Toronto's network of bike lanes should be dramatically expanded so there's one on every second or third street, according to mayoralty candidate Sarah Thomson.
But she said one of those roads shouldn't be Jarvis Street, the planned location of a controversial set of bike lanes approved by Toronto City Council last year."It's about safety," said Thomson in an interview Tuesday, March 16 in the offices of her magazine, The Women's Post. "I don't want my kids riding down Jarvis Street. I'm going to tell them to take Sherbourne. We need to have every third street going north-south, and every third street going east-west. It's a smart plan, and it's worked for traffic."Thomson is running for Toronto's top job against former deputy premier George Smitherman, former president of the Liberal Party Rocco Rossi and city councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Joe Pantalone. She has spoken out in favour of subway construction over the Transit City plan of light rail construction.And on Tuesday, she entered into the debate on bike lanes. Rossi has gone on the record saying he would like to move bike lanes off arterial roads. Smitherman has promised to pause Toronto's Bike Plan to reassess its specific routes for on-street bike lanes.Thomson's plan would dramatically expand the bike plan, with a much more intensified grid of bike lanes. She dismissed what she characterized as the politicization of bike lanes."The war on the car is a political issue, a lot of political agendas at play," she said. "When you look at the map, there's a bike lane on Sherbourne, and then there's not another (north-south) until St. George. The planning is just hodgepodge. I think we need to put a template down and say every second or third street, we're going to have a bike lane for people."She said the grid for bike lanes should function as the city's original grid for roads."We have to place that down to allow people the easier route," she said. "The grid is just like the road grid was originally planned."The current plan for Toronto's bike network would see 1,000 kilometres of bikeways in the city, 495 kilometres of which would be on-road separated bike lanes. The city is also looking at creating some separated bike lanes.Yvonne Bambrick of the Toronto Cyclist's Union said city staff would have to assess a bike plan with lanes on so many roads. But she defended the bike lanes on Jarvis Street."The reason we felt it was so important to have bike lanes included in the major redesign of a street, was to improve the street itself - to make it more liveable in my mind - was that not including bike lanes in that redesign made no sense," she said. "That one came up when it did and we had that window of opportunity to ensure that cyclists are included. And 28 councillors and the mayor agreed."