The third annual progress report on the implementation of the 10 year Toronto Bike Plan has been released. It was tabled at the Toronto Cycling Committee at their June meeting and will also be presented to the June 29th, 2005 meeting of the City's Works Committee. This progress report does outline what was done in 2004 to implement the bike plan but it also discusses what hasn't been done in the first three years of the plan and why.

The report looks at the first three years of the Bike plan and states that "At the current pace of implementation, completing the Proposed 1,074 km Bikeway Network within 10 years appears unachievable.". It gives three reasons for the slow pace of implementation: lack of capital funding, a lack of staff resources, and the lack of a streamilined approval process for bike lanes. You can read the full report from the City of Toronto's website. Toronto Bike Plan - Year-3 Progress Report(2004)-(PDF).

The report states that the staff have started to work on a Strategy for Accelerating the Bikeway Network. This should be ready by Septemeber 2005. This is a good step and the Toronto Cycling Committee has endorsed that work plan at its June 20th meeting. However in order for that strategy to be implemented the various divisions have to incorporate that strategy in their 2006 budget plans and the Mayor and Councillors have to support that in the 2006 budget process. The TCC has called on the various city's division general managers and the councillors to do just that.

You can add your support to that call by contacting your councillor.