Bloor-Yorkville Loses Parking, Ignores Cyclists

[joe]

It looks like construction is starting this summer on the $20-million "makeover" of Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Church Street, according to the Globe and Mail.

All on-street parking on Bloor is being taken out, surprisingly with the support of most merchants along the stretch.

Cycling advocates are concerned about there not being any bikelanes in the plans, even though City of Toronto Staff are looking at the possibility of Bloor-Danforth bikelanes running across the city.

I'm more concerned with something I read a few months ago in a TCAT Newsletter - that there are NO plans to install ANY bikeracks in this plan.

Still... it is nice to see some space previously devoted to cars being given to pedestrians.

[joe]

So, apparently there was an Open House about this yesterday hosted by the Bloor-Yorkville BIA... did anyone go?

[joe]

There's a lawsuit now against the city ... by business merchants concerned about the construction hurting their business, but also about the loss of parking.

[joe]

Another update - a collection of cycling advocates are "intervening" on the court case:


There's a press release floating around today about a "coalition of cycling advocates" named the "Safe Cycling Coalition" being granted permission to intervene ("being able to present arguments or evidence defending the interests of people who are not parties to the legal proceedings but who face related problems") in the merchant-sponsored lawsuit against the City of Toronto and the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Association.

To make a long explanation a lot shorter for you, here's my quick synopsis of what has happened concerning this so far:

1. Bloor-Yorkville BIA wants to re-do Bloor Street to make it nicer for pedestrians, including more trees, more flowers, wider sidewalks, no parking, less traffic lanes. They are willing to donate millions of dollars towards this "transformation"

2. City of Toronto says "ok" and allegedly skips important environmental assessment process, although the BIA plan ignores things like placing bikelanes on this popular cycling street, or even making provisions for bikeracks.

3. "Concerned About Bloor", a group of merchants concerned about the loss of parking, pursues a lawsuit against the City, saying it shouldn't skip things like environmental assessments

4. The above-mentioned "Safe Cycling Coalition" applies for and is granted permission to intervene in the lawsuit - allowing them to make the case for bikelanes

The full press release is on the BikingToronto Blog.

[joe]

The Safe Cycling Coalition is hitting the courts tomorrow, as an intervenor in the Bloor Street Reconstruction Lawsuit.

If you'd like to attend:

Day: Thursday, Oct. 9th, 2008
Time: 10 am - 5 pm
Location: Main Court House - 130 Queen St. West (map)

Here's some background info about the case, from a previous post: