Protester arrested during Jarvis bike lane removal
Posted November 13, 2012 8:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A protester has been arrested as he tried to stop the removal of the Jarvis Street bike lanes, which will be replaced by the centre-reversible lane for vehicle traffic.
The man blocked Toronto city work crews at Jarvis near Shuter Street before he was taken into custody around 11 a.m. Tuesday.
It wasn’t the only problem for city crews: a truck broke down around 2 p.m.
The mechanical difficulty wasn’t enough to stop the work, city spokesman Steve Johnston told CityNews, and other crews are continuing to remove the bike lanes.
The decision to remove the bike lanes was met with huge resistance. The lanes were the subject of heated debate at council, with protesters holding “ride-ins” along the busy corridor.
A small protest began on Monday. Cycling advocates sat on the road in the rain, stopping crews from removing the paint from the street.
Steve Fisher, 33, lives along Jarvis and says the decision to remove the lanes threatens the safety of citizens.
“This is a fight that I individually decided to make because it directly impacts my safety and the safety of my neighbourhood,” the freelance writer and Canadian Forces reservist said Monday.
“I don’t feel that a proper public consultation was done.”
The bike lanes will be replaced by a centre-reversible lane for vehicle traffic to be installed between Queen and Isabella streets. Pay parking will also be re-introduced on the west side of Jarvis.
Lanes will be reduced during the construction, the city warned.
Once the work is completed, which the city said should happen by early December, the centre lane will run northbound from approximately 3:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. It will be southbound at all other times.
The bike lanes on Jarvis were installed in July 2010 at a cost of $86,000. Council voted 19-24 to remove the lanes on Oct. 2, 2012, at a cost of about $300,000.
According to a city report released in June 2011, the number of daily cyclists on Jarvis rose from 290 to 890, while the number of motorists has remained constant at 13,000.
City staff said that travel times have increased by approximately two minutes in both directions during the morning rush, and by three to five minutes in the evening rush.
