Bike lanes



Weston at Jane to Eglinton Ave.
Vital connection to transit and parks
Activate local commerce, promote pedestrian traffic.
Regulate traffic flow





The issues
I regularly bike from West Dean Park to York Recreational center during the summer months. The trip is refreshing with abundant green spaces and parks flanking both sides of Eglinton. However, the first thing I encounter upon reaching Mt. Dennis is a cutoff bike lane so I have to resort to the pavement or walk to make the rest of my trip for fear of the aggressive traffic at Weston and Eglinton. The principal urban advisor for Mt. Dennis from Perkin&Wills noted the same accessibility issue when he played soccer at Eglinton Flats during the first public consultation meeting. Mount Dennis station boasts 120 bicycle parking spaces but the question remains how will bikers get there?
The talk
I have had several lengthy with Christina Hoang, an urban farming and cycling advocate from MD about accessibility, vertical farming, displacement, etc. Her story can be read here. It’s albeit frustrating for the locals to see that the city has not paid attention to neighborhood until now when economic interests are at stake. However, the real confusion for me is that this conversation on accessibility seemingly died down in the second public consulation between locals and urban planners.
The history
Weston Rd., even during the industrial 60s, was a pedestrian and cyclist friendly street with wide sidewalks and accessible transit ( trolley bus replaced streetcar in 1944). However, the plan for the Richview Highway in 1968 (unmaterialized) led to the widening of Weston and Eglinton, carving away large swaths of the pavement. This decision proved to be fatal in the 1980s when local industries such as Kodak and CCM began to decline. Ultimately, wide open spaces become proned to criminal activities (Scotiabank was robbed a month ago), traffic accidents. In the 60s, cars park on the road because of thriving business, now they do so because there’s little business. Most parking lots are near empty
The opportunity
We all know the benefits of bike lanes and there are now trememdous potential for them to be realized in the neighborhood. It is spatially viable because portions of Weston Road have 6 lanes: 4 for traffic and 2 for parking. More importantly,  Mount Dennis is the ‘greenest neighborhood’ in the city and soon to house its second-most important transit route. Meanwhile, the pandemic has seen more and more people taking up cycling as a way to commute and exercise. There’s no better timing than now. The widened roads can become ‘happy accidents’ if they are used to create a biking network connecting transit and park trails.



The Urban Palimpsest of Mount Dennis - Thesis statement

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