One of Toronto’s most dangerous streets could be one step closer to getting new bike lanes and other safety improvements.
On Tuesday, the infrastructure committee endorsed city staff’s proposal to revamp Parkside Drive and sent it to city council. Councillors will vote on the request at the November meeting.
City council is, however, in a race against time because the Ford government just tabled a bill that could curtail bike lane expansion.
Parkside Drive is a major arterial road just east of High Park connecting Lakeshore Drive and the Gardiner Expressway to Bloor Street, where it turns into Keele Street. Community members have long asked the city to take action to make it safer.
“Narrow and missing sidewalks, lack of bikeways, excessive vehicular speeds and aggressive driving, and a history of collisions resulting in fatality or serious injury are frequently heard concerns,” city staff said in a report published last week.
There have been nearly 1,500 collisions in the last decade, including five serious injuries and three deaths.
The staff report recommended nearly two kilometres of new bike lanes to help make the street safer for cyclists, plus other measures to calm traffic at intersections along the route. Altogether, the changes would cost $7.5 million.
Crucially, the bike lanes would remove a lane of traffic between Bloor and Lake Shore, which is where the proposal clashes with the new provincial legislation.
On Tuesday, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria introduced a bill that would bar municipalities from building new bike lanes if they would remove a lane for cars.
The move brings "informed decision-making and oversight to a process that is frankly out of control," Sarkaria said at a press conference last week where he teased the legislation.
Until the bill becomes law, the city still has free reign to build new bike lanes. The government could fast-track the bill and have it enforced in a few weeks or less — or it could take months.
If the lanes are under construction by the time the bill passes, the law won’t apply.
City staff’s proposal said that if council gives the green light, the new Parkside lanes won’t be built until 2026.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, some advocates implored councillors to move quickly so construction can start before the provincial bill becomes law.
“If we can accelerate this, start putting the pieces in place sooner, it might mean this project gets on the ground sooner” and won’t get caught up in the province’s plans, said Michael Longfled, executive director of Cycle Toronto.
Last week, however, Premier Doug Ford also promised to rip out existing bike lanes.
“It isn't enough to keep an eye on future bike lanes. We need to and will remove and replace existing bike lanes on primary roads that are bringing traffic in our cities to an absolute standstill,” he said.
Ford’s threat made York Centre Coun. James Pasternak wary of supporting the staff report and its $7.5-million price tag.
“If the province is going to pass legislation where they can retroactively stop … or dismantle bike lanes that are in the public roadway, we are putting at risk $7.5 million by proceeding with this,” he said.
Council will debate the staff report when it meets next in mid-November.