TCAT News & Events

Last TCAT News, we reported that City Council placed a number of conditions on BIXI, the public bike share program that is coming to Toronto. One of these is that 1000 membership pledges are required by Nov 30th.

Be one of the first to SUBSCRIBE this Wednesday at the BIXI Bash.

The BIXI Bash held at the Gladstone Hotel on July 28th 2010 at 7 pm will provide you an opportunity to be one of the first to subscribe to BIXI Toronto and help make public bikes a reality in our City!

Mitigation Information Meeting

With City Council approval of the Ashbridges Bay Maintenance and Storage Facility, the project is now undergoing the Transit Project Assessment (TPA) Process to determine its environmental impacts.

The new facility will store 100 of the new TTC cars and will open in 2013. The plan also includes a non-revenue track on Leslie Street between Queen and Commissioner Streets.

Bike lanes are being added to Jarvis Street this week, between Charles Street and Queen Street East. To include bike lanes on both sides of the street, the centre reversible lane was removed last week.

City Council approved the installation of two bike lanes on Jarvis Street in May 2009 after considerable debate between providing cycling or pedestrian infrastructure. TCAT's position on Jarvis can be found here.

On June 16th, 2010 Waterloo City Council approved a Transportation Master Plan that features a Complete Streets policy as its "cornerstone" component. "As a result, Active Transportation becomes an integral part of the municipal transportation system." (The City of Waterloo Transportation Master Plan, "A City that is truly accessible to all", June 2010, pg 26). Read the full plan here.

This month, Vélo Québec released Planning and Design for Pedestrians and Cyclists. This 150+ page technical guide is intended for planning professionals as well as active transportation advocates. According to Vélo Québec:

“The information in Planning and Design for Pedestrians and Cyclists is drawn from Vélo Québec's expertise in the field of active transportation and from the contributions of experts in matters of local planning, design and mobility.”

In a recent Pembina Institute Foundation report of transportation case studies in 6 Canadian cities found that 43% of Toronto commuters occasionally choose to walk, cycle or take transit, second only to the City of Montreal (46%). The number of Torontonians regularly commuting by walking and cycling increased from 2% in 2001 to 9% in 2006. However, Toronto has the fewest bike lanes and bike paths per capita (on-street 250 km, off-street 168km) of all comparison cities.

What does “complete street” mean? Spacing Toronto’s Andrew Walsh attended TCAT's Complete Streets Forum and spoke with Barbara McCann from the National Complete Streets Coalition and New York City's Assistant Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability Andy Wiley-Schwartz and learned about the history of the Complete Streets movement and the potential for Toronto.

The City of Toronto is currently considering reconfiguring Front Street West from Bay Street to York Street to accommodate anticipated increased pedestrian traffic resulting from GO Transit’s expansion.

Ideas coming from the city include:

Toronto. Great news BUT City Council imposed several important conditions that need to be fulfilled by Nov 30th in order for the program to move forward. One of these is that 1000 membership pledges are required by Nov 30th.

The Toronto BIXI team has prepared the attached Q&A. Please have a look and get ready to sign up for BIXI Toronto as soon as memberships become available!

Last week, City Council approved the installation of “No Right Turn on Red” regulations at 5 downtown intersections. Prohibiting right turns on red at these intersections is required in order to install bike boxes and pedestrian scrambles, similar to those already in place at Yonge-Bloor and Yonge-Dundas.

The Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) released their Mid-Campaign Mayoral Candidate Report Card last week. The organization ranked five of the mayoral candidates based on their commitment to the following six categories:

Each month Good News Toronto features a suggested act of kindness in their ongoing Kindness Campaign. This month's campaign is aimed at improving the relationship between cyclists and motorists. Readers are invited to perform a suggested random act of kindness (or one of their choosing) and leave behind the “Kindness Card” provided in the newspaper.

The City of Toronto, in association with the Toronto Entertainment District Business Improvement Area, is undertaking a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (EA) Study to examine potential improvements to the public realm of John Street consistent with concepts outlined in the Toronto Entertainment District Master Plan.

Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Bikefest is gearing up for its full day event this Saturday July 3 from 9:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. in Liberty Village, next to Lamport Stadium, on Fraser Avenue between King Street and Liberty Street.

MEC's Bikefest is a community celebration of bicycles and all things bicycle related. The goal is to connect the bicycle community with new cyclists. Activities will include:

In the 1970s, Toronto enacted a bylaw that made playing street hockey in the street illegal. But, now city staff and councilors are considering getting rid of the bylaw, thanks to a campaign by Matthew Blacket, member of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee and publisher of Spacing Toronto.

“It’s wrong to have bylaws that outlaw ‘the active and healthy lifestyle that our government is actually trying to encourage,’" said Blackett.

On June 22nd, Toronto and East York Community Council voted unanimously to a report authorizing right turn on red prohibitions at four intersections in order to install bike boxes. The report also included a fifth intersection (Bay-Bloor) where right turns on red will be prohibited when the pedestrian scramble is installed. Prohibiting right turns on reds is critical to improving both the safety of cyclists and pedestrians.

On Jun 19-20, pedestrians enjoyed two car-free days on St. Clair Ave. This successful event was organized by the City of Toronto's Public Realm Section. The attached slides show what a great day it was for all involved and here are a couple of quotes from participants:

"This is fostering a real sense of community. We're running into neighbours that we wouldn't otherwise see."

"I live in the neighbourhood, and today I've found shops that I never knew existed."

In the last TCAT News, we told you about Ride the City, a mapping service for cyclists. Now they’ve launched Biking Jobs, a website that posts bike-related jobs. For more information, see their blog.

TCAT Director Nancy Smith Lea gave a presentation on Clean Air Partnership’s study “Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business, Year 2 Report: A Study of Bloor Street in Toronto's Bloor West Village" to the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee on June 7, 2010.

TCAT has been invited to present its current research on community-based walkability audits at the upcoming Walk21 Conference in the Netherlands. This research, commissioned by the City of Toronto, teases out issues relevant to community-based walkability audit tools - tools administered by community members, without the need for formal training.

The University of British Columbia’s cycling research program, Cycling in Cities, released its preliminary findings of their Bicyclists' Injuries and the Cycling Environment study. TCAT first announced this study in 2007 when we were brought on as a consultant for Toronto.

This week, Spacing published its second article in a two-part series on TCAT's recent Complete Streets Forum. (TCAT reported on the first post in the last TCAT News.)

The release this month of Changing Gears: Toronto for Cyclists documents cycling improvements in the city thus far and provides encouraging statistics about ridership. The report sets 7 priorities:

The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, at its meeting of June 15, will be considering a staff report seeking authority to install 13 new traffic control signals and road alterations to enhance 5 uncontrolled trail crossings, related to 30 kilometres of new trails and 4 kilometres of upgraded trails along the Finch Hydro Corridor, Gatineau Hydro Corridor and CN Leaside Rail Corridor, across the North York and Scarborough Districts. View the report here.

The City of Toronto is celebrating the culture of walking with “St. Clair Feet on the Street”.

Pedestrians will get to enjoy St. Clair Avenue West closed to cars, but not streetcars, in both directions between Vaughan Road and Winona Drive on Saturday, June 19th from 5-11pm and on Sunday, June 20th from 9am-8pm.

The event will feature sidewalk sales, displays and information tables from businesses along the street and restaurant/café patios operating on the sidewalks. The TTC heritage streetcar will offer FREE rides on Sunday.