Welcome to Cyclometer, a monthly newsletter to keep cyclists informed about cycling issues and programs in the City of Toronto.
CONTENTS:
1) Bike Lanes and Business on College-Carlton
by Will Wallace
Since the bike lanes on College and Carlton Streets were installed in October of last year, businesses between Bay and Church have been lobbying for their removal and the return of the parking meters on that section of the route. Cyclists want the bike lanes retained, especially considering the fact they have only existed for a few months.
The City Services Committee heard a long list of deputants on both sides of the issue on December 15th, and City Council debated the issue for three hours on January 28th. Council voted 9 to 8 in favour of keeping the lanes for now while City staff and the Cycling Committee re-evaluate all the possible options.
City Services Committee is holding a special meeting to address the issue on Tuesday, March 22 beginning at 7:30 pm in the Council Chamber. If you would like to make a deputation at that meeting call the City Clerk’s office at 392-7030. Written deputations can be sent to City Services Committee, 2nd Floor, City Hall, Toronto, M5H 2N2, or faxed to 392-6990. We encourage as many cyclists as possible to come to the meeting and/or to send letters to demonstrate support for bike lanes.
There are a number of proposals about what to do in this situation ranging from retaining the bike lanes as is, to operating them during rush hour only, to re-routing the bike lanes south to Gerrard Ave. We are considering input we’ve received from cyclists on what works best, and is in the long-term best interest for the development of a bike lane network in this City.
By the time you read this the Cycling Committee will have determined what option they will be recommending to Council. If you want to express your ideas come out to the Bicycle Planning Subcommittee meeting on March 15th, 6:30 pm at 81 Elizabeth St. If you can’t make it and you want more information call the City’s bicycle planner, Daniel Egan at 392-1143. He can send you a brief outline the Committee’s position.
In the meantime, we want to let businesses know that bikes mean business. We want to create a cooperative relationship with business as best we can, but first we need to understand each other. Cyclists, please get out there and start talking to businesses about the benefits of cycling, particularly its economic benefits. If we are invisible to business people, then we are not getting the service we deserve and they are not profiting from a growing group of customers. We need each other to ensure a vibrant city.
2) Cyclometer Comes Out Of Hibernation
We’re back after four months of hibernation. We cancelled the last 1993 issue after the City froze all non-essential budget items last November. You have probably heard of the City’s budgetary woes - there just isn’t as much money as there used to be. We are planning to do fewer Cyclometer issues this year and are looking at ways to make it more efficient. You will be hearing more about this in the next issue in April. If you are getting more than one copy, please leave a message (with your name and address) on our answering machine, 392-7592.
Starting with this issue, Cyclometer will be posted on the electronic bulletin board, One Less Car (OLC), operated by TCCC member Peter Kraiker. If you have a computer (Apple, Commodore or PC) and a modem (any type or speed between 1,200bps and 14,400bps), check it out. One Less Car is available 24 hours every day and is free to use. Set your modem to 8,N,1 and call OLC at (416)480-0147. If you prefer it to Canada Post (it will reach you faster) let us know and we’ll stop mailing to you.
Paul Rappell, former Co-chair of the TCCC takes over as editor with this issue. Thanks to outgoing editor Jennifer Hushion for her tireless work on Cyclometer last year.
3) Get On The ‘94 BTWW Poster
by Sue Zielinski
This year’s mosaic style Bike To Work Week poster by designer Janet Morton is a work of art you’ll want to keep on your wall well beyond 1994. Check out the Toronto International Bike Show Program cover for a colour rendition. In fact it’s so beautiful that you may want to be part of it. If you have a business or service you’d like to advertise, you can buy one to four business card sized ads around the poster, and receive 1000 full colour business cards in the bargain. The posters are distributed to BUGs, corporations, small businesses, community centres, and other public spaces. Decide soon, as spaces are disappearing fast. For more information on how to participate, call Ewa at 531-7907.
4) Culture and Economics: Bicycle Commuter Program Focus
by Sue Zielinski
With goals like bicycle-based economic development and strengthening bicycle culture, the TCCC’s Bicycle Commuter Program has its work - and its fun - cut out for 1994. The seeds of this cultural/economic focus were planted last year with the very successful Bikes Mean Business Conference, and with the co-incidence of diverse facets of Toronto’s bicycle culture, including the BUG network, the birth of Song Cycles (the Choir On Bikes), the continued presence of bicycle art and fashion, and the general move towards putting bikes to work as well as riding them there.
