The City of Toronto is proposing an amendment to the Official Plan to introduce area-specific policies for properties on Bloor Street West, between Avenue Road and Bathurst Street. The draft amendment is intended to implement a vision for the area as determined through the Bloor Corridor Visioning Study process, in consultation with the local community and area representatives.

Date: Tuesday, November 10

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Location: Committee Room 1, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 100 Queen St. W.

Roger Geller, bicycle coordinator for the City of Portland, Oregon, recently gave an inspired presentation to a standing-room only crowd at the Centre for Social Innovation.

TCAT has created a new brochure titled "Bike Lanes - Good for Business and for Taxpayers." The purpose of this brochure is to provide the general public with access to some of the most recent research in an easy-to-read short format. Key findings from Clean Air Partnership's research report titled Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business are highlighted.

Toronto City Council held a special meeting on August 5 and 6th to make up for July's meetings that were cancelled as a result of the strike. There were several items about bicycles on the agenda, including:

The Toronto Star has a regular column called "The Fixer" that tackles City problems that readers alert them to. Recently they've called attention to a couple of persistent cases of blocked bike lanes.

The first is police barricades that have been blocking the St. George bike lane for about a year. When questioned by The Fixer, the Police agreed to find another place to store the barricades.

Ward 5 Etobicoke Councillor Peter Milczyn posted a Bike Lane survey to his website last week. Please take a moment to complete it. You can find it here.

Also the I Bike TO blog has some great commentary about the Bloor and West Mall bike lanes in western Etobicoke. Available here and here.

On June 3rd, TCAT will be addressing the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on the following four issues:

1. Motorized Bicycles on Sidewalks. TCAT supports the Toronto Pedestrian Committee's recommendation that no bicycle that includes a motor of any kind be allowed to travel on the sidewalk. For more info, see this recent Toronto Star article.

According to Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, the proposed Strachan Avenue super-bridge we told you about in a recent TCAT News has been averted. While the details of what the new structure will look like are still not fully worked out, Metrolinx's new proposed plans promises to address the issue of creating a cycling and pedestrian friendly corridor between the Waterfront and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

At the May 11th meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, Daniel Egan, Manager of Pedestrian Infrastructure, gave a 45-minute presentation about upcoming plans for improving Toronto's bikeway network. There are some very exciting options being considered, including...