February 18, 2021 - release by Cycle Toronto

February 17, 2021 – 2020 was a huge year for cycling in Toronto, with the City implementing the most temporary and permanent bike lanes in one year in our city’s history. As Toronto’s Office of Recovery and Rebuild specifically highlighted, Toronto’s successes in active transportation last year cannot be an anomaly, but rather a model to move forward every year through our pandemic recovery and beyond. 

Recently, Cycle Toronto spoke at a Toronto Budget Committee meeting on the cycling budget for 2021 and beyond. There are three key pieces that relate to cycling in Toronto that we want to address in advance of this Thursday’s City Council vote on the budget:

1. ActiveTO expansion

We are encouraged by a move to continue the City’s wildly successful ActiveTO and CafeTO programs, including an expansion outside of the downtown core. It is important to see a more equitable distribution of safe cycling infrastructure and weekend road openings for active transportation.

2. Cycling & Pedestrian Unit Capital and Operating Budget

There is a lot to celebrate about the City’s work in 2020, including the implementation of long-awaited major projects such as the Bloor Street West bike lane extension and a world-class complete street transformation on Danforth Avenue. However, a repeat of what we saw in 2020 cannot be expected in 2021 with the proposed cycling budget. As a response to the pandemic, Transportation Services redeployed staff throughout the department to achieve projects like Danforth and ActiveTO on Lake Shore Boulevard and Bayview Avenue, while other long-term transportation projects were deferred to future years.

The proposed Cycling Infrastructure capital budget remains at its pre-pandemic amount of $16 million for 2021, and decreases to only $8 million each year going forward. These dollars allocated for construction of infrastructure will likely go unspent as this budget does not allow for enough staff to plan, design, and implement as much infrastructure as last year. What’s more, millions of dollars in federal infrastructure money to support active transportation during the pandemic recovery could be left on the table because City staff won’t have the capacity to implement it. At minimum, the City needs the same resources it used in 2020 allocated for 2021 and beyond.

3. Vision Zero and Automated Speed Enforcement

The 2021 Budget calls for an expansion of the Vision Zero Enforcement Team to 18 officers. Cycle Toronto has been calling for engineering solutions as the first tactic to address dangerous roads and reaching Vision Zero. We believe that technology-based enforcement strategies such as Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) can play a useful role in increasing road safety and decreasing bias, if deployed equitably, and ask that enforcement resources are redeployed to ASE.

What can you do?

It took a global crisis for Toronto to take a meaningful step forward in building a better cycling network. We cannot pause. The pandemic is not over and a climate crisis looms over us. We urgently need to see an investment in cycling and equitable transportation solutions to help communities across Toronto, especially those hardest hit by the pandemic. With so much progress downtown, we need to build active transportation solutions that also work for Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough.

Write to your councillor before City Council finalizes the City Budget thisThursday, February 18.

Dear Councillor,

Thank you for supporting the rollout of much needed and long planned for bike lanes this year. I’m asking that you keep the momentum going and increase the annual cycling budget from pre-pandemic levels. The return on investment you’ve seen this year has done so much toward supporting essential trips during the pandemic while also achieving our city’s climate goals, mobility goals, and supporting the vibrancy of our local communities.

I ask that you continue to work with staff and your colleagues on Council to find solutions to meet your constituents’ requests to ensure your success last summer becomes the benchmark for this year and beyond. This includes:

1. Bringing back and expanding the ActiveTO program to ensure safe bike lanes and weekend major road openings to active transportation are equitably distributed throughout the city
2. Adequately funding the Cycling Unit with capital and operating dollars so that 2020 isn’t an anomaly, but the regular rate of cycling network expansion.
3. Prioritizing Vision Zero funding towards engineering solutions rather than enforcement; when enforcement is needed, automated technology like ASE cameras is preferred to reduce bias and equitably advance road safety goals throughout the city.

Thank you,
[Name]
[Address or Postal Code]

If you want to help out Cycle Toronto’s budget as well, consider becoming a member to keep our educational programming, events, and advocacy going year-round.

Join Cycle Toronto

Thank you for your support in keeping the cycling momentum going!

Keagan Gartz
Executive Director

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