The second round of budget setting gets underway with the launch of the deliberations on the 2006 operating budget this week. On January 9th, 2006 a Toronto Cycling Committee proposal will go to the Planning and Transportation (P&T) Committee to increase the funding for cycling safety and education program budget, specifically to pay for a new sidewalk cycling counter measure program. Support from residents will be needed to get this funding increase approved in the City's 2006 operating budget.

The operating budget pays for services and programs that the City provides. This is the where the funds come from to pay for Toronto's cycling safety, education and promotion programs. This includes safety campaigns such as The Door Prize - "Watch for Bikes" Campaign, the Cycling Ambassadors program, Bike Week and the Bike User Group Network. You can see more about these at the following link: Toronto cycling programs.

All of the cycling safety programs are funded out of a $150,000 item in the Planning Division budget. That amount has not increased since 2001, before the inception of the Bike Plan. Last summer's report on a strategy to accelerate the Bike Plan noted that inflation has eroded the purchasing power of that budget by 30% and will have a negative impact on the delivery of existing cycling programs. (See page 7 of Toronto Bike Plan - 3 year Strategy). Given the defacto declining level of funding the City of Toronto has not been able to develop new cycling programs which were recommended in the Bike Plan. The Toronto Cycling Committee is asking that $100,00 be added to that budget to fund one of those recommended programs that has not yet started, a sidewalk safety campaign.

In 2003 the City of Toronto conducted a study of bicycle/car collisions. It looked at 2,572 collisions that occurred over a 2 year period and analyzed the types of collisions and the factors that contributed to those collisions. One of the surprising findings was that in 30% of those collisions the cyclist was riding on the sidewalk immediately prior to the collision. In fact, sidewalk cycling was the leading contributing factor to collisions. People who ride on the sidewalks often do so because they believe they are safer there. They may not be aware that by riding on the sidewalk they are exposing them self to increased dangers as they ride off the sidewalk into intersections or across driveways. For these reasons the Toronto Cycling Committee has recommended that the City of Toronto budget $100,000 to develop and implement a sidewalk riding counter measure plan in 2006. You can see the full report and recommendation at the following link: Sidewalk Riding Counter Measure: A Bicycle Safety Education Plan(PDF)

The Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Collision study found that young people are the more likely to have been riding on the sidewalk than were those over 18. Children who ride bikes with a wheel diameter of less than 24 inches are legally allowed to ride on the sidewalk. One part of the proposed program is to educate legal sidewalk riders about the risks of sidewalk cycling and appropriate sidewalk riding practices. The proposed program would also have measures directed towards reducing the number of adults who ride illegally on sidewalks by trying to address the reasons they have chosen to ride there in the first place. In addition to awareness campaigns, there are recommended measures to make streets more bike friendly such as enforcement of vehicle speed limits and measures to address unsafe vehicle passing.

Getting an increase in this budget will be difficult. Public pressure will have to be brought on the councillors. This first opportunity to have this funding added will be at the Planning and Transportation Committee which will meet on January 9th at 9:45 am. The names and e-mail addresses of the Councillors on this committee are listed below. If you click on the Ward name you will go to their web page with their full contact information. If one of these is your councillor send them an e-mail urging them to support this budget proposal.

You can also send a letter to the committee or make a deputation. The Contact information for the committee is at the following link: Planning & Transportation Committee. This committee will make its budget recommendations to the Budget Advisory Committee. The next opportunity to get involved will be on February 16th.

We have been successful in getting an increase in the capital budget to get more cycling infrastructure. Now it is time to turn our attention to getting more cycling safety programs funded.