Jarvis bike lanes removal a go after Ontario ruling
Posted September 18, 2012 4:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment has ruled that an environmental assessment is not needed for the Jarvis bike lanes in downtown Toronto, clearing the path for their removal and the return of a reversible centre lane for drivers.
Cycle Toronto had requested the assessment from the provincial government through the City of Toronto in April.
“We are disappointed with the minister’s decision,” Jared Kolb of Cycle Toronto told CityNews.ca on Tuesday.
“We don’t feel the Minister has addressed the concerns that we raised. The street is changing considerably…The number of the cyclists on the street has just exploded since the lanes were installed [in 2010].”
More cyclists on the street had made it safer for pedestrians as well, Kolb said. The city’s own number showed that crashes involving pedestrians had dropped by 89 per cent since the bike lanes were installed.
Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, who heads the city’s public works and infrastructure committee, approved of the ministry’s decision.
“This was the right decision,” Minnan-Wong said in a statement.
“Bike lanes were not recommended in the 2009 Environmental Assessment undertaken to improve the public realm on Jarvis. Nor is Jarvis Street identified in the Toronto Bike Plan as a north-south artery for cyclists.”
Instead, Minnan-Wong said, the city will focus on separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street, one block east of Jarvis.
The Jarvis bike lanes will not close until the Sherbourne tracks are open, likely in November.
The bike lanes on Jarvis were installed in July 2010 at a cost of $86,000 and it will cost $272,000 to have them removed.
