1.2K 
Toronto's Public Works and Infrastructure committee split on recommending a pilot project to put bike lanes on Bloor Street West between Shaw Street (east of Ossington Avenue) and Avenue Road today. The proposal has been forwarded to City Council for them to consider next week without recommendation.
As of 2014, the City of Toronto estimated 3,500 to 3,900 people per day cycled on the present Harbord-Hoskin route, and 3,000 already ride along Bloor. When a dedicated cycle lane was installed on Adelaide last year, cyclist numbers tripled. Lane advocates said cycling on the road at present is difficult because of the narrow space available - there were an average history of 22 collisions between cyclists and cars per year along the suggested test route from 2008 to 2012, according to city staff.
If approved by full council, the lanes, separated from traffic by a painted buffer, bollards and/or parked cars would cost approximately $500,000 to install. They would come at the expense of parking on one side of Bloor, and the net loss of revenue to Toronto Parking as a result would be $840,000 a year.
The results of the pilot would help to inform the Toronto Cycling Network Plan currently under development which will set out objectives for the next ten years.
The proposal says the routes could be put in place by "late summer" and that a report on the results of the installation would be made in the third quarter of 2017.
The chair of the committee, Jaye Robinson voted against recommending the pilot to Council, asking staff for more information on what data would be collected and wanting to know what the cost would be to remove the lanes after the pilot if it were not successful. Councillor Stephen Holyday also opposed it, saying that this would result in a de facto installation of a permanent bike lane, which he said would be "bad policy". Councillors Mary-Margaret McMahon and Anthony Perruzza voted to recommend the trial. Mayor Tory told reporters he will support the proposal as long as the results will be studied "carefully from every single standpoint."
The idea of cycle lanes on Bloor has been around nearly 40 years. In 1975 the city of Toronto formed a cycling committee and the first study examining a cycle lane on Bloor was conducted in 1977, another was done in 1992 and the 2001 cycling plan identified Bloor as "an ‘ideal east-west cycling route’ as it is flat and already popular, but no action was taken. A third environmental assessment was started in 2010 but cancelled in 2011. In 2013, council voted once again $450,000 for an environmental assessment but it did not happen. In 2015, new provincial rules made it clear that for on-street cycle lanes, such assessments are not necessary. After sustained campaigning by Cycle Toronto and others, including an 11,014 signature petition, city staff recommended this pilot project.
