Council votes in favour of bike lanes on Jarvis
Pedal power fuels Silly Hall Sheer madness as Jarvis set to lose a lane of traffic to restore street to a 'grand boulevard'By SUE-ANN LEVY
The King of Climate Change -- fresh off the plane from last week's sojourn rubbing shoulders with Bill Clinton in Seoul -- announced early yesterday that he'd made an inane plan to install bike lanes on Jarvis St. his No. 1 item at council because it's Bike Month in Toronto.
In an instant, the message was sent to the ragtag group of two dozen helmet-heads from the cycling lobby sitting in the council chamber that bikes rule in Toronto over pedestrians, buses and most assuredly, the evil car.
It was clearly already a fait accompli in Mayor David Miller's mind that the "extremely modest proposal" to improve Jarvis St. -- estimated at $6.3 million -- would involve removing the reversible centre lane (which alternates to accommodate the traffic flow during peak periods).
Claiming there'd been "extensive consultation" on the proposal (he never bothered to mention, of course, the consultation was only with the south of Bloor crowd), the mayor said the taking away of one lane of traffic on what has become a "highway" is a "very simple request" that would not create "massive gridlock."
I've already made my thoughts well-known on the subject. There's no doubt the mayor and the downtown councillors on his team have no interest in acknowledging the slightest bit of reality of how gridlocked the cars heading south on Mt. Pleasant are at 8 a.m. each weekday.
Ignorance is indeed bliss at Socialist Silly Hall.
Cars be damned. Yesterday's debate was about who would most benefit from the shrinking road space for motorists -- pedestrians or cyclists.
In what has become a matter of course at Silly Hall -- where vision is indeed a moving target -- the whole reason for the Jarvis St. improvement project took on a new life.
'CULTURAL CORRIDOR'
All the talk of turning Jarvis St. into a pedestrian-friendly "cultural corridor" with widened sidewalks, more tree plantings and street art came down to a fresh political manoeuvre: To pander to the vocal cycling lobby by adding bike lanes to the plan, even though city officials had recommended against them.
In fact, in their report to public works committee, city officials made it quite clear providing bike lanes would not leave enough room to widen the boulevards.
Nevertheless, Miller said this proposal is about providing a safe road for cyclists.
Even Kyle Rae, the councillor who spearheaded the project, was talking quite a different game than he had in the past.
"We are trying to create a complete street," he told council, defending the last-minute switch to bike lanes.
But if one considers the facts, it is absolutely moronic to put bike lanes on Jarvis -- even crazier than taking away the centre reversible lane.
For one thing, city officials made it clear when questioned that Jarvis St. is not even pegged for bike lanes in the city's official Bike Plan.
There are already north-south bike lanes one block east on Sherbourne St. Those lanes, according to city transportation officials, are used by about 100 cyclists per hour heading southbound in the morning rush hour and up to 200 cyclists per hour heading northbound in the afternoon. That count was taken in the spring, not in the winter when the numbers would be far fewer.
As Coun. Karen Stintz pointed out, quite rightly, the proposal favours about 100 bicycles over the 27,000 cars that use Jarvis St. during the same peak morning period.
Sheer madness.
When I questioned the mayor about who takes precedence in this city, given the switch from pedestrian to cycling improvements on Jarvis St., he claimed the new, improved plan will move more people "safely.
"The project includes significant improvements to the pedestrian realm and ways to ensure it comes back to the grand boulevard it once was," he said. "Cyclists have a place in that that is quite fair."
NOT YET BUDGETED
I'm betting cyclists will have the No. 1 place in that plan.
City officials made it pretty darn clear there is no money in the capital budget to pursue the entire $6.35-million Jarvis St. improvement plan in the next few years.
However transportation general manager Gary Welsh did tell me they could put in the bike lanes for about $100,000 -- a move which would most certainly require removing the centre lane.
No wonder the helmet-heads from the cycling lobby were clapping vociferously yesterday.
Fewer cars and more bike lanes. What more could they ask?
SUE-ANN.LEVY@SUNMEDIA.CA
Don't narrow Jarvis Street May 25, 2009 Jarvis St. is a major north-south thoroughfare, with five lanes accommodating...
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