Mick Sweetman of George Brown College criticizes Toronto city council's decision to remove an existing bike lane heavily used by that college's students.
The city council dominated by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is often criticized for its regressive decisions where transportation planning is concerned, such as de-funding the "Transit City" plan. Now council has voted to remove a bike lane in order to "speed up" motor vehicle traffic, despite warnings that council will "have blood on its hands" as a result of inevitable cyclist deaths and injuries.
"[T]he estimated time that drivers will be saving by City Council's decision to eliminate the bike lanes on Jarvis Street is two minutes. A shorter wait than the average line at Tim Hortons [coffee shop] is what your city council thinks is more important than the safety of the 1,000 cyclists that ride on Jarvis Street every day. How many of those cyclists are riding to and from George Brown College's St. James campus, which sits only 150 meters from Jarvis St.? While the construction of separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street -- which won't be ready until 2014 and so far are little more than glorified speed bumps -- are a good addition to the...poor cycling infrastructure in this city it makes no sense to be removing bike lanes from Jarvis.
I hate to say it, but city councilor Mike Layton is right when he said that cyclists are going to die on Jarvis because of this decision. When, not if, a cyclist is injured on Jarvis Street, their blood will be on [the] hands [of Mayor Rob Ford's supporters on Council]."
Read the full story: Why ripping up bike lanes in Toronto will hurt students and cost lives
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