Committee votes to keep bike lanes along Bloor

The Bloor St. bike lanes are a council vote away from becoming permanent.

Following a six-hour debate at city hall Wednesday, the public works committee voted to endorse the recommendation in a city transportation staff report to keep the separated bike lanes. The bike lanes were installed as a pilot project last August on a 2.4-kilometre stretch of Bloor between Shaw St. and Avenue Rd. The project will now go to council next month for a decisive vote.

“Our city of Toronto staff have stated unequivocally that the pilot bike lane on Bloor not only worked, it was a tremendous success and should be made permanent,” said Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20 Trinity Spadina). He isn’t on the committee, but his ward encompasses part of the pilot project and he has been a strong supporter of the lanes.

“When you design a bike lane and you implement it well it is a win-win for everybody. That’s what we heard all day long.”

Sixty members of the public signed up to speak at the meeting, the overwhelming majority of those who addressed the committee voiced support for the bike lanes.

One deputant, John Leeson, said he had come prepared with a speech in support of the lanes, but instead gave up a minute of his allocated threeminute speaking time to mark a moment of silence for a 39-year-old cyclist who was killed in a collision on King St. W. Wednesday morning. The victim was the third rider to die this year.

The committee room fell silent for a minute, and then Leeson stood up and left the microphone.

The staff report released last week determined the pilot project met many of its key objectives including increasing cycling rates, improving safety and minimizing impacts on other road users.