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On June 29, advocates from the Toronto Cyclists Union staked out a corner of Jarvis Street with a simple question: What’s wrong with this bike lane? The answer from the overwhelming majority of cyclists and motorists? “Absolutely nothing!”

The video that resulted was just one aspect of the Toronto advocates’ Save Jarvis campaign, which has not just galvanized the cycling community, but boosted the membership for the bike union.

The effort is the result of a recent push by Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, to remove a number of already installed bike lanes in the city’s core. Ford and his allies have argued that the lanes have caused traffic congestion. But, as the Bike Union has pointed out, that claim isn’t backed by the facts. “Updated traffic counts from the City of Toronto show that following the installation of bike lanes on Jarvis Street, motor vehicle volumes remained the same while cycling volumes tripled,” the bike union notes.

So, in the run-up to a city council vote to remove three major arterial bike lanes, the bike union kicked into high gear to protect the cycling facilities. They sent press releases to build their media presence, ran a targeted campaign of social media to get the word out, handed out fliers and buttons in the bike lanes themselves, and put together a three-minute video that included not just cyclists, but motorists advocating for the lane.

Unfortunately, the council voted to remove all three bike lanes last month, suggesting that the previous infrastructure will be replaced with a network of protected bike lanes on other streets. To fill the gap before the new construction, the council gave Jarvis a one-year reprieve. The bike union immediately jumped on the opportunity to capitalize on the growing, grassroots, pro-biking energy — and what better way than to get folks out pedaling.

“Our inspiration for ‘Ride for Jarvis, Ride for Bike Lanes’ was the Prospect Park Family Ride,” Heather McDonald, the bike union’s president, says. “When we were talking about what we would do if the council voted to cancel the bike lanes, the images of happy families riding on Prospect Park Ride came to mind. Leading up the ride we capitalized on social media, had a huge response via Facebook, had volunteers distributing buttons and fliers in the bike lanes and coordinated a press release.”

It worked. The turnout was huge. Approximately 1,200 cyclists streamed down Jarvis, ending with a rally at City Hall. But the event wasn’t just a boost to the bike lanes campaign; it was a membership boon for the bike union, too.

“We were able to use our core group of volunteers to act not only as marshals, but also as membership recruiters,” McDonald says. “We offered a discounted membership at the event. With a flat rate of $20 (reduced from $30), we recruited 75 members at the ride.”

“The threat of bike lane removal has really fueled our membership drive,” she adds. “Within 24 hours of the vote, 100 new members joined the bike union. Thanks to the Save Jarvis Campaign and our new full-time director of Membership, Jared Kolb, we’ve seen membership grow leaps and bounds.  Andrea [Garcia, the bike union’s executive director] has been working hard at a more proactive and targeted media presence and has been able to identify good areas for advocacy to fuel membership and vice versa. A general discontent with the state of affairs with the current administration in Toronto has also helped galvanize and unite city-building groups of various interests.”

“We’re thrilled to see that more and more people are turning to the bike union as a credible voice for cyclists in Toronto. We plan to take this momentum forward as we find creative ways to advocate for cyclists in the face of the recent challenges.”

Check out photos of the ride here and stay tuned to developments on the bike lanes on the bike union’s website.

Photos of Save Jarvis Ride courtesy of Martin Reis.

When we released our 2010 Benchmarking Report in January, a Streetsblog reporter called the effort a “Bike-Ped State of the Union.” Collecting and analyzing bicycle and pedestrian data from all 50 states and the 50 most-populous cities, our report arms advocates and professionals with quick and easy access to critical information about biking and walking in the U.S.

But what about our neighbors to the north? What’s the state of biking and walking in Canada? A new report released this month — Benchmarking Active Transportation in Canadian Cities — provides key insight.

The 80-page study was released by the Clean Air Partnership, but relied on research and authorship from Nancy Smith Lea, director of the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (an Alliance member organization). A comprehensive effort, the report compiles 2007 and 2010 data regarding Infrastructure, Safety, Travel Behavior, Demography and Geography. Frequently citing the Alliance Benchmarking Reports, the study compares the performance of active transportation in Toronto against other cities in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Key findings of the report include:

- Cities with more kilometers of bicycle facilities have a higher active transportation mode share.

- In cities with high mode shares, the percentage of cyclists and pedestrians injured and killed is lower than in cities with low mode shares, thus confirming the “safety in numbers” theory.

- The cities with the lowest active transportation mode shares also have the highest private automobile shares.

- Cities in jurisdictions with low gas taxes tend to have low active transportation levels and higher private automobile mode shares.

Click here to download Benchmarking Active Transportation in Canadian Cities from our Online Resource Library. And, if you don’t already have a hard copy on your desk, download a digital copy of the Alliance 2010 Benchmarking Report, too.

