On November 5th, 2008 the City of Toronto will hold budget hearings on the 2009 Capital Budget. This is your opportunity to comment on this year's budget and the funding of the Toronto Bike Plan. This year however Bike Plan supporters are not facing the uphill struggle of trying to get funds for the Bike Plan into the budget. This year can offer their support for significant measures already contained in the recommended budget that will allow for real progress on implementing the Bikeway Network and expand bicycle parking. That is not to say there are some areas for clarification and further improvement but after reviewing the budget documents released so far I have to say this budget marks a significant turning point in the implementation of the Bike Plan.

On October 30th Mayor David Miller and Budget Committee Chair Shelly Carrol introduced the City of Toronto's Capital Budget. Press Release: Toronto's 2009 Capital Budget supports growth and liveability. The Bike Plan figures prominently in this budget with an increase in funding for 2009 to $8 million and a commitment of $70 million to fund the building of the Bikeway Network in the 2009-2013 capital plan in order to complete the Bikeway Network by 2012 as promised by Mayor Miller. These funds will allow the building of 410 KM of bicycle lanes, 122 KM of shared roadways and 83 KM of off road paths. The budget also contains measures to provide more bicycle parking including funding for the first Bicycle Station - secure parking facility. A budget fact sheet has been released on the Bike Plan summarizes the budget measures intended to implement the Bike Plan: Fact Sheet: Transportation Services - Bike Plan Implementation.

Having the money in the 5 year capital plan does not mean the money is in the bank. Some of the funding to implement the 2009-2013 capital plan will have to come from the Province of Ontario. Page 4 of the Transportation Services budget Analyst notes indicate that

"The City will be seeking funding of $28.790 million from the Province in order to complete east-west links through the Finch and Gatineau Hydro Corridors that is vital to the completion of the Bike Plan."

Page 22 of the same document indicates that the City will ask for the money from the Province of Ontario's Move Ontario 2020 Program. It is good to see that the City is asking the province for funding for cycling infrastructure. In the past fund from federal and provincial infrastructure programs have been directed almost exclusively to road and transit projects. It is time that cycling infrastructure projects get a piece of the pie. Supporters of improving cycling in Toronto should get behind this proposal and work with the city to ensure these funds flow to the city for these worthwhile projects. Cycling infrastructure should no longer be ignored when transportation infrastructure agreements are negotiated between the city and federal and provincial governments.

This budget signals a change in approach towards implementing the Bikeway Network with the City's Transportation Services Division taking over most of the responsibility for building the three components of the Bikeway Network: on-street bicycle lanes, on-street signed bicycle routes and now off-street bike paths. This is also explained on page 22 of the Transportation Services budget Analyst notes and elsewhere in the document. Up till now the City's Parks Forestry and Recreation Division had the responsibility for building bicycle paths in Toronto's parks however implementation of these projects has been largely stalled due to a lack of funding in the Parks Forestry and Recreation Division (PF&R) capital budgets. To me there seemed always to have been a mismatch between the approach by the PF&R division towards park paths and the vision in the Toronto Bike Plan that the existing and future paths in parks are an important component in a city wide transportation network. The shift in responsibility for these projects to Transportation Services is a welcome change which I think should result in better coordination of these projects and better integration into the Bikeway network.

The Bike Plan Fact sheet also indicates that there will be an increase in staff to implement these projects. Last year's increase in staff in Transportation Services showed some results with an increase in the number of bike lane projects designed and approved. However the 37 km approved is less than the 50 km forecast so more staff are going to be needed if the city is to increase the number of on-street bike lane projects and to now take on the off-street park path projects.

There is further information on Bikeway Network related budget measures in the Budget presentation document: City of Toronto2009 - 2013 Recommended Capital Budget and Plan, and 2014 -2018 Proposed Capital Forecast.

• The 5 year capital plan for 2009 - 2013 has $70 million in it to complete 410 KM of bicycle lanes, 122 KM of shared roadways and 83 KM of off road paths. (pages 7 & 16).

There are other capital projects included in the 2009 budget that could contribute to the expansion and improvement of the Bikeway network. In some cases they definitely will include cycling infrastructure. For others there needs to be some followup to ensure this is the case.

• Complete Port Union and MimicoParks (2009 $1.700 M, 2009 -2013 $10.300 M) (see pg. 14)
  -These park projects do include bike paths that will extend existing waterfront trails.
• Construct an underpass to eliminate the Dufferin Street Jog creating a regular intersection to facilitate existing and future area traffic operations (2009 $24.770 M, 2009 -2013 $26.270 M) (pg. 9)
  -I think this project was to include bike lanes. The question is if the bike lane is included in this project
• Continue construction of a Bus Rapid Transit way (BRT) from Downsview to York University and continue development of a BRT via Yonge Street from Finch station to SteelesAve. (2009 $12.209 M, 2009 -2013 $40.256 M) (pg. 12)
  -This project was supposed to include a Bikeway alongside of the route thru the Finch Hydro corridor. This was to be the first leg of the Finch Hydro Corridor Bikeway. The question here is if this project will include that Bikeway.
• Maintain 420 kms of roads, rehabilitate 80 bridges and structures in a safe and hazard-free state and to minimize life cycle costs of the assets (2009 $173.193 M, 2009 -2013 $836.679 M) (pg. 9)
  -this budget pays for road reconstruction and resurfacing. Each of these projects could include adding bike lanes or bike friendly street measures as part of the reconstruction or resurfacing. The question is whether the process is in place to ensure that Bike lanes or bike friendly street principles are considered in the design of these projects.

Another area of concern regarding the capital budget which is not covered in the documents released so far is the repair and maintenance of existing park paths. Last year budget documents indicated there was a $20 million backlog in State of Good Repair projects for Park trails and pathways. One question to ask will be if that back log will be addressed in the current budget and capital plan.

If you want to make a presentation to the Budget Committee to offer your support for the measures to implement the Bike Plan you can do so in writing or in person. The details of how you can do that are contained in the Budget Press Release. There will likely be some attempts by some Councillors to remove the funds for the Bike Plan from the budget. Letters and comments of support will assist the Mayor, David Miller and Councillor Adrian Heaps, the Chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee and other Bike Plan supporters on Council make the case for this significant investment in cycling infrastructure and an improved environment in our city.

Martin Koob,
bikeToronto