There are three consultations in November which Torontonians are encouraged to participate in. These include the 2025-27 Cycling Network Plan, the Micromobility Strategy, and the 2024 Budget. Let’s look at what these consultations offer, as well as some suggestions on what we should advocate.
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| The Bloor bike lane upgrades at Bedford Road when they were under construction in October |
2025-27 Cycling Network Plan
This month kicked off stakeholder and public consultations for the next Near-Term Cycling Implementation Plan which will replace the current one for 2022-24. I participated in a November 1 stakeholder meeting on behalf of Community Bikeways along with over 30 other advocates. The meeting asked for participants’ background, showed a presentation similar to this publicly available one, breakout rooms of about five people each, and a short discussion on performance metrics. While breakout rooms are great and need to be encouraged in more public consultations, advocates were limited to pick one bikeway each which led to arterials being prioritized over neighbourhood and off-road connections. I picked Bloor from Six Points to Mississauga given Mississauga approved bike lanes on their part of Bloor, while others such as Kingston, Yonge, Brimley, and Kipling were also brought up.
Last week, Toronto released their public consultation dates – one in-person session in each of the four districts plus a virtual one on Wednesday, December 6 – along with a short survey and an interactive map showing the long list of options. Torontonians have until Sunday, December 10 to complete the survey and comment on the interactive map – or add their own route ideas – as well as send additional feedback to bikeplan@toronto.ca.
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| The City of Toronto's interactive map showing the long list of bikeway candidates |
Here are some of the more important corridors in each district:
Etobicoke – York
- Bloor (Six Points to Mississauga)
- Dundas (Six Points to Mississauga)
- The Queensway (Burma Drive to Mississauga)
- Lake Shore (Palace Pier to Mississauga)
- Kipling (Lake Shore to Bloor and Eglinton to Finch)
- Etobicoke Greenway (Kipling Station to Highway 401)
- Weston (Rogers to Cardell and Humber River Trail to Steeles)
Scarborough
- Victoria Park (Bloor to Lawrence)
- Eglinton (Kennedy to Kingston)
- York Mills – Ellesmere (Lesmill to Markham and Highland Creek to Morningside)
- Finch East (Highway 404 to Morningside)
- Warden (Lupin to Finch Hydro Corridor)
- Brimley and/or Midland (Kingston to Steeles)
North York
- Steeles (Yonge to Jane)
- Keele and/or Jane (Eglinton to Steeles)
- Lawrence – The Westway (Martin Grove to Keele)
- Yonge (Davisville to Avondale)
- York Mills Station to Earl Bales Park path
- Sheppard (Bonnington Place to Bathurst and Betty Sutherland Trail to Consumers Road)
- McNicoll (Pharmacy to Leslie) and/or an off-road path to complete the Finch Hydro Corridor
Toronto and East York
- Donlands (Danforth to Leaside Bridge)
- Wellington (Blue Jays Way to Church plus Church to The Esplanade)
- Yonge (Queen to Front and College to Bloor)
- Jarvis (Bloor to Queens Quay)
- College (Manning to Lansdowne) and Dundas (Sorauren to Dupont)
- Parkside (Bloor to Waterfront)
- Eastern (Parliament to Logan and Leslie to Knox)
- O’Connor – St. Clair East (Woodbine to Victoria Park)
Micromobility Strategy
Earlier this year, Councillor Dianne Saxe put forward a motion which called on the City of Toronto to develop a Micromobility Strategy in the first quarter of 2024 (which has since been delayed to May 2024). There was also some controversy when Councillor Saxe floated the idea of requiring e-bikes and e-scooters used for commercial purposes to have unique identifiers which would have been a slippery slope towards bicycle licensing. Fortunately, that motion was withdrawn.
As part of this strategy, Toronto released a survey which can be completed until Wednesday, December 13. The survey asked whether people supported allowing electric kick-scooters, seated electric scooters, large tricycles carrying people, and/or large tricycles carrying packages in bike lanes. I don’t agree with seated electric scooters given they are too heavy and are throttle powered, but support the others. There was also a question regarding allowing electric mini-cars on roads that can go up to 40 km/h. I was somewhat opposed to this idea given we should be discouraging cars in favour of walking, biking, and transit, though we need to call out the excessive number of SUV’s and pickup trucks on our roads. The other key question asked what’s needed to integrate new forms of micromobility – which I supported more/wider bike lanes, more bike lane enforcement, and improved road maintenance.
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| Shared e-bikes and e-scooters parked by Kitchener's Iron Horse Trail |
However, the survey ignored the white elephant in the room regarding scooter share services such as Lime, Bird, and Neuron. They have aggressively lobbied this City and I made it clear in the “other feedback” section that I support legalizing personally owned e-scooters but strongly oppose allowing scooter share companies to operate in Toronto. There have been a lot of complaints regarding sidewalk riding and leaving shared e-scooters all over the place which can create tripping hazards.
2024 Budget
Last, but not least, Mayor Olivia Chow’s administration launched consultations for the 2024 Budget from November 1 to 30. While there are several online and in-person meetings, you can submit your ideas through an online portal and rate others’ ideas. I submitted one in support of Vision Zero and protected bike lanes. When asked to rank others’ ideas, I noticed a lot regarding housing, as well as some on transit, taxes, and police funding. There were unfortunately some that opposed bike lanes, so it’s important you make your ideas heard.
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| One of several anti-cycling comments posted on Toronto's budget website |
The Budget Committee will launch the next phase on January 10, 2024 with staff recommended budgets, department notes, the results from this month’s conversations, and public deputations. This budget will be more consequential than most given the $1.5 billion shortfall Toronto faces in 2024, while negotiations are under way with Queen’s Park and Ottawa to address some of these pressures over the longer term.
Next Steps
Even with a bike friendly Mayor at City Hall, we road safety advocates can’t afford to take anything for granted and need to make our voices heard more than ever. The 2025-27 bike plan, micromobility strategy, and 2024 budget are all opportunities we should take up and encourage others to do the same.
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