Why culture and economics? Well economics, not only because it’s on people’s minds a fair bit these days, but also because even though we know that bicycles are, in the words of Wayne Roberts in his book Get A Life, ‘the most economically elegant vehicle’, there’s some work to do before the conditions exist to realize the bicycle’s full economic potential - or elegance. Culture, because no true change can happen without sharing visions of what’s possible. Bicycles will only be embraced by a broad base of people if they succeed in capturing a broad range of imaginations.
Fortunately, the Bicycle Commuter Program has a few mechanisms for furthering these goals. To keep up with it all and then share it, there are several communications channels. The latest on the scene is One Less Car, an electronic bulletin board for cyclists operated by BCP chair and sysop Peter Kraiker. Dial 480-0147 on your modem and go for a virtual cycle!
If you want to meet members of the bicycle culture in person, there are Bike Commuter Salons - information and resource sharing sessions that happen monthly. For a more social and less formal communication forum, BUGnites are held on the third Thursday of every month after a short group ride starting at Hart House (U. of T.) at 6:00 p.m. Chat about the bicycle movement and other things with other cyclists and potential cyclists at a local restaurant or cafe. Then, if you want to read up on it all in the privacy of your own home or office, try the BUGle, the newsletter of Toronto’s Bicycle User Groups. It comes out four times a year and profiles the projects and tribulations of BUGs all over the city.
The BUGle may inspire you to form a BUG within your workplace, play place, school, or place of residence, if you haven’t already. All BUGs receive a BUG Directory Kit, complete with index cards, labels and information on all registered BUGs, a handy hand-designed (by Paul Murphy) and stamped index card box, a BUG form to give to other budding BUGs, and a BUG certificate to hang prominently and publicly on your wall.
The BUG directory will also help you gear up for Bike To Work Week, by putting you in touch with other BUGs and purveyors of bicycle culture. May 14 - 20, 1994 marks the fifth anniversary of Bike To Work Week. This year the velobrations go bigger on the BIKE and smaller on the TO WORK, as the realm of bicycle culture and economics broadens. While old favourites like the ride-in, the pancake breakfast and other breakfasts, and the art auction will remain firm traditions, new events will focus on biking to school, bicycle friendly businesses, new shapes of bikes, new secure parking systems, trailers, and delivery vehicles, developing your own bike maintenance skills, bicycle art, music, and theatre, and of course, getting new cyclists out on the streets.
If any or all of this captures YOUR imagination, call the Bicycle Commuter Program at 392-1556.
5) What’s Ahead for Cycling Education and Enforcement
by June Macdonald
CAN-BIKE
Expanding the Can-Bike course will be the Education and Enforcement Subcommittee’s top priority this year. Once you are Can-Bike II trained, it’s pretty obvious who isn’t. Can Bike graduates don’t catch your attention since they confidently blend in so well with traffic. Their actions are comforting to other road users because they are always clear about their intentions.
Can-Bike courses give you the freedom to enjoy cycling more under varied traffic conditions. Even cyclists who have ridden in city traffic for more than 20 years say they learned new things from the course.
Can-Bike course offerings continue to expand each year with more courses at each of the three levels: Cycle Right for children, Can Bike I for beginning adults and Can Bike II for more experienced cyclists. Call our CAN-BIKE hotline at 392-1311 for info or to register for a course.
6) The SPACE Programme and Beyond
S.P.A.C.E is an acronym for Safety, Prevention, Awareness, Courtesy and Enforcement: all features needed in our interactions in public space whether we cycle, walk, or drive. The Education and Enforcement Subcommittee, along with the Police, held 17 roadside events last year to encourage observance of laws that apply to cycling and make the roads safer for all.
This year, SPACE activities will be expanded to include bike lane behaviours, to work even more closely with the police to target problem areas and add spot checks after the educational event has occurred.
The subcommittee will develop a campaign to address the problem of sidewalk riding. We will work with the Toronto Board of Education to educate children on this issue, and the police to monitor ticketing. We are concerned about not only the hazard this activity presents to all of us as pedestrians but also the danger to people who use bicycles this way.
The subcommittee will continue its work with the Helmet Coalition and other bodies to promote helmet use and compliance with the new law. We will also continue the work we started in 1993 to improve the way bike crashes are reported and analyzed.
The subcommittee is composed of representatives from the Police bicycle patrol, the school boards and Toronto citizens who volunteer their time and energy to encourage cycling for enjoyment, for their health, as well as for a healthier city. Please come and help us work for a safer environment for all.
