The Toronto Bike Plan (TBP) was finally adopted by City Council moments before the Council adjourned for the summer at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 26th, 2001. Councillor Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) had tried several times during the three days of council meetings to have the Bike Plan brought to the floor for debate and approval but there were many 'time sensitive issues' that had to be dealt with first along with several 'quick issues' that would be approved without debate. The Bike Plan was held because some councillors wanted to debate it so it could not be brought forward as a 'quick issue'. Some had concerns with the costs involved in implementing the Bike Plan, others had concerns with specific items in the Plan such as the location of bike lanes on specific streets. It appeared that Councillor Chow had worked out a compromise with a couple of motions that would be moved in conjunction with the Bike Plan to alleviate the concerns. One added that the TBP would be approved 'in principle' with any capital expenditures going through the regular budget process. This was actually the process that was proposed in the Plan so this motion did nothing to change what this initiative was all about.

The meeting was supposed to end at 6:00 pm on Thursday. As 6:00 approached there was still a lot of agenda items which had not been covered. The councillors agreed to extend their meeting till seven. At about ten minutes after six it was apparent that there were still many items on the agenda would not be dealt with before the summer break and would have to wait till the September City Council meeting. If the TBP was not approved now it would throw off the implementation schedule. Councillor Chow tried one last time, by way of a formal motion, to have the Bike Plan brought to the floor. This time she succeeded and the debate started. Some councillors spoke against approving the Plan. Councillor Doug Holyday (Etobicoke Centre) and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East) expressed their opposition to the City paying for the Bikeway Network given other funding pressures. Others spoke in favour of the plan such as Joe Pantalone (Trinity-Spadina), Jack Layton (Toronto-Danforth), and Joanne Flint (Don Valley West) . Some councillors said that they would support it in principle now, but, would vote against capital expenditures on bike paths during the budget process. In the end the vote was 25 to 2 in favour of the adopting the Toronto Bike Plan in principle. A big thanks is due to Olivia Chow for her persistence and skill in steering it through the City Council process. We also have to remember all of the staff of the City who have worked hard to bring the TBP together and the Members of the Toronto Cycling Committee (TCC) and its subcommittees who have volunteered many hours to see this through.

This is a big first step for the citizens of Toronto towards improving the cycling experience here. However, as evidenced by the struggle to get the Bike Plan to the floor of the council chamber and the ensuing debate, there are many challenges ahead. The next meeting of the TCC will be on September 24th, 2001. During that meeting the proposed capital budgets for cycling infrastructure for 2002 will be discussed. It should be an interesting fall.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca