The principle of the Bikeway Network spoke is that “All Toronto Residents will be within a five minute bicycle ride to the bikeway network.” The Toronto Bike Plan lays out a plan to build a network of 1000 kilometres of bike lanes, paths and signed on-street bike routes over a 10 year period. The total cost of completing this network is $68.3 million spread over 10 years. That is less than one third of the $240 million cost of the 2 km Front Street extension. In addition to funding, support is needed at Council to approve the construction of these bike lanes and routes in a timely fashion. You can read more about the Bikeway Network section of the Toronto Bike Plan at the following page: Bikeway Network

Currently we don't have a Bikeway Network. It is more like a patchwork of paths and lanes with a few on-street routes. Some areas of the City are better connected than others. In Wards where the councillor is supportive of the Bike Lanes and routes the work can proceed. A councillor who is not supportive can block the development of a city wide, interconnected Bikeway Network. They can do this by delaying holding the initial community consultation meetings with local residents, refusing to support the proposals at community council meetings or in the extreme trying to have local bike lane projects defeated at the City Council level.

Refusing to hold a public consultation meeting is the easiest way for a councillor to hold up a bike lane. The decision to hold the meeting is entirely theirs. This year the bike lanes on Cosburn Avenue and Dawes road were proposed. These are in Ward 29 and Ward 31. These are in the wards of incumbent councillors Case Ootes and Michael Tziretas. (see route maps Ward 29 map & Ward 31 map. The proposals were ready in the spring to have a public meeting. The money was included in the city's budget to install them. The public meeting necessary to start the approval process has not happened to this point. It is now to late in the to do the construction work let alone go through the formal approval processes. The money budgeted for this will have to go elsewhere. By doing this they disenfranchise the local residents. They were never given a chance to have a say on this public infrastructure project in their neighbourhood.

The BikeToronto.ca Candidate Survey had two questions on the Bikeway network. One, question 4, dealt with the funding necessary to build the Bikeway Network over the next three years. In addition to support for projects in the ward we need support from councillors for the Bike Plan at budget time. Question 5 dealt with getting local cycling infrastructure projects approved. We included a map of the Ward in question which has the proposed routes outlined and asked if they work work to get these routes through the approval process. In some cases we asked about their support for specific routes whose construction is in the near future, such as in Ward 29 and 31. In others we asked for a commitment to hold a public meeting to start the approval process on one route in the first 6 months of their term. Given the lead time needed to get a bike lane route approved, work needs to start right away on getting these proposals out to the public so we can start the process of winning the necessary approvals.