7) Creating An Infrastructure Program For Cyclists
by Will Wallace, and Cathy Ascroft
1993 - The Year of the Bike Lane
In 1993 the activities of the Bike Planning Subcommittee focused on taking the first steps in creating a bike lane network. Among the highlights were:
- the bike lane petition, collecting over 28,000 names
- bike lanes on Beverley-St.George and College-Carlton
- bike lanes approved on Bay and Davenport Rds. between Cumberland and Dupont. They will be installed in the spring of 1994.
Also of note is the work done on access for the Lower Don Trail. The sub-committee, working with the Task Force to Bring Back the Don and the Safe City Committee, conducted a safety audit last summer. The audit results led to a comprehensive report recommending access and safety improvements for the trail, including: providing more access points and better signage. The report stressed the importance of respecting and preserving the Trail’s sensitive ecosystem. Council adopted the report’s recommendations and, as a result, the Planning and Development Department is pursuing funding to build a stairway to the trail at Queen St. this year.
The sub-committee has also been involved in efforts to improve bicycle parking. A by-law was passed by Council in 1993 requiring that all new buildings provide secure bicycle parking.
We have also been involved in developing and supporting efforts to introduce traffic calming principles to residential streets. The Green Streets Forum in October provided a focus for discussing and developing these initiatives. Following the Forum, City Services Committee established a Traffic Calming Working Group with representatives from various City and Metro agencies to develop traffic calming policy for the City. The report is expected in April this year.
Work is on-going on Harbord St. A working group established by the committee is working closely with area businesses and residents to improve the street for cyclists. Bike lanes and traffic calming are important components of these discussions.
8) Building the Bike Lane Network
The work begun with the bike lanes in 1993 has taught us invaluable lessons, particularly about process. In 1994 we will be working hard to streamline the process of approval and consultation for bike lanes so that we can continue the momentum for bike lanes that has been building over the past few years. We would like to feel that cyclists could expect to see two or three new bike lane routes in the City every year for the next decade.
Proposed routes for 1994 include:
- bike lanes on Sherbourne from Rosedale to Lake Ontario
- the Danforth By-Pass, a route on residential streets that runs parallel to Danforth from Broadview to Woodbine
- bike lanes on portions of Logan and Carlaw
This year will also see us consolidate some of the projects we have started in the past few years. We will finally be publishing some of the research we have done in the past three years. In addition we will be working more closely with the Parks and Recreation Dept. to improve their bicycle parking program and upgrade the Martin Goodman Trail. The new Humber River bicycle and pedestrian bridge will open some time this summer and it will be spectacular. Watch out for us; we will be surveying cyclists on the new bike lanes. If you want to join us, come out to the Bike Planning Subcommittee meetings or call 392-1143 to find out how you can help.
9) Bikes Mean Business Conference A Success
by Will Wallace
The Bikes Mean Business Conference, held last October at Harbourfront was a great success. Nearly 200 people attended the two day conference which featured two plenary sessions and nineteen workshops, a display of innovative bike design, and booths from bike parking companies, cycle touring operators and helmet manufacturers.
The workshops were wide-ranging. They dealt with bikes and community economic development, bikes in the workplace, bike and delivery vehicle design, tourism, fashion, bike security, safety and helmet. There was also a series of workshops on how to start and strengthen your small business.
One of the strongest conclusions reached at the conference was that cyclists and business need to cooperate more, not only inside the cycling sector, but outside it as well: cycling advocacy makes good business.
Many initiatives have grown out of the conference. Most exciting is the Centre for Appropriate Transportation Working Group which is establishing a base for the development of work and delivery bikes in the city and for the provision of cyling-related services.
Clearly, one of the breakthroughs from the conference is that more and more cyclists are focusing their attention on the potential for local economic development that bicycles can offer.
The Bikes Mean Business organizers, along with the Community Bicycle Network and the Independent Bicycle Dealers Association and others, are planning several seminars and other events later in the year. Leave your name and number at the Transportation Options Office at (phone/fax) (416) 960-0026 if you want to get involved.
10) Women’s Cycling Conference
by Jennifer Elliott and Shirley Lum
The Women On Wheels Cycling Conference on Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1, offers opportunities to network with experienced and aspiring cyclists on a wide scale. Two hundred women are expected to converge on Metro Hall in downtown Toronto for two days of workshops, demonstrations and discussions.
Workshop topics, a total of 20, will range from the practical to the political. Bike mechanics will demonstrate flat tire repair and basic tune up skills. Can Bike instructors will describe techniques for cycling in traffic safely and using your gears efficiently. Women cyclists have long been in the forefront of demanding comfort and presenters focusing on this concern include a chiropractor, massage therapists, a fitness instructor and a representative from a company building bike frames exclusively for women. There will be workshops for cyclists with special interests in touring, racing, and cycling with kids. Activists from Toronto and Ottawa will discuss some of the current hot political topics.
