Mayor John Tory defends scaled-back cycling plan

Mayor John Tory is calling the cycling proposalcoming to city council"historic," saying it will double the amount of funding that goes into new bike lanes overthe next 10 years.

The proposal is based on a reportput together by municipal staff, and calls for $16 million a year to go to new cycling infrastructure. If fully implemented, it would add about 525 kilometres of new bike lanes to the city.

• New plan could see 525 km worth of bike routes across Toronto's busiest streets
• Bloor Street through the eyes of a cyclist before bike lane debate

The original staff report also recommended that the city look more closely at putting bike lanes on eight major arterial roads, including Yonge Street and Kingston Road something cycling advocates have been requesting for years. That recommendation got stripped out of the plana couple of weeks ago, when it came to the city's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee.

Mayor Tory defended that decision Monday, and rejected the suggestion that council would be voting on a diluted proposal, telling reporters: "I just think it's prudent to learn what we learn from theBloorStreet bike lane project before we go spending all kinds of money on similar streets."

City council approved apilot project implementingbike lanes on portions ofBloor Street earlier this month; those test bike lanes may be installed as soon as August.

"[We're] doubling of the investment from $8 to 16 million a year in bike infrastructure in this city," Tory said."That is more than any other mayor has spent on his or her watch going back. That is hardly a watering down."

He called the bike plan"a historic, timely, much-needed investment" and said thathe expected it would be passed by councillors. The Ten Year Cycling Network Plan will come to a vote at the next city council meeting, which begins June 7.