Councillors push for University bike lane
Protected route pitched as post-pandemic asset as cycling increases
Two Toronto councillors are hoping to get a bike lane running down University Avenue as part of the city’s response to COVID-19, but a third warns now is not the time to be implementing costly and disruptive new projects.
“The need for Toronto to build an expanded, city-wide grid of protected bike lanes is more pressing now than ever before,” Couns. Joe Cressy and Mike Layton say in a letter to Barbara Gray, general manager of transportation services.
The councillors are calling on Gray to include the bike lane as part of the city’s ActiveTO plan to expand outdoor spaces so pedestrians and cyclists can move more easily through the city while maintaining a safe dis- tance to slow the spread of the virus.
The councillors want to see a protected bike lane running along University, Queen’s Park Crescent and Avenue Road, from Davenport Road to Ade- laide Street.
They say the idea has been kicking around for more than 20 years, is long overdue and will establish a vital northsouth link in the city’s cycling network.
Cressy points out it would connect with some of the city’s busiest bike lanes, on Davenport, College Street, Richmond Street, Adelaide and Bloor Street.
It’s also located on a subway line, identified as priority areas for ActiveTO, as it’s expected many people will be reluctant to ride the subway when they return to work over the next few weeks. The street is also lined with hospitals employing thousands of front-line healthcare workers.
But Coun. Stephen Holyday ( Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre) said he doesn’t support the idea because it doesn’t allow time for proper public input and the city needs to carefully watch its spending as a result of the costs incurred by the city in fighting the pandemic, estimated at $1.5 billion this year.
“Nobody knows what traffic volumes are going to be like in t the fall or in a return-to-work period in the city’s inner core,” said Holyday.
“It is fairly easy to guess that ridership on the public transit system will be lower and poten- tially there could be record levels of congestion as people turn to their cars. So removing physical lanes or making significant infrastructure changes should be approached with more caution that ever.”
Holyday said some interest groups are using the pandemic as an opportunity to push forward forward with initiatives that may have met with resistance in the past or could be expected to be met with resistance when the pandemic ends.
Areport is expected soon from city staff recommending how to implement ActiveTO. Council is scheduled to meet next week.
Cressy said he is looking to staff for different design options. Although both councillors believe it would work well as a permanent fixture, they argue that setting it up now, as quickly as possible, to provide more services to residents during the pandemic, would also allow the project to be properly studied and evaluated.
Layton said an additional advantage is that University doesn’t have the density of pedestrian foot traffic that, say, Yonge Street does.