The battle over the Jarvis Street bike lanes begins again
Now that it’s clear—abundantly so—that Rob Ford can be beat, the Toronto Cyclists Union has decided to revive last summer’s fight to save the Jarvis Street bike lanes. The group is brandishing a letter from a law firm that says the bike lanes can’t be painted over and the centre vehicle lane put back in without an environmental assessment. Though the delaying tactics may work in the short term, it seems unlikely that the union would find the necessary council support to save the cycling path—even a fiscal conservative like Karen Stintz, who may have been swayed by the exorbitant cost of removal, has been unwavering in her view that the Jarvis lanes are unnecessary (and a danger to families). Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Jesus christ do these suck.
You have remarkable information right.
The same lobby that fights tooth and nail to save bike lanes on an industrial portion of Birchmount Road in Scarborough can NEVER, EVER be trusted to provide any sort of logical or thought out conclusion on the issue of bike lanes. Despite the former mayor creating a whacky segmented half-network of lanes on busy rush-hour roads (ie Eastern Avenue), this mayor will always be branded as a bike-hating car-loving redneck… Despite the fact that in his 1.5 years he has plugged several major gaps in the network.
Sherbourne Street will have a curb-separated bike lane. It will run from Bloor to Lake shore, with non-separated lanes running north and south of there. Despite the fact that this will provide a safer, cooler (well shaded), more relaxed, less exhaust-filled ride just 500 metres east of Jarvis, the cycling union cries out as if taking these lanes out will cause people to stop cycling, destroy Jarvis (like it has been magnificently improved since 2010), or set our city on fire.
It’ll be nice when the unions, advocacy groups, and lobbies run out of breath, or get told by the public “We.Don’t.Care!” Maybe then the voice of the majority, common sense public will emerge from the background and fix the doomsday-scenario world we always seem to be in lately.