Metro Councillor Olivia Chow will welcome participants at noon on Saturday. Toronto’s unique Choir On Bikes will perform songs appropriate for the occasion. Outside on the square, Workshop On Wheels, a project of the Community Bike Network, will offer basic bike safety and maintenance assistance to cyclists and bikes in need.
Registration is $40.00 for the weekend. To register or for more information call the Women On Wheels Hot-line at 246-1553 or 462-1938. Advance registration only.
11) Centre for Appropriate Transportation
by Gillian Kranias
As an offshoot of the Bikes Mean Business conference last fall, a group of designers, entrepreneurs and bike enthusiasts has assembled to begin (at least one) Centre for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) in Toronto. A ‘CAT’ is a service station of the future - where work bikes and accessories can be designed, built, rented, sold and repaired. The group can be contacted through the Community Bicycle Network and 323-0897.
12) Tune Up With The Bike Choir
by Sue Zielinski
Singing and riding at the same time. It’s hard to imagine when we weren’t doing it. But, surprisingly enough, it was only last March when our Choir On Bikes first put our two wheeled tunes to the test. Since those momentous spring tours of Regent park, We’ve serenaded politicians, other cyclists, and passers-by, and we’re currently working diligently on a five part bilingual version of O Canada so that one day we might ride into the Skydome to Serenade the crowds before a World Series game (for the Jays, of course, it’s important to set the sights high!). If you’d like to tune up with us, call Greg Furlong at 469-9594. Our practices are every Monday at 6:30 pm. at the Cabbagetown Bike Club, 40 Oak St., one street south of Gerrard and east of Parliament (363-4234).
13) Artists Tell All: Create Your Own Art Bike
by Sue Zielinski
Have you been harbouring a secret hankering to make your bike into a form of personal or political expression and elevate it from the common herd? Or otherwise artify or functionalize it so distinctively that it would be hard to steal? Well this is your lucky month. On Thursday, March 17 (yes, wear green), the Toronto Re-Cycled Art Society (organizers of the Toronto Re-Cycled Art Auction) invite you to hear seldom shared tips from the experts on painting your wagon.
On this rare occasion, famous Bike Artists Rundt (of Rundtsickle), Janet Morton (of the canoe bike and this year’s mosaic style BTWW poster), Russel Zeid (of the Culdesac Warrior of sidecar fame), Kelly Rogers (of Blue Yak and Dinah the Bikasaurus), Charles Katz (of the Temagami Touring Bike) and mystery guests to be confirmed, will converge at Cinecycle and divulge such crucial advice as what type of paint and glue works best, where to find it, how to conceive of your bike creation, and more. Bike art examples and photos will be displayed on site. To get to Cinecycle, you can meet at Hart House (U. of T.) at 6:00 p.m. and ride there with other aspiring bike artists and designers, or you can head directly to Cinecycle at 6:30 p.m. Cinecycle is in the back alley off D’arcy Street (behind the Spadina Liquor Store south of College). For more information, call Sue at 392-1556.
14) Ahead in the Bike Lane
Every Monday, Song Cycles - Rehearsal of the Choir On Bikes, 6:30 pm at 40 Oak St. (south of Gerrard, east of Parliament), 392-1556.
March 8, Bike Commuter Salon - Prototype Night for new bike and trailer designs, hosted by Center for Appropriate Transportation, 6:30 pm at 9 Hannah Ave; 323-0897.
March 15, Bike Planning Subcommittee and Education and Enforcement Subcommittee meetings, 6:30 pm., 81 Elizabeth St.
March 15, Community Bicycle Network meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the Cabbagetown Bike Club, 40 Oak St.
March 17, BUGnite - Paint Your Wagon: Tips From The Bike Artists, 6:30 pm at Cinecycle (see article).
March 20, Centre for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) Working Group, 2:30 pm. at 427 Bloor St. W.; 323-0897.
March 22, Special Meeting of City Services Committee to hear deputations on the future of bike lanes on College St. (see article), 7:30 pm., City Council Chambers, City Hall.
April 5, Toronto City Cycling Committee meeting, 7:00 pm., Committee Room 5, City Hall.
April 9, Workshop on Wheels bike repair clinic and Women in Action Celebration, Bickford Centre, 777 Bloor St. West; 323-0897
May 14 - 20, BIKE TO WORK WEEK.
To Register for CAN-BIKE courses call 392-1311.
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