We did it. The past two days have been huge for fans of cycling and active transportation initiatives at City Hall! With the help of our volunteers, members, donors, supporters, plus City staff and City Councillors, Cycle Toronto was able to continue the momentum that was generated with the rapid installation of the popular ActiveTO program.
We did it! Yesterday was a big day for cycling at City Hall! Cycle Toronto is only able to push for these wins with the help of our supporters, so thank you to all of our volunteers, members, donors, supporters, petition signers, Councillor champions, City staff, and everyone who made this happen!
The impact of these changes to our city’s streets cannot be overstated. Here’s an overview of what happened and what’s next.
This could be the reality for cycling across much more of Toronto with your support.
City Council’s final Infrastructure and Environment Committee (IEC) meeting of the year is on December 2, and the agenda includes hundreds of pages of City staff recommendations related to cycling under three broad categories.
After many years, the harrowing stretch of Bloor from Sherbourne Street the Prince Edward Viaduct has been upgraded as part of ActiveTO! A wider, buffered bike lane has been installed already and concrete curb separation is coming soon. This improved connection will make hundreds of thousands of yearly trips by bike safer. Thanks to everyone that helped make this happen! Next step: Extending the Bloor bike lanes west and the Danforth bike lanes east.
Avenue Road just north of Bloor Street. Photo courtesy of Michael Aitkens/CBC
Last Wednesday, Miguel Joshua Escanan’s young life was taken while riding his bike on Avenue Road, metres beyond the end of ActiveTO bike lanes (and where a speedway begins). Avenue is not an anomaly; it is one of many six-lane highways cutting through Toronto that the City itself has identified as needing safety improvements.
If you frequent Bloor between Avenue Road and Spadina Avenue (it's one of the busiest bikeways in North America), you know it's been a construction zone for much of 2021. Watermain replacement has torn up the road during that time. Following completion of that work the bike lanes were scheduled to be upgraded with a similar design as seen on the south side of Bloor west of Spadina. A permanent protected intersection was scheduled to be installed as well.
In recent years, we have focused on building out the spine of our cycling network to bring you bike lanes on three major roads: Bloor Street, Danforth Avenue, and Yonge Street. After years of tireless work with countless people and organizations, as of last week, bike lanes have been installed on all three of these roads! Politicians, businesses, and residents alike have all begun to see that bike lanes help things work better for everyone on our streets.
And yet, vast parts of our city do not have safe places to ride.
