From today’s Toronto Star: Giorgio Mammoliti boldly announced Wednesday that if elected mayor, he would introduce a $20-$30 registration fee for bikes. “It’s an agenda that seems to be taking over so far in this election. It’s all about the downtown core and the downtown agenda, and the suburbs don’t want to continue to subsidize these pet projects,” he said. With all due respect, he’s got all his facts wrong. Cyclists live and ride all across the city, and there are major infrastructure projects happening in the suburbs right now to help ensure that cyclists have a safe place to ride in every part of Toronto.  In fact, the city (along with federal and provincial funding) is spending $23 million in North York and Scarborough to build bikeway trails – far more than is being spent downtown.  (The downtown bikeway projects will cost an estimated $330,000 this year.) So his math is completely backwards.  Not only that,  but according to the city’s own Cycling Survey (2009), utilitarian cycling is growing faster in the suburbs than in the core. (download PDF report highlights) Mammoliti’s proposed bicycle fee would only bring in about $35 million a year (minus the enormous cost of administering a whole new system of licensing).  City staff reports have repeatedly stated that costs outweigh any potential benefits when it comes to licensing or registering bicycles. From a 2006 staff report: "There are an estimated two million bicycles owned by residents of the City of Toronto.  The feasibility of implementing an on-line licensing system for bicycles to generate revenue must be evaluated on the following points: the cost to implement such a programme, public education, practicality for enforcement of the programme, jurisdictional challenges, and, the effectiveness of such a programme for generating on-going revenue. In order to recover the administrative costs of the programme and to ensure that sufficient revenue is generated on an on-going basis, the cost of the licence would need to be set at a value that may be considered exorbitant. Other municipalities have looked into the costs of implementing and administering a mandatory bicycle licensing requirement. In 1991, the former City of Ottawa evaluated the financial feasibility of licensing bicycles to generate revenue to fund on-going cycling projects.  Its investigation determined that it was unlikely to cover the administrative costs of running the programme, let alone to generate sufficient revenue, and the idea was abandoned." So forget about that idea.

Despite recent media reports, I'd like to say that I'm having a good week.  In fact, I haven't been this excited about local politics in quite some time.  There's some really neat things happening across the city, and I'm fortunate to be involved with two specific campaigns that are rolling out the red carpet in April.  Seven town hall forums have been announced this week: four for Better Ballots and three for the transit workers' Let's Talk campaign. And what could better encapsulate the theme of public space than ballots and buses?  Whether you're passionate about moving people through the city or moving ideas through our web of local democracy, these two systems are what keep Toronto alive.  One is a physical network of tunnels, tracks and routes and the other is a maze-like adventure filled with councillors, candidates, platforms, policies, ballots and regulations.

While much has been said about the pedestrianization of Times Square in Manhattan, little attention has been focused on another bold project unfolding on the streets of Manhattan. While the Times Square experiment turns Broadway into a pedestrian-based destination, a recent re-design of 8th and 9th Avenues transforms those streets into bicycle-friendly routes with physically separated lanes for cyclists. The NYC Department of Transportation calls them “fully protected bicycle lanes”. For many years, I've heard bicycle advocates fantasize about physically separated lanes. Usually their dreams are referencing examples in Amsterdam, Copenhagen or other far-away cities. It's easy for our politicians and planners to reject ideas that originate across the Atlantic, but once they start appearing in North America it becomes harder to write them off as something that “wouldn't work here”. Both Montreal and now New York City have implemented protected bike lanes that give cyclists a safe dedicated space on major arterial streets. The idea isn't just to make the streets safer for those who already ride around town, but to create safe spaces on our streets that attract new cyclists. One thing they've found in New York is that people are using the 8th and 9th lanes who wouldn't be riding on the street otherwise, including families with children riding their own small bikes. So, could we do it here? Yes, but the hard part is finding a street that can accommodate the space required.

Yesterday marked the beginning of this year's Bike Blitz.  Officially, it's called the “Safe Cycling — Share the Responsibility Campaign”.  It's a week-long Toronto Police campaign with a stated purpose of “promoting awareness and education” and “reducing the potential for cycling related injuries.” On paper, it sounds like a great idea.  After all, who isn't in favour of more safety and fewer injuries? The premise is sound, but the problem lies in the implementation.  There are two different approaches that can be taken for a campaign such as this.  One approach is to use discretion, giving tickets to cyclists who are riding dangerously while educating and warning cyclists who make minor infractions.  This can include handing out printed materials about safety and traffic rules.  The other approach is to embrace a ‘zero tolerance' model and hand out as many tickets as possible for minor infractions.  The first method increases awareness and strengthens the relationship between police officers and cyclists. The second approach results in cyclists feeling targeted and harassed (some tickets are $100+) while increasing hostility towards the police. In recent years, the annual campaign has fallen squarely into category #2.  There is reason to believe that this year's event will be better, but we'll believe it when we see it. On Monday morning I rose early to attend a 7am press conference (pdf release) about the Bike Blitz.  I was a little worried.  After all, it was the first press event that I was attending as a blogger.  Would I be taken seriously? Would the TV networks shove me aside?  Would the daily reporters interrupt my questions?  I emotionally prepared myself for the worst as I biked along College to the event. (On the way, I had to swerve around a police car parked in the bikelane…). The two scheduled speakers were Police Officer Hugh Smith and Yvonne Bambrick (from the bike union).  I arrived at College and Bellevue five minutes late and was thrilled to see that the media turnout was low.  Less competition means more interview time for me. In fact, there was only one media person there. Me.

