario Chief Coroner

Our group, along with US-based urban economics Professor Justin Tyndall, recently met with the Ontario Chief Coroner’s office to advance our call for an investigation into pedestrian and cyclist deaths involving pickups and large SUVs. American research, cited in our August letter to the Coroner, shows that these vehicles are disproportionately involved in fatal crashes relative to regular cars. In fact, a recent, little-publicized, Ontario Ministry of Transportation report shows that for 2016 (the last year of the study) pickups and SUVs represented 41% of road vehicles but 61% of pedestrian deaths in the province!

Bike lane obstructions: illegal parking and construction projects

In mid-November we met with staff at the city’s Transportation Services to discuss the haphazard (good, bad, and ugly) measures taken to protect people on foot and bikes at construction sites that impinge on the roadway, sidewalks, and bike lanes.

In a recent letter to the city, we highlighted the curious 1.7-kilometre detour around a 50-metre construction site on Queen’s Park (near the Royal Ontario Museum). The detour, if anyone takes it, involves three left turns for southbound cyclists from Bloor at Avenue Road.

City Hall had advised that three motor lanes were retained to allow access to hospitals – an ironic statement given that the bike lane was motivated by a desire to give safe access to hospitals for health care workers on bikes.

We are looking forward to collaborating with Cycle Toronto, Walk Toronto, and other members of the Toronto Road Safety Collaborative on this initiative. 

Santa’s Cycling Good Cheer ride from the Far North

On Sunday, December 18th @ 12 PM, Santa, his elves, and reindeer will be riding from North York Centre for the third annual Cycling Good Cheer ride.

While the opening segment along Yonge to Davisville is for experienced cyclists only (given the road danger), we are including a Kidical Mass ride this year, organized by Yonge4All, beginning at 12:45ish in front of the Yonge and Davisville subway station.

We will be joined at Yonge and Bloor by the Scarborough Grinch and the Etobicoke Snowperson. The ride ends at Toronto City Hall. Find more details and updates on our events page.

Wishing you safe travels!

Mary Ann, Ingrid, Arthur, Robert, Michael H, Michael B, Erşan, Marc, Mark, Jonathan, and Albert