This spring the City of Toronto Transportation Services Division announced the list of road reconstruction and resurfacing projects planned for 2007. Surveying the list I realized that the problem of not having bike lanes incorporated into road reconstruction projects has not been resolved. It has taken a while to confirm whether or not bike lanes are included in the projects. What I have found so far is that there are 6 projects where streets are being reconstructed or resurfaced this year on which the Toronto Bike Plan proposed bike lanes for part or all of the reconstructed section. According to current plans only two of them will have bike lanes on them when the asphalt has set and the paint is dry.

The deck of the Dundas Street Bridge over the Don River is being reconstructed in 2007 as part of TTC track reconstruction. The opportunity to widen the road to accommodate bike lanes may have been missed.

At the City of Toronto starts making its plans for completing the Bikeway Network by 2012 it has to address the problems in the current process to plan and budget for road reconstruction and resurfacing projects that result in these projects going ahead with out incorporating bike lanes, when they are recommended, or not incorporating other changes to designs that would make the streets safer for cyclists, which should be a standard practice.

The only projects that will include installing bike lanes as part of the work is Stephen Drive from the Queens Way to Berry Road (.8 km) and Royal York Road from Norseman Street to Mimico Creek (.5 km). Another four projects did not incorporate bike lanes in the designs missing an opportunity to add 3.8 km to the Bikeway Network. The projects that don't have the Bike Plan recommended bike lanes in the work plans are:

Martin Grove from Albion Road to Steeles Ave W.
Major Road Resurfacing
-Bike Lanes recommended for entire section (1.9 km)
Bike lanes are supposed to go on this road from Steeles to the West Humber River according to the Bike Plan. This project covers a part of that distance.

McCowan Avenue from Elesemere Road to Shepard Ave E.
Major Road Resurfacing
-Bike lanes recommended for portion of project. (.8 km)
The Bike Plan recommends bike lanes for .8 km on this section of McCowan from Sheppard to Milner Avenue. This would provide the connection to planned bike lanes on Milner Ave. from McCowan Ave. to Conlins Road.

Berry Road from Park Lawn Road to Prince Edward Drive.
Local Road Reconstruction
-Bike lane recommended for entire section (.5 km)
The Bike Plan recommends bike lanes on Berry road from Prince Edward Drive to Stephen Drive. This project would cover half of that distance.

Dundas Street from River Street to Broadview Ave.
TTC track reconstruction
-Bike lane recommended for entire section (.6 km)
The section from Broadview to Dundas has bike lanes recommended in the Bike Plan. This would complete the Dundas East Bike lanes linking them up to the River Street bike lanes. The bridge deck is being totally reconstructed. This would allow for the widening of the road to allow for bike lanes to be installed. From what I have been able to find out widening the road on the bridge was not incorporated into the design. If this is the case this is a missed opportunity to complete the Dundas Street bike lanes and make crossing this bridge safer for cyclists.

Road reconstruction is one of two ways bike lanes can be installed on existing roads. The other is through what is called a retrofit. A design has to be done for the new lane configuration and bike lane is put onto the existing street by simply by scraping of the old painted lines and re-striping the road with the new configuration of bike lanes and lanes for the motorized vehicles. The overall road width or design is not changed. This is how most bike lane projects have been done to date are and the money to pay for these comes out of the Transportation Services cycling infrastructure budget. In 2006 and 2007 this budget was $3.0 million dollars with a portion of that going to bike lanes.

Reconstructions has definite advantages over retrofitting in that the road width can be changed to accommodate the bike lanes, so roads that could not be considered for bike lanes as a retrofit could incorporate them as part of the new road design. An advantage of both reconstruction and resurfacing is that the design work for the bike lanes is done a part of the overall project and the road painting is done as part of the overall construction project so the cost to add the bike lane in time or human resources is nominal relative to the overall cost of the project. In spite of all this it is rare that bike lanes are incorporated into road reconstruction projects.

Road Reconstruction is also an opportunity to add routes beyond those proposed in the Bike Plan. The Bikeway Network that was included in the Bike Plan was done given the constraints in the road widths and designs leading to some roads not being included. Road reconstruction allows an opportunity to overcome those constraints and include Bike lanes on roads that fit the principles of connectivity/continuity and directness that are supposed to govern the design of the Bikeway Network. It is also an opportunity to make the roads, that don't have bike lanes proposed for them, safer for cyclists by incorporating Bike Friendly Street design principles such as “Provide wide curb lanes and on arterial roads” and, “Provide bicycle friendly features for bridges/underpasses” as recommended in the “Bicycle Friendly Streets” chapter of the Toronto Bike Plan.

The difficulty in getting bike lanes (or other changes that would benefit cyclists such as wider curb lanes) incorporated into the these projects is the process where these projects are selected and the budgets for the projects set. The reconstructions are only planned two years ahead and the budget is set based on the existing design. It is frustrating for those people wanting to ensure that cycling infrastructure improvements are incorporated into the designs because by the time the list of projects is released the budgets have been set. Changes to the design can't be entertained since the budget had already been set. The outcome of this process is that the street is generally reconstructed according to its previous design. There have been exceptions to this but that usually requires extra effort on the part of the local councillor or staff to flag the street early in the process and ensure the designs and budgets incorporate changes that will allow for bike lanes.

Roads are not reconstructed often, when the designs are made for a road as part of the reconstruction they are cementing in place what the road will look like for the next 50 years. The designers of these roads should not be photocopying the designs of the 1950s. Any road construction projects should contribute toward the goal of creating a sustainable transportation system that we will need to face the challenges of the future not preserve the car centric ideals of the past.

Now as Transportation Services Staff and Council look at how to accomplish the goal of completing the Bikeway Network by 2012 they have to ensure the policies of the Transportation Services Division and the processes for approving the designs and budgets for road reconstructions and resurfacing include a review of the options for cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes on the road and incorporation of those into the road design to ensure the finished road will best serve the needs of cyclists.