Council Chambers, Toronto City Hall (Queen & Bay) Sunday April 13 - 11:00am to 4:00pm Learn how to improve cycling conditions in your Ward. Become a positive force of change. Learn political process and leadership. Learn about about navigation strategies through political processes, get public speaking and media coaching, and learn how to get local volunteers, book meeting rooms and host meetings. Community leaders will also share their secrets of success, and City Council Members will share their valuable inside knowledge of how to influence your local politician. Free. All welcome. Speakers include: Albert Koehl, Bells on Bloor Eleanor McMahon, Share The Road ...

Today's edition of the Globe and Mail has a feature story called "Grow up, cyclists". It's a story about bicycle advocacy in Toronto, the city's Bike Plan and the Toronto Cyclists Union. The Cyclists Union is a project in development, set to launch in June. I'm the project coordinator. As a community organiser and municipal advocate, I rely heavily on mainstream media to spread ideas across this large city. Sometimes the message gets distorted by the media, and that's often just part of the game of activism. But today's article, and specifically the headline, went a little too far and I'd like to respond to that. (And it won't fit in a 'letter to the editor', so thank you Spacing). I feel the article is unnecessarily divisive and also contains a few factual errors. The headline is "Grow up, cyclists" followed by "It's time for bikers to drop the gimmicks, says Spacing's Dave Meslin. Out of a chorus of fractured voices, he's forming a union that will present one strong message at City Hall". 1) I never said that cyclists have to 'grow up'. I aspire to be a Peter Pan myself and would love to see a little more youthful optimism in our political culture. I did say to the writer that we need to come up with messages that are less 'activisty' and develop a more 'mature aesthetic', but that was purely in the context of how we need to reach suburban motorists, not just the converted. My point was that we need drivers to get out of their cars and try riding their bikes more often. To reach those drivers, we need a different style of message than we would use to talk to the Critical Mass scene. But we also need a Critical Mass scene. 2) As for gimmicks, again I think my lines were taken out of context. What I said to the writer was that because the environment is such a hot issue and the call for sustainable transportation is louder than ever and accepted by all political stripes, and the number of cyclists is growing, we don't need to rely on gimmicks anymore to be heard. My point was that I'm confident the time has come for cyclists to be taken seriously as an organised community, rather than ignored as a marginalised voice. But that doesn't mean we should drop the gimmicks! And it doesn't mean that I'm judging other organisers or offering them advice. Any strong movement has a diversity of approaches and tactics. Anyone who knows me, knows that I use and love gimmicks in all my work. (I learned the value of politically relevant gimmicks from my late dear friend, Tooker Gomberg.) The Bike Union will be full of gimmicks, and it would be a shame for the bike movement to lose any of its tricks, from street parties, to guaranteed bikelanes, critical mass, world naked bike ride, cute bumper stickers, guerilla bike lanes, etc. In short, I respect and support all the cycling organizing that is happening in Toronto. 3) The article states that I am "the man behind spacing magazine". While I played a significant role in founding the magazine four years ago, I have not been involved at all since then and can take no credit for their incredible success. I'm proud to be identified as part of their team, but it is inaccurate.

Nuit Blanche has come and gone and proved once again to be a wonderful evening for thousands of participants. And once again, the event has triggered debates about the level of corporate sponsorship that accompany the many performances and installations scattered across the downtown. Nuit Blanche events happen all over the world and almost all of these events have corporate sponsorships, yet Toronto is the only city I could find that has sold the naming rights. I received a publicly funded newsletter from the Deputy Mayor this week that contained the word “Scotiabank” nine times because his staff felt ...

I'm on the west coast doing some travelling and I can't help but notice how strange some of these cities are. For example, you may find this hard to believe but there is absolutely no advertising on the bus shelters in Seattle or Portland. How silly. What a waste of potential revenue for their cities. I can't begin to understand why their politicians would pay money for these things, when you can get them for free from companies like CBS or Astral Media. Even stranger, the shelters in these cities have unique designs and ...

I awoke this morning to the sound of thunder and the deep hum of raindrops crashing through trees, knocking leaves to the ground. I walked out my front door and dragged my feet through the rivers forming at the side of the road. The leaves were blocking the sewers, turning every intersection into a gathering point of tributaries, gathering momentum before carrying on. I followed a leaf in the river as it swam along my neighbourhood's streets, and it felt as if we were walking together. A few sewers weren't fully clogged yet, so ...

New Website Launched Today: Who Runs This Town? With one election over, another is just beginning! In recent years, Toronto's municipal elections have suffered from low voter turnout, lack of debate and a small pool of candidates. Some Councillors even got a free ride and won their seat without having to campaign because no one challenged them! Lack of participation results in a stale political culture characterized by dull debate at Council, misplaced priorities, alienated citizens and poor decisions. We're hoping to inject some energy into our local democracy be encouraging people to get involved early. This ...