Wheels section contributor needs to open mind
Norris McDonald has been a progressive voice in recent years on the need for cycling infrastructure in Toronto, so it’s unfortunate that he got council’s recent approval of 40 kilometres of new bikeways very wrong.
For starters, this isn’t a question of bikeways being installed when no one was looking, as your headline suggests, but bikeways finally being installed when the community (not the “bike lobby”) began looking and demanding action.
A lack of political accountability since council’s approval of the 2016 Bike Plan resulted in the city falling far short of bike lanes it had set out to install. Last year, for example, the city installed a pitiful two kilometres. of bike lanes, despite a $16-million cycling capital budget and millions of dollars more available from the federal government.
At a time when we are very conscious about the inequities in our global society, the writer fails to mention climate change, air pollution, and the road peril to which cars contribute significantly — with a particularly heavy burden on lower income groups.
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It’s worthwhile asking who is doing the driving and who is doing the dying.
In any case, even if bicycles aren’t necessarily used for 12 months of the year, the benefits of lower greenhouse gas emissions are felt year round, as are the health and economic benefits of the affordable bicycle.
Finally, the writer misses a key point: Yes, bicycles aren’t practical for the longest journeys, but they are useful for trips under seven km., which comprises most trips in the city. When these trips are done by bicycle, seats are freed up on transit vehicles for people who have longer commutes.
Albert Koehl, co-founder of Bells on Bloor, Toronto
