In late May Toronto Council approved taking two lanes out of Brimley Road and handing these over to the bike lobby.
The bike lobby told our Councillor Michael Thompson that we needed bike lanes to get to the grocery store, the drug store, the LCBO and Beer store at Eglinton. They told him we needed to get our exercise by riding our bikes up and down Brimley.
The lanes went in early in July. We’ve had 4 months to see how this is working out. Traffic is only partway back to pre-COVID lockdown ‘normal’ levels. When Brimley is busy we are seeing long lines of traffic forming in the single lane remaining. A single-vehicle stopped to make a left-hand turn into their driveway or their neighbourhood blocks the whole street. Long queues are forming at the traffic signals.
Why should you care?
Here are 8 good reasons why everyone in Glen Andrew should care about the Brimley Bike lanes:
1. Bike lanes on Brimley today are just the start.
This is just a ‘pilot project’ they snuck in when everyone was totally focused on the COVID emergency. The bike lanes won’t stop at Lawrence. The bike lobby wants to extend these all the way to Steeles. And then do it again on Midland Ave.
2. Your friends and neighbours who front onto Brimley Road had their right to park and even just to stop in front of their homes cancelled by City Hall.
There are +\- 200 homes with driveways directly to Brimley between Kingston Road and Lawrence.
Whatever privileges they had to park or even just to stop in front of their homes before the bike lanes went in, they were cancelled overnight. City work crews took down the old signs and put these up:
If your daughter parks in the curb lane, where she’s parked for years to bring over the grandkids, maybe deliver some groceries if you can’t get around, she’ll get whacked with a $150.00 fine.
No-one knows how you get your roof repaired; your furnace replaced or even your lawn care company to come to your home if you live on Brimley. Where do they park?
3. Because practically no-one is using the Brimley bike lanes.
- Even in the really good cycling weather of June, July and August.
- Even when there was practically zero traffic on Brimley during the COVID lockdown.
- Even when the City Hall bike lobby sent out 23,136 full-colour glossy pamphlets to sell their latest scheme.
4. Because cycling is seasonal.
Cycling on the really well-used bike lanes downtown where it makes sense drops off by +\-80 % from November through the end of April.
If there’s almost nobody cycling on Brimley today in great cycling weather, how many people will be pedalling on Brimley in the dark and cold, on snow and ice from November through the end of April?
5. Maybe you have been able to avoid Brimley Road but those are your friends and neighbours stuck waiting in those queues.
- They’re riding the Brimley 21 bus to the subway.
- They’re trying to get to and from their homes right on Brimley and in the neighbourhoods on both sides.
- Those are our children riding school buses to Knob Hill, Hunters Glen and Charles Gordon public schools south of Lawrence and further south to Anson public school;
- They’re waiting for the handicapped access taxi and the WheelTrans van;
- They’re wondering how the service trucks can get to their homes to repair their furnace, fix their roof, or deliver the things they’ve ordered online.
6. Because neither our Councillor Michael Thompson nor the bike lobby at City Hall has answered our question:
How will snowplows, driveway plows, street sweepers and storm drain vacuum trucks do their jobs with bike lanes hogging the curb lane?
7. Because a huge proportion of the vehicles going up and down Brimley every weekday belong to Scarborough businesses.
These companies employ us. They employ our neighbours and kids.
They help us maintain and improve our homes, deliver food to our stores, deliver what we’ve ordered on line.
Here are just a few of the companies whose trucks use Brimley Road every day:
8. Because two years is not “temporary”.
When the bike lobby at City Hall grabbed two lanes out of Brimley for bicycles in July, they put up signs telling us this was ‘temporary’.
They told our Councillors they’ll watch how things go and report to our Councillors “in the fourth quarter of 2021.”
If you know how things work at City Hall, our Councillors won’t get around to these bike lanes until quite likely December 2021. Even if they decided then to remove the bike lanes, it’s not likely to happen until the spring of 2022. 21-24 months of this nonsense spanning two winters is not ‘temporary’.
Make no mistake about it:
- The bike lobby at City Hall, like a thief in the COVID night, grabbed half the capacity of Brimley Road for themselves while we were all busy trying to stay safe.
- They grabbed both sides of Huntingwood: most of the 321 homes with driveways to Huntingwood lost the right to park or even just to stop in front of their homes with no consultation.
- The bike lobby has their sights set on the rest of Brimley… right through Glen Andrew and all the way to Steeles.
- Then they’ll do the same thing to Midland from Kingston Road to Steeles.
Unless you speak up.
Unless Mike Thompson hears from you that this is not acceptable.
Here’s our message to Councillor Thompson:
1. Remove the bike lanes from Brimley Road immediately…before the snow flies:
- Take out the pylons.
- Paint over the markings.
- Put black bags over all the special signs you erected.
2. Consider reopening the bike lanes next summer…June, July and August…AFTER some genuine discussion with all the homeowners who front onto Brimley, the communities on either side and the businesses who depend on Brimley Road.
Join us.
Tell Michael Thompson you support Glen Andrew’s request.
Call him: 416-397-9274
Email him: councillor_thompson@toronto.ca
Write to him: 100 Queen St W Suite B24, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Lorne Ross
For the Glen Andrew Community Association
NOTE
We have sent the City all sorts of ideas on how to improve safe and attractive cycling using our parks, ravines, trails and hydro fields.
