There has been much discussion of the reconstruction of Lansdowne Avenue from College Ave to Bloor St. West. There have been reports that the project is to include bike lanes but that is not the case. The Bikeway Network proposed in the Bike Plan has bike lanes indicated on Lansdowne Ave north of Bloor to Davenport but not on this section. That is not to say that the reconstruction of the street will not offer benefits to cyclists.

When people think about the Bike Plan, it is often the Bikeway Network of bike lanes, on-street signed routes and off-street paths that first comes to mind. However, there is more to implementing the Bike Plan than installing the 1074 km of designated infrastructure. Another whole chapter of the Bike Plan is dedicated to making streets that are not part of the Bikeway Network bicycle friendly. In fact the guiding principle of the Bicycle Friendly Streets chapter of the Bike Plan is "Every Toronto Street is a Cycling Street..

Among the recomendations in this chapter is recommendation

4-5: Provide Wide Curb Lanes on Arterial Roadways
That, during road resurfacing or reconstruction projects on arterial roadways, the City provide wide curb lanes, where possible.

Road reconstruction provides an opportunity to improve the road design. In most situations the roads are rebuilt as they existed with no provisions for improving the road design to make it more bicycle friendly. This may be due to the fact that changing the design of the road adds extra hurdles for the project to go through. If there are parking changes or bike lanes to be added then bylaws have to be changed by a report to community council. This can spark opposition in the community and drag out the approval of the project. If there are no changes to the design of the road there is no need for any approvals and making it much easier for the project to get completed. The tendancy is for reconstruction projects to take the path of least resistance and not make changes to the road design. It takes the initiative of the local councillor or of the staff people working on the design to recognize an opportunity to improve the road designs and perseverance on their part to see the projects through the approvals necessary.

On Lansdowne Avenue that initiative was taken by Councillor Adam Giambrone and the staff in Transportation Services designing the project. The existing street has 3.5 m lanes that bikes and cars have to share. The new street will have 4.0 m wide lanes providing more space for cyclists to share the road safely. This was achieved by taking out parking on one side of the street. This is the contentious issue that has generated opposition in the community but the staff report found that there was an over supply of parking in the area and with parking on one side there would still be enough spaces to meet the demand. (for more details see the staff report on the issueLansdowne Ave. Staff Report March 2007 - Page 3 existing conditions) The existing and new cross sections of the street are shown below.

The cross sections show that the lanes increase from 3.5 m to 4.0 m allow cyclists and cars to share the road more safely.

This street will be safer for cyclists than the existing conditions and it is important to do that on this street as it will be a connector between the future bike lanes on Lansdowne north of Bloor and will connect at the south end to the new bike lane that starts at College and Lansdowne and heads west along Dundas.