I have been assured that the Toronto Cycling Committee (TCC) is not in disarray, not officially anyways. Told everything the cycling committee works on is running smoothly.
Sure hope so anyways with the TCC’s premiere event, Bike Week, about eight weeks away. Have to wonder how much direction the TCC is providing seeing it has not had any meetings it has told the public about.
More curious is that the there is a rumour of a new Councillor chair of the TCC. That being Councillor Heaps, Scarborough South West. Pure rumour seeing that two of three members of the TCC I contacted heard nothing of it, one thought it might be correct. Makes good sense that a Councillor, especially a new one, would not want to be associated with such a difficult file especially when it is in such disarray. Of course the disarray part is just a rumour.
Two events in the last couple of weeks also speak to the disarray. Somehow, someone, not clear on exactly who yet, started circulating an instruction that told cyclists to walk their bikes through construction zones. This went over like a Hummer in a china shop with cyclists particularly because this issue was solved many years ago by the TCC. It seems like the TTC or Transportation Services will take the rap for it. They could have saved themselves all this trouble if they had vetted this through the TCC in the first place. Part of the TCC’s mandate is to “…representing cyclists’ interests within the city.” Ooops. I guess I am asking for the impossible if the TCC is no longer meeting.
What is most troubling is the Mayor’s announcement last week of his Green Plan. Not a credible mention about cycling in it. Well there was a pathetic one. Essentially a “potential action” would have all of the bike routes listed in the Bike Plan completed by 2012. This means the City would have to create over hundred kilometres of bike lanes a year till the end of 2012. This from a Council, that has barely managed to create more than ten kilometres of bike lanes a year since the inception of the Bike Plan. Who is mandated with promoting cycling within the City? You guessed it, the TCC which is not in disarray? Would it not be reasonable to assume that if the TCC had input into the Green Plan that cycling would come to the forefront in the plan?
For now we can only wonder what all this is leading to. Who is responsible for the disarray and who is benefiting from the disarray. Could it be the Mayor? Hmmm. Cars taking a back seat to more cycling in his Green Plan would rob him of chance of creating another revenue stream. You can tax all those cars, polluting or not, coming into town but you could never do it to cyclists or pedestrians for that matter.
Then if you are like me, you are thinking that Rob Ford had it right with a somewhat poor delivery.
“I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.”.