Back in February, Toronto’s public bike share program was headed towards extinction.

That is, until the Toronto Cyclists Union jumped in to preserve it.

When Yvonne Bambrick (pictured), TCU’s executive director learned the program was an endangered initiative, she alerted the union’s membership. Scores of supporters answered the call to action, ringing the phones and buzzing the inboxes of important decision-makers, like the mayor and key city council members.

“Because of our collective effort and the power of the arguments in favour of this exciting and important extension of the public transit system, public bikes were put back on the table,” Bambrick wrote in the union’s most recent newsletter.

The union’s members didn’t just put the issue back on the table; they pushed it to passage. Earlier this month, the city council voted 33-8 in favor of the public bikes program.

Bambrick gives the credit to local advocates and bike-riding residents. “Toronto’s Public Bike Share Program was near death and the bike union rescued it with behind the scenes work and action alerts to our members and supporters, which motivated approximately 500 unique e-mails over two alerts,” she says. “We’re very excited to see this come together and know the role of our collective efforts!”

Read more about TCU’s recent victories in their newsletter, Ring & Post.

Toronto Cyclists Union recently announced that a new grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation will give their Newcomers Cycling Project a boost. Recently awarded a 2010 Alliance Advocacy Award for innovation, the project is part of a joint effort with CultureLink Settlement Services to promote cycling amongst newcomer communities. The partnership is entering into the second phase of the outreach campaign in 2010 and the new grant will fund a full time coordinator to serve the campaign and expand cycling outreach initiatives amongst newcomers to Toronto.

According to Toronto Cyclists Union, “During this year’s Bike Month, the partnership hopes to release the Toronto Cyclists Handbook in 15 languages, as per our ‘From back home to our new home’ poster series, and to distribute the handbook to newcomer communities thanks also to generous support from the Toronto Community Foundation. Through interactive workshops, the coordinator will start to mobilize cyclists from newcomer communities to actively engage in a grass-roots effort to make our city more bike-friendly.”

Kristin Schwartz takes up this new and exciting challenge as the new Cycling Outreach Coordinator. Kristin can be reached at cycling@culturelink.net.

For more information on Toronto Cyclists Union visit http://www.bikeunion.to.

According to the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT), “In May 2009, TCAT organized its second Bike Summit, a one-day bicycle policy conference. This popular event sold out in advance despite a bigger venue than for Bike Summit 2008. One of the goals beyond the event itself was to share more widely the knowledge and lessons learned with bicycle advocates, professionals, and elected officials unable to join us in Toronto.

To this end, we are pleased to release an easy-to-read and beautifully designed Summary Report of Bike Summit 2009. Thanks to Fred Sztabinski for putting the final touches on this report and getting it out the door. Printed copies are available for pick-up or mailing. If you’d like some copies to distribute, please email TCAT. An on-line PDF version of the report is also available to download here.
We are also happy to announce that:

• all of the videos from the Bike Summit have been uploaded to TCAT’s website by TCAT volunteer extraordinaire Mateen Mahboubi, AND  
• TCAT Steering Committee member Dylan Passmore compiled highlights from the day into a 18-minute edited video also now available on our website.

We hope you enjoy these new resources and find them useful.”

Alliance staff note: TCAT has done an amazing job of compiling the results from their 2009 Bike Summit at these links. Their website now hosts videos of presentations at the Summit for those who couldn’t make it or would like a recap. The Summary Report is also a beautiful document that highlights the success that has come from their Bike Summit and summaries of the topics and presentations covered. We highly recommend you check it out!

According to the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT), “The Ontario and federal governments recently issued a news release announcing more than $380 million in funding under the Recreational Infrastructure Canada program and the Ontario Recreation Program. Three recreational trails projects identified as priorities in TCAT’s Platform will receive federal and provincial funding.” Projects receiving funds are the CN Leaside Rail Trail, the Gatineau Hydro Corridor bike path, and the Finch Hydro bike path.

To read the full press release, click here…

For more information on TCAT, click here…

Toronto kicked off their Bike Month with a big win for cyclists when the Toronto City Council voted 28 to 18 in favor of new bike lanes on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto. According to Yvonne Bambrick of the Toronto Cyclists Union, “This is a big win for our city’s cyclists, and for the Toronto Cyclists Union who got the wheels rolling on this issue last fall by submitting a report to Transportation that showed the viability of bike lanes, in addition to some of the proposed pedestrian realm improvements.  This is particularly important because the original scope of the Environmental Assessment (EA) did not include any consideration of cyclists, and was focused solely on the beautification of the pedestrian realm.”

For more information, click here…