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Cycle Toronto Ward 18 submission to the City of Torontos Budget Committee A Response to Transportation Services Budget Overview 2014
In a mature city like Toronto, the emphasis has to be on using the available road space more efficiently to move people instead of vehicles and on looking at how the demand for vehicle travel can be reduced in the first place. . . . We have to plan in next generation terms to make transit, cycling and walking increasingly attractive alternatives to using the car and to move towards a more sustainable transportation system. - City of Toronto Official Plan 2010, Ch. 2, p. 26.

Observations
1. In keeping with the Official Plans goal of supporting sustainable transportation options, Torontos 2001 Bike Plan committed the City to installing 495 km of on-street bike lanes by 2012. In twelve years, the City has installed 111.6 km less than a quarter of the planned total. Transportation Services is proposing to install 11 km of bike lanes in 2014. At that rate, the 2001 Bike Plan would be completed in the year 2048. 2. Transportation Services 2013 Key Accomplishments include no cycling-related initiatives. There is no focus on cycling at the strategic planning or reporting level. 3. Similarly, their strategic 2014 Service Deliverables list includes only bike parking, and no other cycling infrastructure. In the detailed 2014 Recommended Service Delivery list, the document proposes maintaining 2010 service levels for cycling infrastructure projects, despite the delays in Bike Plan installation and the growing popularity of cycling over the past few years. 4. Transportation Services notes that the backlog of ring-and-post bike parking requests has reached 1000 due to underfunding of staff resources dedicated to site inspections and surveys. The Budget Overview notes that the 2014 Capital budget will fund the supply of 1000 rings, installation of 500 new and repair of 500 rings, and the provision of associated labour (p. 26). Elsewhere in the document, however, Transportation Services recommends installing only 845 rings in 2014 (p. 10) a service level that would neither eliminate the backlog nor address new requests submitted in 2014. 5. City Council has identified the 2014 Operating Budget Process as the vehicle to address issues related to the review of divisional service levels and activities. For this reason, new service level recommendations are included below which may have an impact on the Transportation Services budget. 6. Cyclists have complained of their locks being broken and their bicycles being left unattended by contractors engaged by the City for the reconstruction of Bloor Street West in Ward 18. A service standard for the care and safe return of these bicycles is required.

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Recommendations
1. City Council through the 2014 Budget Process should commit Transportation Services to tracking and reporting on an annual basis the following cycling-related indicators, and where possible benchmarking them against other large North American cities: a. Budgeted and actual Operating Fund resources dedicated to cycling infrastructure, safety, and education, in total and per capita. b. Collisions, injuries (by severity), and deaths involving cyclists (in partnership with Toronto Police Services), per capita and by estimated distance travelled. c. Week-long bicycle counts and modal share measurement on five or more high-volume cycling routes in the city, including those with and without bike lanes or sharrows. 2. The 2014 Budget should commit Transportation Services to delivering the following in 2014: a. Install 50 km of bike lanes, reducing the implementation timeline of the 2001 Bike Plan from 47 years to 19 years in total. Priority should be given to bike lanes specifically approved by Council in 2009-2012 but not yet installed. This will require an increase from the $88 million (plus $2.5 million carried forward from 2013) allocated for cycling infrastructure over the next ten years. b. Establish a service standard for re-painting existing bike lanes every four years. c. Establish a service standard for winter maintenance of the West Toronto Railpath, including entrances, so it can serve its function as a year-round transportation corridor. d. Eliminate the backlog of ring-and-post bike parking requests and establish a new sixtyday installation service standard by the end of the year. e. Establish a service standard for the removal, storage, and safe return of bicycles appropriated by the City or its contractors when ring-and-posts are removed for construction or other purposes ,such that: i. one weeks notice is provided (similar to the notice provided for abandoned/derelict bicycles) to bicycle owners whose bikes are locked to ringand-posts targeted for removal for construction or other purposes.

ii. bicycles are securely stored out of public view and returned to their rightful owners (via well-publicized contact information) using Toronto Police Service registration, serial number identification or, failing those options, detailed descriptions of the removed bicycle and the ring-and-post location. 3. Through the 2014 Budget Process, City Council should commit Transportation Services to establishing targets for sustainable transportation modal share in the City of Toronto and to allocating the Transportation portion of the Operational Budget in line with these targets. - Submitted January 9, 2014

References
City of Toronto. Bikeway Network Status. http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=d7c3970aa08c1410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD City of Toronto. (Chapter Two) Moving Ahead: A Campaign for Next Generation Transportation. Official Plan. 2010. http://www1.toronto.ca/staticfiles/city_of_toronto/city_planning/developing_toronto/files/pdf/chapters1_5_dec 2010.pdf City of Toronto. Transportation Services 2014 Operating Budget Overview. 2013. www.toronto.ca/budget2014

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