Mayoral candidate George Smitherman.
Mayoral candidate George Smitherman says Toronto needs a “time out” from the creation of new bike lanes.
Staff photo/DAVID NICKLE
Toronto needs a "time out" from the creation of new bike lanes - and mayoralty candidate George Smitherman said that if elected, he'll pause the city's Bike Plan to give the city a chance to come up with a more comprehensive transportation strategy.
"What's necessary is for everyone to take a time out here," said Smitherman in an exclusive interview with Toronto Community News. "Obviously we have a lot of people on tenterhooks around these issues overall. It's appropriate to have a mature conversation about it."
Smitherman, widely considered a front-runner in the 2010 mayor's race, maintained that he is supportive of continuing to create bike lanes on city roads - and unlike candidate Rocco Rossi, he's fine with putting bike lanes on major arterial roads.
"In terms of suggesting bicycles should be relegated to crescents and cul-de-sacs, this is akin to saying you're not in favour of the City of Toronto being a modern city," said Smitherman. "I don't think it's leadership to take the language of the war on the car and flip it on its head and say, 'the war on the car has had its go at city hall, I'm going to advance the war on the bike.'"
Smitherman maintained that Toronto's Bike Plan, which was first approved by Toronto Council, has not been adequately communicated to Toronto residents - and it might be better applied in the context of a broader transportation plan.
He offered no timetable for how long it would take to devise such a plan.
"I'm not sure what the appropriate length of time is," he said. "But we have a good skill set among the people who are able to help do this stuff. This is a moratorium, but it's not a moratorium as a strategy for death - it's to stop, have an appropriate conversation and make sure the plans are integrated. When you surprise people the first instinct of a surprised community is to dig its heels in."
Smitherman said he'd put what money there was for the creation of bike lanes in 2011 into road repairs along existing bike lanes - particularly Sherbourne, which he called "practically a corduroy road."
Smitherman has earlier in the campaign questioned other bike lane projects, notably the controversial plan to put bike lanes on a reconstructed Jarvis Street.
The current Bike Plan aims to build 500 kilometres of on-road bike lanes across the city. Cycling advocates have been pushing hard to have the creation of new bike lanes accelerated.
This year, the city will paint bike lanes on Jarvis Street as it's being reconstructed, and there are plans in the works to put bike lanes on University Avenue.
Yvonne Banbrick of the Toronto Cyclist's Union said there's no reason to slow down the plan now.
"I think (a time out) would be a huge mistake - we have waited too long," said Banbrick.
"The bike plan was approved by city council in 2001 and we have had snails-pace progress on implementation. The idea of waiting some more is irresponsible on the part of any government. That's no way to accommodate massive growth in commuter cycling in our city."
Banbrick said she understood that the argument about the "war on cars" has created tensions.
"The rhetoric around the war on cars is a waste of everybody's energy and it's causing unnecessary friction," she said. "There's never been a war. We're talking about how we move people in our city, and more and more taxpaying Torontonians are choosing cycling as their main mode of transportation."