The "Toronto Bike Plan: Shifting Gears" was approved by Toronto City Council in July, 2001. This approval got us rolling on the way to a better cycling experience for the residents of Toronto but now it seems that Council may be stuck in first gear spinning madly but not having many kilometres to show for it. The implementation plan envisioned that we would start out at a moderate pace in the first year and increase the pace of development as we got further into the plan. The preliminary budget figures indicate we may be off to a much slower start than planned. This is a preliminary budget, however, and there is still time to see changes if the members of City Council are willing.

The preliminary budget numbers have been released to the public and the full amounts requested to begin implementing the Toronto Bike Plan were not approved.

Funds for the Bike Plan are in three separate budgets: Works and Emergency Servies (WES), Urban Development Services (UDS) and the Parks and Recreation Division of the Economic Development Culture and Tourism Department (EDCT).

The WES budget proposal contained a request for 1.5 million dollars primarily for capital projects expanding the Bikeway Network by building new bike lanes, signed routes, and boulevard or corridor paths. This proposal was not accepted by the Executive Management Committee. They approved only $710,000. This is the same amount of funding that was budgeted last year prior to the new Bike Plan being approved by City Council.

If this is the amount ultimately approved in the final budget in March, 2002 it means that many of the projects planned for this year would have to be deferred. The $790,000 worth of deferred projects would be primarily the boulevard or off-road corridor paths that were planned for this year. Also deferred would be the planning for other major corridor projects which would be built in the second and third years of the ten year plan. What could be done with the reduced funding, would be on street bike lanes and on street signed bike routes as they are cheaper and easier to implement.

The UDS budget proposal was for about $300,000. This was for staff to do cycling promotion and bike safety initiatives. The amount that was actually approved in the preliminary budget was $108,000. This is the same dollar amount as was in last year's budget but is actually a cut of $40,000 since that budget line will have additional staff costs under it this year.

I don't have the numbers for the Parks and Recreation budget figures yet. This budget contains the capital funds for building off-road paths. There was a commitment by Parks and Rec staff for an increased level of activity in this area this year but we will have to see if their proposals were accepted by the Executive Management Committee. As I get this information I will post it.

These preliminary budgets will now be reviewed by the standing committees of Council and there will be an opportunity to have the Bike Plan funds restored. The UDS budget will go to the Planning and Transportation Committee. Its first meeting will be Monday January 14th. The WES budget will go to the Works Committee which will meet on Tuesday, January 15th. The Parks and Recreation budget will go the the Economic Development and Parks Committee which will meet on Monday, January 21.

The fate of the Bike Plan lies in the hands of these committees at the moment. There may be changes to the budgets as a result of the first round of meetings. After these meetings occur there will be opportunity for people to comment on their decisions at future meetings. I will keep you posted as we go through this process. The Councillors may need a little encouragement to shift this Bike Plan into a higher gear.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca