The Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC) will be meeting on September 21, 2009 at Toronto City Hall at 100 Queen Street West in Committee Room 3 on the second floor. The meetings are open to the public. You can download the agenda at the following link TCAC Sept 21, 2009 Agenda

On the agenda is a discussion on the use of e-bikes on city bike lanes and bike paths as well as a recommendation from the Pedestrian Committee that 'power assisted bicycles' not be permitted on sidewalks.

Also on the agenda is an update on the 2009 Bike Plan program.

The next meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee will take place on Monday March 23, 2009. It will take place at 7:00 pm in Committee Room 2 on the second floor of Toronto City Hall at 100 Queen St. West. The meetings are open to the public. You can see the agenda at the following link. Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee Agenda, March 23 2009.

One item on the agenda is a presentation from a community organization, Cycle 26, on improving cycling infrastructure in Ward 26.

Also on the agenda is a presentation entitled 2009 Toronto Bike Plan Program. Hopefully this will include the list of the Bikeway Network Projects planned this year. Seventy kilometres of on street bike lanes have been promised this year. As well Transportation Services has assumed the responsibility for the construction of Bikeway Network trails in Toronto's Parks. Hopefully this presentation will include plans for this area in 2009. This presentation is currently not online but should be posted after the meeting at the following link 2009 Toronto Bike Plan Program

The Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee(TCAC) will have its first meeting of 2009 on Monday January 19th at 7:00 pm in Committee Room 2 of Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street W. This meeting is open to the public and you can see the items up for discussion on their agenda TCAC Agenda, January 19, 2009.

Highlights of the agenda include a Toronto Bike Plan Update and a Park Trails Projects Update. (As of January 15th these two reports are not available yet online but the agenda notes they will be added to the agenda on January 20th, 2009 after the TCAC meeting.) As the City of Toronto heads into the new year with a renewed commitment to building the Bikeway Network as recommended in the Toronto Bike Plan, which is evidenced by an increased capital budget an a reorganization of the responsibility for building bicycle paths in Toronto's parks, this will be an opportunity to look at what happened over the past year and look for solutions to obstacles that were encountered in the past year.

I hope the city will return to the practice of issuing an annual Toronto Bike Plan progress report to Council through the cycling committee. The last official report that can be found on the city's Cycling Reports and Official Documents webpage was the Year 3 strategy report which was issued in 2005. In order to permit and encourage residents to become engaged in the city processes all of the reports to the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee should be made accessible to the public just as they are for Council's standing committees. These reports should be made available on-line in a searchable text form (ie. PDF), preferably before the meeting where they will be discussed. It has become practice to hand out reports at the meeting and then not always posting them online afterwards. Sometimes when reports are posted they are in a scanned form that is not searchable.

In order for the City of Toronto to reach its Bike Plan goals it is going to need the involvement of an increasing number of Toronto Residents to work with Councillors to promote routes planned in the Bikeway Network, promote programs proposed in other sections of the Bike Plan and promote cycling as a mode of transportation. Ensuring that the documents explaining the City's plans being implemented, issues being discussed and challenges being faced are available and accessible will allow Toronto residents to become informed and engaged in the process.

Date: Thursday November 13th, 2008
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: North York Civic Centre committee Room 5

Agenda: North York Cycling & Pedestrian Committee

1. Budget
   1. Recent spending
   2. Future spending?
2. TCAC Update
   1. Bike Plan Budget
   2. Other
3. Downsview Park
   1. CN Rail Line
   2. Other Downsveiw Secondary Plan info
4. Local northwest issues
   1. Old Cummer GO Station Bike racks
   2. Ester Shiner Blvd.
   3. McNicol Reconstruction
5. Lawrence/Allen Rd walking & cycling audit
6. Metrolinx
7. New Business

The next meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee is on Monday April 14th at 7:00 p.m. in Committee Room 2 of Toronto City Hall at 100 Queen Street West.

Highlights from the agenda are:

• A Toronto Police Service presentation on a Bikes and Wheel Sport Safety Campaign
• Toronto BIke Plan Update
  • 50 km of bike lanes up for approval in May and June
  • Eglinton Path upgrade continues from Royal York to Humber River
  • West Toronto Rail path construction to start summer 2008
  • Bloor Danforth Bike lane update
  • 2008 Toronto Bike Map available
  • Kids CAN-BIKE Camp and CAN-BIKE update
• Snow Removal on Bike lanes
• South Kingsway - The Queensway Interchange Cycling Issues
• and more...

You can see the full agenda and linked reports with more details here. TCAC Agenda: April 14th, 2008.

The meeting is open to the public. If you want to make a deputation or send a written deputation on an item from the agenda you can contact the Committee Secretary, Frank Baldassini. You can see his contact information at the top of the agenda.

The next Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC) meeting will be held Monday March 17, 2008, 7:00 p.m. in Committee Room 2 at City Hall, 100 Queen Street West.

Agenda:

1. Update- Centennial Park Masterplan
   (7:00-7:10 pm)
2. Great Waterfront Trail Adventure
   (Presentation - 7:10 - 7:25 pm)
3. Toronto Cyclists Union
   (Presentation - 7:25pm - 7:45 pm)
4. TTC - Transit City Light Rail Projects
   (7:45 to 8:00 pm)
5. Winter Snow Removal on Bike Lanes
   (8:00 - 8:15 pm)
6. Bike Racks on TTC Buses & Streetcars
   (8:15 to 8:20 pm)
7. Request for Funding - Full Time Trails & Pathways Planner
   (8:20 - 8:25 pm)
8. Traffic Data Centre and Safety Bureau 2006 - Cyclists Involved in Collisions Statistics
   (8:25 - 8:30 pm)
9. Toronto Bike Plan Update
   (8:30 - 8:35 pm)
10. 2008 Bike Month - Presentation on the Various Plans & Events
    (Presentation - 8:35 to 9:00 pm)

The agenda looks rather packed...

The next meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC) will be on Monday December 10th, 2007 at 7 pm. The meeting location is as follows:
Committee Room 4
2nd Floor, City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Toronto
The meeting is open to the public. This second meeting of the new TCAC will see several issues being discussed. One of those is the bollards that were installed on the Martin Goodman Trail over the summer of 2007.

The bollards installed on the Martin Goodman Trail at the entrance to the Boulevard Club are one of the issues on the TCAC agenda. TCAT has more information on this issue at the following link Martin Goodman Trail Bollards - Issue to be addressed by TCAC, December 10th. iBike Toronto reported on this earlier in the year Never Mind the Bollards

Some of the other items on the agenda are:

• Election of 2 committee co-chairs
• TCAC reps for Ontario Place Martin Goodman Trail project
• Toronto Police Service On-Line Bicycle Registration System
• GO-by-Bike presentation
• Bicycle Trade Association of Canada (BTAC) - Proposals for 2008 Bike Month
• Toronto Bike Plan Progress Report
• Presentation on Sharrow Pavement Markings

You can download the full agenda with more details at the following link TCAC Agenda December 10, 2007.

Agenda North York Cycling & Pedestrian Committee

Thursday November 8th, 2008 7pm

North York Civic Centre Committee Rm 5

• 1. Budget
• a. Recent spending
• b. New ideas
• 2. Proposed 2008 bike lanes for North York
• 3. New Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee
• 4. Correspondence
• 5. New Business

  Light refreshments will be served.

The first meeting of the newly appointed Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee will happen this Monday October 15, 2007 at 7:00 pm at City Hall in Committee Room 1. You can see the agenda at the following link: October 15, 2007 TCAC agenda. AS this is the first meeting, many of the items relate to getting the Committee up and running. Some of the other highlights from the agenda are:

• A report on the Queens Quay West Environmental Assessment Stakeholder Committee from Clay McFayden

  This Environmental Assessment is regarding the plan to extend the Martin Goodman Trail through the central waterfront area in the space currently occupied by the Eastbound lanes of Queens Quay. See previous article

• Presentation of the Toronto Bike Plan Public Consultation session and the Dotmocracy Results.
• A status report on the Planned Construction of Bicycle Lanes for 2007

The meetings are open to the public and are a good way to learn about what is happening in the city related to the bike plan.

At its September 26th, 2007 meeting Toronto City Council approved the citizen membership of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, TCAC. Councillor Adrian Heaps was appointed as the representative from Council in April of 2007. Members of the new committee are:

Those familiar with the old TCC will notice that the committee has changed in size and composition. There are now 8 citizen members, not 15 as in the past, and there are no longer permanent committee seats allocated to representatives of local cycling organizations. The new Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee Terms of reference outlining these changes were approved at the June 19, 2006 City Council Meeting.

The next meeting of the TCAC will be on November 12, 2007. You can see the 2007 meeting schedule for the committee and links to the agendas at the following link: Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee Agendas

Martin Koob
info@biketoronto.ca

The North York Cycling & Pedestrian Committee is holding its next meeting on Thursday July 12th at 7:00 pm, North York Civic Centre, Committee room 4.

Agenda
• Committee Budget
• Bike Week Review
• TCC Update
• Bike Racks On Buses
• Wilkett Creek Trail Rehab
• Mount Pleasant BikeLane
• Pedestrian Issues
• Correspondence
• New Business

Light refreshments served.

For more info e-mail Ron Hart at ronhart@sympatico.ca.

The City of Toronto has sent out a news release announcing that the nominations for the 8 positions on Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee are now open. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday July 18th at 4:30 pm. Details about the application process can be found at the City of Toronto's web page Information for Appointment of Citizens to the Toronto Cycling Committee. This includes an information package on the nomination process and application forms.

The new Cycling Advisory Committee will be operating under the revised terms of reference that were propsed by Councillor Adrian Heaps, the Councillor who has been appointed by Council to the Committee. The committee will consist of 8 members at large and there will no longer be representatives of the local cycling groups nor a representative of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee on the new Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee. There had been attempts by cycling community members to have amendments made to maintain the representatives of these groups and have a more frequent meeting schedule (See previous article). These were ultimately unsuccessful. At the June 19th, 20th, 2007 City Council meeting, the revised terms of reference were passed without the amendments proposed by those in the cycling community.

I am hoping this set back doesn't deter people from applying to be on the cycling committee. Once the Committee is reconstituted there will be opportunities to expand the scope of community involvement by the establishment of subcommittees and by setting a meeting schedule that will allow the committee to respond to the various issues that need to be addressed in a timely way. As Council is developing and implementing the climate change plan and looks at a plan to create a sustainable transportation system the Cycling Advisory Committee will need to play an important role to ensure that cycling remains a key element in these plans to reduce Toronto's green house gas emissions and that cycling plays a significant role in Toronto's transportation system. So if you want to see the Bike Plan implemented so that Toronto can become a better place to bike and an easier place to breathe then submit your application to be a member of the committee.

The proposed terms of reference for the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee came up for debate at the Planning and Growth Management committee on Thursday, May 31, 2007. There were two in person deputations and many written deputations submitted on the issue. After the deputations Councillor Adam Vaughan led a discussion with Councillor Adrian Heaps and the Chair of the Committee Councillor Brian Ashton as to how the concerns expressed by residents through the letters and presentations could be addressed. In the end Councillor Vaughan proposed an motion that would allow an opportunity for consultation on some key areas of concern prior to the Terms of Reference going for final approval at the June 19, 2007 Council meeting. The motion asked for a report on three issues, which are listed below, to go directly to council with this item when it comes up for debate on June 19th. This opens up the opportunity for amendments to be made on the floor of council based on the consultations looking at the three issues. The three issues to be dealt with in the report are.

1. The Cycling Advisory Committee having more frequent meetings, (more frequent than 4 but not to exceed 10 per year, Councillor Vaughan suggested 6.)
2. The Cycling Advisory Committee being consulted directly by the Budget Committee during the budget process. (Councillor Vaughan used the example of how the library board is directly consulted in the budget process.)
3. That the Cycling Advisory Committee explore a smaller membership than the 22 members (specified in the previous terms of reference) that was blended to include both geographic representation and representatives of organizations.

The amendment was passed along with the terms of reference originally proposed. These will go on to the next City Council Meeting on June 19th. This does not delay the approval of the terms of reference since those would have been approved at the same June 19th meeting. This motion does not guarantee that there will be amendments to the Terms of Reference. What it does do is allow for time for some consultation with the community to determine what the contents of the report on the three issues should be and whether amendments should be made.

I was impressed with the work of Councillor Vaughan, the Committee Chair, Councillor Ashton and Councillor Heaps during the meeting to try and provide an opportunity to respond to the concerns expressed by Toronto residents on this issue and still get the Terms of Reference approved in June so the committee can get up and running as soon as possible. This is a chance to ensure that the Cycling Advisory Committee is truly representative and can effectively consult with Torontonians and advise Council in the planned accelerated phase of the implementation of the Toronto Bike Plan.

Martin Koob
info@biketoronto.ca