Today’s investment of up to $840 million from the Government of Canada to the City of Toronto as part of their Public Transit Infrastructure Fund will go a long way to repair, renew, enhance and expand our public transit system. This investment will also help the City build new active transportation infrastructure across Toronto including providing funding for up to 50% of the cost of extending the West Toronto Railpath, our much loved multi-use trail for walkers, runners and cyclists.

Today’s announcement also builds on the recent Provincial announcement that the Dufferin Street Bridge will be expanded in order to accommodate future Smart Track/GO RER service and the future expansion of the Railpath into the West Queen West neighbourhood.

Over the years, I have been working hard to build support for the expansion of the Railpath among all levels of government and these recent announcements help to advance our efforts. There is still more work to be done and I will be continuing my efforts to ensure that the Railpath gets extended for the benefit of our community and city. I look forward to providing your further updates on this important topic in the coming months.

Earlier this month, I was pleased to welcome Mayor John Tory and the Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca to the West Queen West neighbourhood as the Province announced the commencement of construction on the Dufferin Bridge Widening Project (you can learn more about this project by clicking here). The expanded bridge will be constructed to accommodate the space required for the proposed southward extension of the West Toronto Railpath to the West Queen West Community and will connect to the park that the City is constructing at Dufferin and Peel St.

I welcome the endorsements of Mayor Tory, Metrolinx and Minister Del Duca for the Railpath extension as an important step forward, which supports the City of Toronto's approved West Toronto Railpath Extension EA and our community's success in securing the incorporation of an extended Railpath into the design of the future 99 Sudbury development. I look forward to working with Metrolinx and all levels of government to secure the extension of this important piece of community transportation and recreational infrastructure.

This summer the College Promenade Business Improvement Area is carrying out extensive streetscape beautification work along College Street from Havelock to Shaw Streets. This work is the result of a joint planning effort between myself, the BIA, City staff, and the local community. These investments by the College Promenade BIA focus on strong collaboration with local artists and designers to create a dynamic landscape showcasing the best of Toronto's creativity.

A series of "Blue Rooms" and parkettes, designed by Stanislav Jurkovic will combine additional shade and custom designed bench seating with dynamic public artwork and lighting, adding new vibrancy and colour to the neighbourhood. Further streetscape improvements include upgraded decorative paving units, new light posts, 58 new tree plantings and new public artwork. 

In addition to these investments, a series of custom bicycle parking racks, designed by local craftsman Scott Eunson will provide a great piece of public artwork and expand bicycle parking for visitors and shop patrons. Expanding the accessibility of our business to new patrons is an important part of my work to improve the commercial vibrancy of shops across Ward 18 and this investment builds on the expansion of 15 Bike Share stations across our community. I look forward to these streetscape investments being completed and thank the community for for all the feedback which made these improvements a reality. While construction is ongoing, local businesses are still open and I encourage you to shop local and help support our local businesses during the construction!

In addition to this streetscaping work, multiple infrastructure renewal projects are taking place along College Street including TTC streetcar track replacement, road upgrades at the College and Lansdowne intersection and watermain and lead pipe replacement work on Lansdowne south of Dundas Street. For more details on these projects, please click here.

The City of Toronto will be installing cycle tracks (bike lanes) on Bloor Street from Shaw Street to Avenue Road as a pilot project to enhance cycling infrastructure and safety for all road users.

To accommodate this new cycling infrastructure, a number of changes will be made to Bloor Street in this area starting next week, including:

• Bloor Street from Shaw Street to Avenue Road will be reduced to one lane in each direction beginning Tuesday, August 2, weather permitting.
• All on-street parking in this area will be removed for the first few days of construction, starting August 1 at 6 p.m.
• New painted bike lanes, flexi-posts and signs will be installed.
• Signs will be installed to communicate changes to parking bylaws and loading areas.

Work to install the cycle tracks will take place 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and there is a possibility of some weekend work. As much as possible, noisy work will be limited to daytime hours. The installation work is expected to take about two weeks to complete, weather permitting.

For cyclists, Harbord Street will be an alternative route during the early part of construction. 

These changes are part of the Bloor Street bike lanes pilot project that was approved by City Council in May. The pilot project evaluation will focus on the effectiveness of the cycle tracks, options for the design of the separation between the cycle tracks and traffic lanes, the impacts on parking and loading for area businesses, and the effect on traffic flow.

More information about this project is available at http://www.toronto.ca/bloorbikelanes or at @TO_Cycling on Twitter.

Earlier this month at City Council, I voted to adopt the City's Ten Year Cycling Network Plan. The plan will effectively double Toronto's cycling infrastructure over the next decade by filling in gaps, improving our current system, and expanding the network to new parts of the city. This network expansion is supported by an annual $16 million cycling infrastructure investment, a doubling of our current investment levels. Of note to Ward 18 residents, the plan supports our existing efforts to expand the West Toronto Railpath south and also proposes to extend the Railpath north.

Expanding cycling infrastructure in Toronto is a step forward to achieving two critical goals. Firstly, it adds new choices for travelers to move through out our city, increasing access to jobs, residences and businesses. Secondly, and most importantly, it is about safety. By creating dedicated cycling infrastructure in our increasingly growing city, we can ensure all users of the road can coexist with one another. We need to have a Vision Zero approach to our cycling, pedestrian and road networks to eliminate the injuries and deaths we are seeing on our roads.

Implementation of the proposed routes are supported by extensive study and analysis and I look forward to working together with you to ensure that this new infrastructure reflects the needs of our community.

At this month's meeting of City Council, I voted in favour of a pilot project to install separated bike lanes on Bloor Street West between Shaw Street and Avenue Road. This year long pilot project provides an opportunity for City staff to collect the data they need to inform our discussion about cycling routes in our city. 

The shape and width of Bloor Street West changes along the 2.6km pilot project stretch. City staff have proposed a mix of painted cycling lanes, buffered cycle tracks and the use of Bollards to separate cycling and automobile traffic as part of the pilot. In all cases, one lane of travel for vehicles will be maintained in each direction with left-turn lanes added at key intersections to mitigate traffic flow changes. 

This pilot project will analyze the traffic impacts and benefits to pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, businesses, and the surrounding neighbourhoods of adding separated cycling lanes on Bloor and will be reported back to council with these results. It important to collect this data to inform our decisions moving forward as we look at ways for different modes of transportation to coexist in our increasingly growing city.  

The results of the pilot project will further include the impacts on business. As this pilot project was supported by the local BIAs, these results are important to them and going forward will help to shape their understandings on this important issue. Parking space losses will be mitigated along Bloor with with new spaces in some sections and access will be maintained to the 860 off street spaces along the route. 

I look forward to reviewing the results of this project when staff are set to report back to council next year.