Photo by Tharanga Ramanayake
This Thursday, at a meeting of Toronto’s Public Works and Infrastructure committee, suburban ward 26 councillor John Parker surprised everybody and nobody by introducing a
motion to remove the bicycle lanes on Jarvis Street. Despite
assurances from the mayors Ford that deleting the Jarvis bike lanes was not part of their transportation plan, and despite having not consulted with the community or the local councillor, and with no notice and no opportunity to hear from the public on the modified plan, city council now has to vote on a foolish cycling infrastructure plan that leads to bike lanes being removed from city streets.
Photo by HiMY SYeD
A day later, cyclists gathered at Bloor & Spadina for the largest Critical Mass of the summer. Although
Critical Mass is usually a group ride that tours randomly around city streets, this time the group of about 200 cyclists was headed for Jarvis. With some spare fabric, sequins and hot glue,
Shawnte put together capes for us to wear, and we dressed up as cycling superheroes for the evening. Thanks to many riders with cameras who participated, we have some pictures to share. Credit and copyright belongs to the photographers, of course. More photos from Critical Mass can be found on
R.T. Lechow and
Martin Reis‘ Flickr sets, and possibly others.
It was fun to dress up as cycling superheroes for Critical Mass, but the real cycling superheroes will be the city councillors who vote against the Fords’ ridiculous, car-focused transportation plan. These superheroes will save Toronto from becoming one of the only cities in the world to remove bicycle infrastructure instead of promoting healthy alternatives to vehicle traffic, and break the pattern of ever-increasing vehicle congestion throughout the city. You can help by writing to your local superhero councillor and sharing your story of why Jarvis is important to you, and why it benefits everyone in Toronto to expand the bicycle network in intelligent ways. And if you can, show up with your bike to the city council meetings on July 12-13, where our superhero forces will fight to stop the Fords’ destructive plan. See the Toronto Cyclists Union Save Jarvis! campaign for more ways you can help.
Here’s some more reading:
About Greg Burrell
Greg is an accountant, cyclist and political observer living in Toronto, Canada with too many cats.
