Toronto cyclists may soon be given another option when commuting in the downtown core.
The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee has voted in favour of undertaking an environmental assessment on adding bike lanes along Bloor Street between Dundas and Sherbourne streets.
The assessment will begin in 2014 and carry a price tag of about $450,000.
The assessment will be completed in conjunction with a previously approved traffic study of Dupont Street.
"I think it is a very good thing. Bike lanes say to the cyclists ‘ride here and don’t go anywhere else’ and they says to the driver ‘stay over there and don’t go anywhere else’ and it really is a win-win for everyone," Coun. Glen De Baeremaeker told CP24 Monday afternoon. "Cyclists will feel safer and drivers will feel safer."
City council had begun considering installing bike lanes along Bloor Street in 2010, however in 2012 council voted to scrap a planned assessment and instead focus on other bicycle-related infrastructure, including the construction of a separated bike lane along Sherbourne Street.
The resurrection of the proposed Bloor Street bike lanes came following repeated calls from the cycling community.
"Bloor Street is a natural corridor for cycling and it really is because cyclists don’t have any great options for travelling across Toronto. Other streets like College and Dundas, Queen and King, they all have streetcar tracks, which create fairly unsafe conditions, so this would be a really great option," Cycle Toronto Executive Director Jared Kolb told CP24 Monday evening.
