I know I have a lot of catching up to do around here. It's just one of those things that happens when you have too much going on at once.

Today, Toronto is hearing "presentations" from the public regarding the capital budget for 2008. I would have liked to show up in person but it was impossible. I made an email presentation instead. Right this minute, the public is probably making presentations to city council, so "for the record", as they say on the CBC, here's my email presentation made public.

To Toronto Councillors:

As I am unable to attend the Capital Budget Hearings, please accept this email as my public presentation.

I am deeply concerned about the future of our city. We can build Toronto into one of two cities. We can build a city for people; or we can build a city for respiratory disease deaths, traffic jams, high energy costs, and death and injury of pedestrians and cyclists. If we build the wrong city, we will also bear the burden of responsibility for climate change and its impact.

This is not hyperbole. These are real problems recognized repeatedly in study after study. In fact, Toronto's own Medical Officer of Health recently reported that 440 people die per year from motor vehicle pollution. The International Energy Agency predicts a serious energy crisis by 2012 as oil exporting nations reduce their exports in favour of domestic use. That is only a few years away.

These problems demand a multifaceted solution. Fortunately, we don't need to experiment, as the critical pieces of the solution have been implemented in other cities around the world. Public transit improvements and cycling infrastructure are key. Vancouver, Montreal, Paris, London, Portland, New York and Chicago have all added welcoming bicycle infrastructure in recent years. Even Toronto's mayor and councillors have recognized the importance and value of cycling infrastructure by promising to implement the bike network by 2012. However, the current capital budget contradicts this.

It is Toronto's neglected bicycle infrastructure about which I write today.

To see success with the Bike Plan, at the very least you need to:
1. Move the $38 million for the bicycle plan scheduled for after 2012 back to the 2008 to 2011 plan.
2. Hire additional staff to begin implementing bike lanes, bike paths and highway crossings immediately.
3. Restore the $200K to the Parks, Forestry and Recreation budget for bike paths.
4. Ensure financing for bike paths to be implemented in 2008, including the CN Leaside Spur Bike Path and the Finch Hydro Corridor Bike Path.

Please make these changes to our capital budget, so we can build a Toronto that can handle the great challenges faced by our citizens today and in the future.

Sources:
Pedestrian deaths
Automobile pollution deaths
IEA Energy Crisis
Promises from Toronto Council

If you would like to write a letter, there's still time. You can get some good numbers from TCAT.

Labels: city hall, climate change, infrastructure, public transit, toronto

Until yesterday, I've been beat up by a cold. No cycling for me. My leg muscles are going to wither away soon.

One of our local free weekly newspapers comes out with it's Bike Edition this week. They kicked it off with a "Town Hall" meeting to talk Bike Plan. I wasn't there, but BlogTO was. I like that Tanya suggested putting signs up that say cyclists can use a full lane. Those signs need to be on many of the narrow arterials around the city.

Which way is faster? Now Magazine looks into that too. The bike wins in this 9 km competition. It starts in a dense urban part of the city, and finishes in a dense suburban part. Anyone else think the TTC guy would have done way better if he took the University-Spadina line? The Yonge line is overcrowded, not the University side.

I did my own bike v. car competition in the suburbs last year. It was much less dramatic, and didn't end with the cyclist eating ice cream. The race was also skewed because the motorist assumed he would kick my ass, so he gave me a head start.

If you have a lazy Friday afternoon, you'll want to watch this video starring the president of Trek Bicycle. Here's the non-executive summary (not all of us have time to hear a president talk for 20 minutes!):
- The bike industry was propelled in recent decades by the mountain bike trend and Lance Armstrong.
- Very few people in most US and Canadian cities ride bikes.
- If people rode bikes, it would solve many of the western world's major problems, such as obesity, traffic congestion, and pollution.
- Government will start to recognize how good bikes are and bike companies will soon sell many bikes.
- BUT to make this happen, the bike companies need to support bicycle advocacy groups, so people see real bicycle infrastructure. He gives examples of where bike infrastructure made a real difference in bicycling rates (U.K. and Louisville, Kentucky stand out).



Found on Spinopsys

Labels: infrastructure, public transit

A couple weeks ago I was bugging Joe about all the flats he gets, which is the worst thing you can do for your flat karma. This past weekend, I found my bike with with a flat rear tire. Fortunately it was a slow leak, so I didn't have to change the tube on the road.

Last night I got around to changing the flat. I sat down in front of the TV and switched back and forth between The Agenda with Steve Paikin on TVO and Are you smarter than a fifth grader. I can't imagine what the screening process is for the second show. The whole thing could get a branch in its spokes if a few people were good actors up until they got on the show. For anyone who hasn't seen this 5th grader show, the woman last night won $175000 by answering that Panda's are from Japan. luckily she only needed to know which continent they were from and she knew Japan was in Asia. Years of promotion and good will by China down the drain.

Steve Paikin was, of course, covering the provincial budget.

My tire had a gash in it. Over time, the gash collected gravel, and eventually the gravel poked my tube. I need a new tire anyways. I seem to be replacing them about once a year, which I can live with. I've had pretty good experiences with the Vittoria Randonneurs, so I'll probably end up with those.

There's an announcement coming from Miller today on an environmental plan. I'm all ears. I remember he said he'd announce something big in March, so I wondered if the LRT plan was it. It would be smart for him to include the missing 3 million dollars for bicycle infrastructure in this plan.

There's been an interesting discussion about a planned bike route called the West Toronto Railpath. Some well deserved criticism is being thrown at the plan. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity for an effective car free route through the city. Discussion seems to be focussed on connections to other infrastructure and on trail widths. 2 km may be short, but I would love to have any piece of my commute replaced with 2 km on a path.

For a view of what Minneapolis has done, take a look at the width of their trail in this photo of their Midtown Greenway (official site for the midtown greenway).

Labels: infrastructure, mechanical, toronto