On January 12, 2004 the Toronto Bike Plan - Year 2 Progress report was submitted to the Works Committee. This documents what was done in Year 2, 2003, of the ten year plan. Well, it is intended to be a ten year plan. The most striking statement in the report is an admission that after two years of implementation, at the current pace, it would take 20 years to implement the entire plan. The numbers in the report are a testament to the half-hearted support shown for cycling by the last City Council. When the writers of the report entitled the original plan "Shifting Gears" they did not intend for the gears to be shifted down.

The main area that the pace of implementation has lagged is in building the Bikeway Network of bike lanes, bike routes and off-road paths. In the first two years of the plan only 15 kms of new bike lanes and 10 kms of new paths have been built.

Part of the problem has been a lack of funding. The Bike Plan proposed that $2 million be spent by the Works Department on Bikeway Network projects in 2003. The last city council only approved $782,000. For the Parks Department $1.0 million was proposed for the 2003 budget year. In fact only $615,000 was budgeted.

The other part of the problem is delays in getting Bikeway Network Projects designed, approved and built. In March of 2003 the Toronto Cycling Committee was presented with a list of 18.5 kms of bike lanes that were intended to be built in 2003. Some are still stuck going through the approval process. Two examples of that were the lanes of Dawes Road and on Cosburn Avenue. These would have added 4.4 kms to the Bikeway Network. The design work was done and then presented to the local Councillors, Case Ootes and Michael Tziretas. The next stage in the approval process was for the Councillors to hold community meetings to get residents' responses to the proposals. Those meetings were never held thereby delaying the projects into 2004. Another bike lane project was at least started on Birmingham Avenue but has not been completed by the end of the 2003 construction. It is intended to be 4.6 kms long. One kilometer of that is under construction. The rest of the route has been waiting for approvals of design and its construction has been delayed to 2004.

The report has positive news as well. In the area of Bicycle parking it reports that Toronto has a North America leading 13,000 bicycle parking racks on city streets in the form of post and ring stands. In 2003 2,371 were added. For Bicycle Safety the report shows that the additional five Cycling Ambassadors added through victories in last year's budget battle have helped increase the activity in the bike safety programs that the city offers. You can read all the details in the full: Down Load the report Toronto Bike Plan - Year 2 Progress report(PDF)

In order to get off the 20 year pace and onto the ten year pace we will need whole hearted support from the new Mayor and Council. Early indications are positive. Along with the Year 2 progress report on the Works Committee agenda was a motion from the Toronto Cycling Committee asking that Council support a budget of $3.0 million dollars for 2004 Works Department Bikeway Network Projects and an increase in staff working on those projects so the Bike Plan can be completed in a ten year time frame. see TCC Works Motion. I have heard that that this motion was accepted by the Works Committee. I haven't received formal confirmation of this yet but will post more info when I do. This doesn't mean that the money is in the budget yet. The Budget process starts at the end of January. This straw poll does give us some hope as we enter this budget process that there is more support on the new council for cycling in Toronto and for the Bike Plan.