The Cosburn Bike lanes finally got a green light from the Toronto and East York Community Council at their meeting of September 14th, 2004. I was not able to attend the meeting myself but I did get some e-mailed reports a from a couple people who were there, Doug Lee and Joe Cooper.

The meeting saw several people make deputations in favour of the bike lanes. There were also some people who spoke in opposition. At the end of the day there were more supporters of the proposal than opponents and the motion to approve the bike lanes was passed. Councillor Case Ootes put up some resistance by making amendments to the proposal. Reports from the meeting say that his amendments dealt with a review of the bike lanes at some time in the future, studying some parking issues as outlined in the plan and changes to light timing at a couple of intersections. Not all of his amendments passed. The report to Council and the amendments that passed are contained in Clause 31 of the Community Council report that goes to City Council for approval on September 28th, 2004. You can read the entire clause here. Clause 31 - Installation of Bicycle Lanes - Cosburn Avenue, from Broadview Avenue to Oak Park Avenue (Toronto-Danforth, Ward 29; Beaches-East York, Ward 31)

This is a major victory for those who support the bike plan. This project has been delayed by over a year by the manoeuvres of one Councillor. If it had not been for the resolve of Councillor Janet Davis and others on the committee to persevere in the face of these tactics the project could have died on the drawing board and all the staff time and all of the money spent would have been wasted. The Councillors could persevere in seeing the bike lanes through because they knew there was community support for this initiative. People wrote letters, signed petitions, spoke at the public meetings and made deputations at the Community Council meeting.

The bike lanes should be approved this week barring any last minute manoeuvres by Councillor Ootes. That possibility seems to have lessened to a degree since Councillor Ootes has apparently dropped his opposition to the project as reported in the East York - Mirror Cosburn bike lanes given green light. Once this final approval is received work can begin in October.