The Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC) will be meeting on September 21, 2009 at Toronto City Hall at 100 Queen Street West in Committee Room 3 on the second floor. The meetings are open to the public. You can download the agenda at the following link TCAC Sept 21, 2009 Agenda

On the agenda is a discussion on the use of e-bikes on city bike lanes and bike paths as well as a recommendation from the Pedestrian Committee that ‘power assisted bicycles’ not be permitted on sidewalks.

Also on the agenda is an update on the 2009 Bike Plan program.

Martin Koob

The next meeting of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee will take place on Monday March 23, 2009. It will take place at 7:00 pm in Committee Room 2 on the second floor of Toronto City Hall at 100 Queen St. West. The meetings are open to the public. You can see the agenda at the following link. Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee Agenda, March 23 2009.

One item on the agenda is a presentation from a community organization, Cycle 26, on improving cycling infrastructure in Ward 26.

Also on the agenda is a presentation entitled 2009 Toronto Bike Plan Program. Hopefully this will include the list of the Bikeway Network Projects planned this year. Seventy kilometres of on street bike lanes have been promised this year. As well Transportation Services has assumed the responsibility for the construction of Bikeway Network trails in Toronto’s Parks. Hopefully this presentation will include plans for this area in 2009. This presentation is currently not online but should be posted after the meeting at the following link 2009 Toronto Bike Plan Program

Martin Koob

The Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee(TCAC) will have its first meeting of 2009 on Monday January 19th at 7:00 pm in Committee Room 2 of Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street W. This meeting is open to the public and you can see the items up for discussion on their agenda TCAC Agenda, January 19, 2009.

Highlights of the agenda include a Toronto Bike Plan Update and a Park Trails Projects Update. (As of January 15th these two reports are not available yet online but the agenda notes they will be added to the agenda on January 20th, 2009 after the TCAC meeting.) As the City of Toronto heads into the new year with a renewed commitment to building the Bikeway Network as recommended in the Toronto Bike Plan, which is evidenced by an increased capital budget an a reorganization of the responsibility for building bicycle paths in Toronto’s parks, this will be an opportunity to look at what happened over the past year and look for solutions to obstacles that were encountered in the past year.

I hope the city will return to the practice of issuing an annual Toronto Bike Plan progress report to Council through the cycling committee. The last official report that can be found on the city’s Cycling Reports and Official Documents webpage was the Year 3 strategy report which was issued in 2005. In order to permit and encourage residents to become engaged in the city processes all of the reports to the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee should be made accessible to the public just as they are for Council’s standing committees. These reports should be made available on-line in a searchable text form (ie. PDF), preferably before the meeting where they will be discussed. It has become practice to hand out reports at the meeting and then not always posting them online afterwards. Sometimes when reports are posted they are in a scanned form that is not searchable.

In order for the City of Toronto to reach its Bike Plan goals it is going to need the involvement of an increasing number of Toronto Residents to work with Councillors to promote routes planned in the Bikeway Network, promote programs proposed in other sections of the Bike Plan and promote cycling as a mode of transportation. Ensuring that the documents explaining the City’s plans being implemented, issues being discussed and challenges being faced are available and accessible will allow Toronto residents to become informed and engaged in the process.

Martin Koob