You may have seen the news that Toronto’s proposed 2009 budget means things like a 4% increase in property taxes, more money for social programs and keeping TTC fares frozen at current levels. If you’re like me, then all of the above is interesting, but you’re also curious about how cycling infrastructure is addressed in [...]

The Executive Committee of City Council is meeting today, and the Toronto Coalition of Active Transport (TCAT) is trying to get the issue of funding the BikePlan for a 2012 completion back on the table, after the Budget Committee decided that the Bike Plan was important, but not important enough to finish by when Council [...]

Eye columnist and Spacing contributer Dale Duncan has a nice piece in Eye this week about bikelanes. Specifically, the frustration that comes with seeing some city politicians talk about being “green” but then not supporting funding for the Bike Plan. Adding bikelanes to Toronto’s streets is relatively cheap and easy to do, yet for all [...]

The Star already has reader-submitted opinions up stemming from the article this morning: Toronto likes to boast that it is a world-class city, but it is absolutely parochial when it comes to its cycling policy. You can go to Tokyo and see full-service parking lots holding thousands of bicycles that are used as primary sources [...]

The Star has a “Speak Out” feature up about this morning’s article about City Council working around local community councils who may oppose bikelane installation. Go and have your say about “Should community councils be allowed to veto new bike paths authorized by the city?” – they post most comments on their website and a [...]

The Dundas East Bikelane at Jones [photo credit] The Star has a short article this morning on City Council’s plan to eliminate community councils from the Bikelane approval process – meaning that every January, City Council can decide which lanes will go in that year without having anti-cycling councillors holding up the process in their [...]

The Star is reporting today on the Bike Plan falling behind schedule: Though it’s been cited as a key part of the Toronto’s transit strategy, the city keeps falling further and further behind on its bike plan. At the outset, there were to be 1,000 kilometres of bikeways – a mix of lanes, signed routes [...]

Tammy Thorne of Spacing just posted about the Budget Committee backing down from increasing the Bike Plan Budget to get it done by 2012. While the original amount budgeted for 2008 was $3 million, the $5.5 million approved (while a substantial increase of 83%) falls short of the $7.7 million that some people say is [...]

Martin Koob has posted a great synopsis of yesterday’s Budget Committee hearings – and it sounds like some City Councillors are listening to and interested in the needs of Toronto’s cycling community. Here are some excerpts from Martin, but check out his full post for much more info: …In the morning several people showed up [...]