Weston and Mount Dennis are neighbourhoods in northwest Toronto that have not had any improvements in cycling infrastructure as part of ActiveTO. This is particularly ironic since Weston styles itself as “the home of the bicycle” referring to the fact that CCM had a large bicycle factory in the neighbourhood. Weston’s history with CCM was written up in Dandyhorse Magazine.
A petition has been circulated by a community group in Ward 5 that calls for bike lanes along Weston Rd, extending further south on Keele, all the way to Bloor St. Parkdale High Park Bikes wrote to Councillors Nunziata and Perks in support of this initiative.
Nunziata’s office replied as follows:
Our office did receive a copy of the petition you reference below and recently had a conference call with some of the creators of the petition.
During the call we discussed the feasibility of cycling lanes on Weston Road north of Junction Road. This section has previously been investigated by cycling staff and unfortunately it has been ruled out for future cycling infrastructure due to the below reasons:
- The issues are related to the speed/volume as well as road width and Right of Way
- Due to the speed and volume – we need to build separated cycling infrastructure on Weston Rd.
- We can’t afford to remove lanes of traffic due to the volume of traffic on the road and the way that this road is used as a feeder to Black Creek / Hwy 400.
- There isn’t enough Right of Way room north of Birdstone to build anything in the boulevard – the building frontages are right at the sidewalk.
- We do have the centre painted median – but there are driveways on both sides that use the median as a turning lane.
- Councillor Nunziata is very supportive of improvements to both cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in Ward 5. As you may be aware, our former Ward 11, Pedestrian Safety and Cycling Committee (PSCC) submitted the attached report to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee two years ago which was reported back on by Transportation Services. Although cycling is not an option in along Weston Road, we continue to advocate for cycling infrastructure in other areas of our ward.
You can access the PSCC report here. The report called for a feasibility study for bike lanes on Weston, and one surmises that the above list of bullet points was the result.
Last weekend, some of the usual suspects were spotted in the vicinity of the Weston GO station.
Donna as the turtle.
Arthur, and our high wheeler rider Darren of Bedford Unicycles. I’ve blogged about Darren on two other occasions.
Darren being very patient while doing multiple passes in front of the mural.
Ring leader Albert showing off his new Nihola.
This video was the result of our efforts that morning.
Thanks to Albert and Janet Joy from the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition for organizing the creation of the video, and all the other volunteers involved.
Here is Rob’s account of the morning, along with his ride back via the new bike lanes at Six Points.
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