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Has anyone seen ridership stats for the Pharmacy and Birchmount Rd lanes that they're also planning to remove?

As an eastender I do use these bike lanes regularly, but I don't see many other cyclists on them. The ridership numbers might be fairly low.

That said, the report Reaperexpress linked to concludes that they have had no adverse effect on traffic, and would cost a few hundred thousand to remove.
 
junctionist said:
What makes you think cyclists were against streetscape improvements on Bloor?
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A cyclists' group actually went to court over it, among other things.

I think it's crazy that there is, what, 40 cm of sidewalk between the planters and the road surface. Pedestrians don't use it. Could have been a bike lane if car lanes were narrowed a bit.

John St plan looks better in principle.
 
And yet the streetscape improvements in Toronto usually *ex*clude bike lanes. So what's a bike advocate to do? It's a tough call.

The John St. plan for example looks pretty awesome. Dave Meslin has recently made a big deal (see the Star articles) in complaining about the process there, which excluded cycling concerns in an apparently rather sneaky way. But I notice he hasn't actually attacked the plan itself: http://meslin.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/jogging_on_queen/#more-1280

That seems like a smart way to be for bike lanes and not against streetscape projects. But it's tough.
 
Streetscape improvements and bike lanes are hardly mutually exclusive, though it may have seemed that way with Jarvis. St. George is a good example of both happening at the same time.
 
junctionist said:
Streetscape improvements and bike lanes are hardly mutually exclusive, though it may have seemed that way with Jarvis. St. George is a good example of both happening at the same time.
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The St. George cross section would be wonderful on Yonge. Implement this from Front right up to Heath (north of St. Clair), and return Yonge to the standard 4 lanes cross section north from there.
 
Two years ago, Mark Grimes voted to remove the reversible Jarvis traffic lane that he recently voted to reinstall.

The other current councillors who voted to remove the reversible lane in 2009 were councillors Carroll, Cho, Davis, De Baeremaeker, Di Giorgio, Filion, Fletcher, Kelly, Mammoliti, McConnell, Mihevc, Milczyn, Moeser, Nunziata, Palacio, Perks, Perruzza, and Vaughan.

For some reason, some people seem to think reinstalling the reversible lane would be as simple as reversing this earlier vote. But obviously, it will be a major expense to purchase and install all the wires, signalling equipment and lights needed for the lane. Why don't we know what all this will cost?

In addition, during the election campaign, candidate Ford said this:

Q: Would you remove the [Jarvis] lanes if you are elected?

Ford: No. It would be a waste of money to remove it if it's already there; that is, unless there was a huge public outcry in the area.
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Mayor Ford should keep the promise that candidate Ford made during the election campaign. Why aren't these politicians being called on this costly, needless and wasteful flip-flop?
 
Please write to both your councillor and Rob Ford (mayor_ford@toronto.ca) if you want to support the Jarvis bike lanes. I wrote to him and got back a form letter (see below). While I doubt we can change his mind, a few hundred emails would help.

This decision is being made on bad data. The form letter states that only 600 cyclists use Jarvis per day. This is garbage. It may have been true on a wet spring day but it's not true now. As well, the city insists on measuring bicycle usage by installing one strip on one block. Bicycle trips are often shorter than car trips, and if they choose the wrong block, they'll miss a lot of usage. They need to install about 3 strips between Bloor and King and then average the usage. I saw them measuring usage of the bike lanes on Sherbourne and they did the same thing, one strip in an area I rarely use.

Here's the reply I received:

---

Thank you for your email regarding the bike lanes on Jarvis Street. I appreciate hearing from you.

Toronto's economy loses billions of dollars every year from gridlock and traffic congestion. We need to make the situation better - not worse. The Jarvis Street bike lanes experiment has been a failure. Ninety-four percent of commuters now face longer commutes on Jarvis Street. Over 15,000 commuters each day are suffering from longer travel times, for the sake of 600 additional cyclists.

The City should remove the bike lanes as soon as possible and improve travel times for thousands of daily commuters. City staff have been directed to develop a low-cost plan to do so. Bike lanes were never intended to be installed on Jarvis Street. The original Environmental Assessment recommended against installing bike lanes - but City Council amended the report to approve bike lanes anyway.

As promised during the mayoral election, I am dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts. Please feel free to contact my office again at any time.

Yours truly,

Mayor Rob Ford
City of Toronto
 
nfitz said:
Building a Transportation City ...

Really?

Has the man not got an original thought inside his head?
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If nothing else, Ford's transportation plan guarantees that land prices in downtown Toronto won't drop. A large part of the demand is due to high commute times. The best his "motorist" plan will offer is a 1 year delay on car congestion (2% growth in capacity); certainly no drop.

I actually feel far more comfortable holding real-estate downtown (purchased in 2006) than I did before. Toss in a slashing of GO fare increase (Hudak), substantial TTC fare increase or service slashing (Ford in 2012/2013) and a couple more new office towers and downtown condo demand can only increase.
 
How is this for an email to the mayor's office? Any improvements before I send it?
Mayor Ford,

Thank you for taking the time to read this email regarding the bike lanes on Jarvis Street.

Toronto's economy loses billions of dollars every year from gridlock and traffic congestion. We need to make the situation better - not worse. The Jarvis Street bike lanes experiment has been a succcess, because according to city data, the number of street users has gone up from 13290 users to 13890 users since the implementation of bike lanes. The number of cyclists more than tripled from 290 to 890.* By removing the Jarvis bike lanes, the City of Toronto would be sending a message that 2 minutes of motorists time is worth reducing the number of people that can use the street, hindering alternatives to the automobile, risking the lives of cyclists and increasing dependence on the automobile, thereby creating more traffic.

The City should retain the bike lanes because they improve travel times and safety for cyclists, which encourages people to stop driving. It is unreasonable to expect the Jarvis lanes to single-handedly cure traffic. What encourages people to cycle is a comprehensive network of easily cycleable streets. The Jarvis lanes don't create this alone, but removing them would create a large gap in what needs to be a dense network. Although the original Environmental Assessment recommended against installing bike lanes, City Council amended the report to approve bike lanes because Jarvis is an easy location to expand Toronto's cycling network.

During the mayoral election, you promised you would stop wasteful spending and build a transportation city. Removing the Jarvis lanes would be going against both promises. I strongly encourage you to actually read the section within the report referenced below that discusses the results from the Jarvis bike lanes. The Jarvis Street Bike lanes are a key piece in building a transportation system that allows users to get to their destination quickly, comfortably and safely, regardless of whether or not they are in an automobile.

Thank you again for taking the time to listen to my arguments. Please feel free to reply to this email with a form letter.

*Bikeway Network - 2011. City of Toronto http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/pw/bgrd/backgroundfile-38906.pdf
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