Toronto Star: Toronto diminishes its future by killing Jarvis bike lanes

[marmar]

By Christopher Hume
Urban Issues, Architecture


[font size="1"]Cycle Toronto drew hundreds of cyclists for Ride for Jarvis in June to try to save the Jarvis bike lanes. On Monday, road crews will begin removing the bike lanes. RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR[/font]


The decision to remove the bike lanes from Jarvis is wrong in principle, devastating in perception.

The practical consequences will be bad enough, especially in the years ahead, but the symbolism of such a regressive move is worse. These things are hard to measure, it’s true, but in the eyes of the world, it’s one more sign of a nation in decline, terrified of change, the new US.

The country’s fall from grace has been lamented everywhere, it seems, but here.

What’s most irksome about the Jarvis debacle is the reason behind it. Though we’ve heard a lot of stuff about the new dedicated bike lane (Toronto’s first) now under construction on Sherbourne, the real story is the city’s desire to placate the north-end residents of Moore Park and Rosedale who hated to lose Jarvis’s reversible middle lane. Its removal slows traffic and their daily commute into downtown. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1286168--hume-toronto-diminishes-its-future-by-killing-jarvis-bike-lanes