MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Bad news for Jarvis bike lane advocates, plastic bag ban might be reconsidered, new streetcars spotted, the Toronto skyline in 2020
Well, this is just going to sting if you're an advocate for keeping the Jarvis bike lanes. As Dave Meslin explains on his blog, "Not only is the removal of the Jarvis bike lanes a colossal waste of money (the lanes are brand new) — but guess where the money is coming from? I've been able to confirm with the City that the money to REMOVE the lanes is being pulled directly out of the limited budget the City has to INSTALL bike lanes!" Salt in the wound, indeed.
The plastic bag ban city council voted to take effect January 1st might be back up for debate thanks to a motion put forward by Peter Milczyn and seconded by Denzil Minnan-Wong. It would need the support of two thirds of council to pass, but as the Globe notes, this might be possible thanks to threats of lawsuits from plastic bag interest groups against the city. So how's this one going to play out?
If ever you needed hope that things will get better on the TTC, behold: new streetcars! Then again, it sure looks like a 5 cent fare increase is on the way for 2013.
When will these elephants leave? And will Bob Barker punch someone in the face? Questions, man. Although Barker claims that the Toronto Zoo is just stalling, according to its senior veterinarian, there are "deep concerns about what he says are active cases of tuberculosis at the California PAWS sanctuary, where city council ordered the elephants sent last October." The saga continues.
If you're an urban nerd, this'll probably be the coolest thing you see today (and if you're a really big one, you've already seen it). Canadian Business picked up on a thread over at SkyscraperPage that features renderings of what Toronto will look like in 2020. The work of Cale Vanderveen, the exercise is a dramatic demonstration of just how much development is in the works for the city. Like, wow.
OTHER NEWS:
- Queer-centric high school to be focus of community debate
- 'Delegate fee' helps foot bill for Chicago trip
- Sam Sniderman laid to rest
Photo by 416Pictures in the blogTO Flickr pool
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Also: Ford for Coach!
I don't drive or ride a bike but you are welcome to my taxes because I live in a city and we all pool our money together to make things better for everyone. Just because I don't use those roads doesn't mean my friends don't, or my boss, or the people that work in the grocery store I shop at, or the subway driver that drives me to work and around town, or my co-workers, or the cleaners for my office building, or the police officers who protect me, or... Get the point? Stop being selfish and realize you live in a city, not your own personal bubble.
But nooo. Ask yourselves, where is the money going to? Deep pockets?
A downtown relief line is an absolute necessity.
Either you're supremely dumb, or this is exquisite trolling. Steve, I especially appreciate the misspelled, off-handed reference to RoFo's one victory, "labour piece."
I took a trip back to Asia for the first time in awhile and was impressed by how the skylines had developed there--they actually had variety, not the same boring lego design we mostly have here in Toronto.
And put down NOW magazine Vampgirl. You might learn something someday.
four lanes also work on jarvis. and from one driver to another, you should try to look at the way the city is planned from multiple perspectives. you might learn something someday.
You can't seriously be this spiteful. This was a decision made by council, after consultation from the appropriate agencies in the city, as well as people in that ward who didn't want so much traffic on Jarvis. There were many reasons, and your phantom David Miller desires were not among them. Please inform yourself (e.g http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/reports/pdf/jarvis-briefing-note-april2011.pdf) before dumping your innermost thought garbage onto the internet.
"This is fixing the mess Miller made. Plus there will be new separated lanes one block over. Everyone wins, except the professional whiners in the 'cyclist union'."
Actually it is an expensive alternative to the modest increase in commute times on Jarvis, which might have been handled less expensively with a change in traffic policy. No one wins, since cyclists pay for the removal of the bike lane from the budget for installing more bike lanes. It's wasteful spending, full stop. And please, get over David Miller.
The Ford administration has totally snubbed the local councilor, flipped off the Jarvis residents' association, ignored the public, ignored the 90% reduction in pedestrian-car collisions and 23% reduction in overall collisions ( http://cycleto.ca/sites/tcu/files/Jarvis%20Collision%20Review%2020April2012-1_0.pdf ), and all over what?
1 minute southbound and 3 minutes northbound delay, during rush hour. Which is inevitable with the hundred new towers being built around the city in the next 10 years anyhow.
Wow... way to pick to unrelated stats and stack them against each other. You know what? 99.5% of drivers won't use Jarvis either!
You know what the irony is right? Cycling on Jarvis has increased a lot. I believe it's tippled in the time since the original studies have come out. You know what's going to happen with those bike lanes are removed? Drivers will actually have LOST a lane of traffic as cyclists use up two full car lanes. This brilliant move to "improve traffic" on Jarvis, will do nothing but make it worse.
Don't punish people who LIVE downtown because you insist on driving your car to work instead of taking transit.
Your 99.5% figure put 125,000 in bike lanes, that alone qualifies the need for more bike lanes
Seems you got the same math teacher as Rob Ford.
yan, I added the new aquarium to the model later. the most up to date models have it in it.
Fact is Miller fucked up Jarvis to further his anti-car agenda. Didn't matter that it cost thousands of dollars and made commuting much worse. Now all of a sudden we find that cyclists are fiscally responsible and are concerned about spending money. Funny how that wasn't a concern when they ruined Jarvis, but only now that they are fixing it.
If you are indeed Mark Towhey, then I don't actually expect much more than the standard Rob Ford talking points, but let's hear it anyway! I'm all ears!
The major problem with current configuration of two lanes of traffic in each direction is the lack of left turn lanes, which could very easily be rectified with a bit of paint. Spending $250000 to put back in the reversible lane won't help traffic at all, as the 3rd lane will back up behind people waiting to turn left.
Finally, if I were a real mayor touting 'customer service', I'd like to know how the 65000 people who live in this ward feel about having their main road turned back into a cars-only semi-expressway. The road has become a lot safer since the bike lanes were installed. Funny how 15000 car drivers merit the mayor's customer service attention and not the people who actually live there.