On Thursday October 30th City Council voted to approve the final leg of the Annette St. Bike Lane from Runnymeade to Jane. According to an iBikeTo.ca post Annette Bike Lane Approved! the vote was 20 for and 11 against. This is a significant victory in that it showed that the new streamlined bicycle lane approval process can work to overcome the opposition of a ward councillor, it also shows what is needed to achieve that victory.

The new bike lane approval process has moved bike lanes from the Community Councils, where bike lanes were seen as a parochial issue whereby they were easily held up by Councillors to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) where they would be seen as a city wide policy issue and there was assumed to be less chance of a hold out Councillor blocking a bicycle lane approval. Annette St. proved that the second assumption does not always hold true. However the final component of the bicycle lane approval process is that the decision of the PWIC goes to City Council for final approval. Here the decision of the PWIC against a bike lane could be overturned. The Annette St. Bike lane was the first test of the final stage of the approval process. What we have learned is that Mayor David Miller and the majority of Council will stand behind the Toronto Bike Plan and with the members of the community who want to see it implemented and right the wrong decision of the PWIC.

This vote was won in no small part by the engagement of the local community in the issue. Councillor Adrian Heaps, the chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, who lead the charge at Council to win this vote, indicated there were 200 letters of support for the bike lanes. It is reported that a large number of the letters were from the residents in the immediate vicinity of the project. This is a testament to the work of cycling advocates to engage people in this issue and in the approval process.

I think this is a significant milestone in the implementation of the bike plan and it points the way forward to future victories.