Golden Horseshoe gets expansion of bike lanes

Monday was a big day for proponents of bike lanes around the Golden Horseshoe. Toronto, Mississauga and St Catharines all chose to support cycling infrastructure.

The City of Toronto stole the spotlight by opening the first physically separated bike lane in the city. Designated with green paint at intersections, and blocked from car traffic using a curb and breakaway flourescent marker posts, the Sherbourne Street lanes were touted as a sign of things to come.

The lanes run north and south, between Bloor Street and King Street. The section south of Gerrard Street is level with the sidewalk, with a rolled curb down to traffic.

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Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was at the opening, and said, “I think this is a great first step into having integrated bike-lane systems down here and that’s what the people want downtown. They want bike paths.”

West of Toronto, the City of Mississauga announced a plan to build 900 km of bike infrastructure throughout the next 20 years. Mississauga is already home to 400 km of cycling routes.

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Critics of the move are concerned the plans are mostly for off-road bike paths, already a vast majority of the existing infrastructure. Jacquelyn Hayward Gulati, manager of the city’s cycling office, said that the goal is to connect and expand on the existing lanes and paths.

“One of our key goals is to make sure we make those connections and bridge those gaps,” said Gulati.

In St. Catharines, Ont., the future of an existing bike lane has been decided in favour of two wheels at the expense of revenue.

The bike lane along First Street, in front of the new St. Catharines hospital, faced possible removal after a request to provide more parking for the hospital. Had the parking plan gone ahead, the city would also have gained an annual revenue of $80,000 to $200,000.

Instead, council voted unanimously to keep the bike lane.

“We should not be sending the wrong message by removing bike lanes,” said Merritton Coun. Jeff Burch.

The issue has raised the concern that no transportation master plan has been developed for the city. A request to create such a plan is a few years old, but little to no progress has been made to this point. The hope is that the issue of the bike lane on First Street will help spur on the planning process.