I AM LIVID – Delegation to Council against Another Bike Lane Removal

TLDR

Off the top of my head these are the bike infrastructure removals over this term of council. Royal West Drive. Elbern Merkel Drive. Howden Boulevard protected bike lanes. Protected intersection at Dixie/Guru Nanak/Peter Robertson. Inspire Boulevard.

The removals are accelerating. It’s going to get worse if people who ride bikes do not start telling Council that it is unacceptable to remove bike infrastructure and that it is unacceptable to pause the implementation of Active Transportation Master Plan.

My voice isn’t enough. My call to action is that everyone reading this who uses Brampton cycling infrastructure email council. I’m going to make it easy. Copy paste the next paragraph which has the emails for all the councillors, the City Clerk and BikeBrampton. The email doesn’t need to be long or complicated. Just state that you use the infrastructure and that you are supportive of building more and how you feel about the removals. If 15 year-old Victoria (more about Victoria at the end of the blog) can do it so can you.

city.clerksoffice@brampton.ca, rowena.santos@brampton.ca, paul.vicente@brampton.ca, martin.medeiros@brampton.ca, dennis.keenan@brampton.ca, michael.palleschi@brampton.ca, navjitkaur.brar@brampton.ca, pat.fortini@brampton.ca, rod.power@brampton.ca, mayorbrown@brampton.ca, harkirat.singh@brampton.ca, gurpreet.dhillon@brampton.ca, info@BikeBrampton.ca

End of TLDR

This morning, once again, Brampton Council voted to remove a bike lane. I have delegated many times to Council in an educational, “Let’s work together” tone, and it rarely works. And the environment has worsened significantly since Doug Ford passed Bill 212.

In January Brampton Council voted to take out a key section in our east-west cycling corridor, Howden Boulevard, and one of only three streets in Brampton where we had a protected cycling lane. They did it against staff advice, after having staff waste months developing four alternatives, running public consultations, running a survey, and writing staff reports. They didn’t allow one of the alternatives to be do nothing. All of the alternatives had some level of bike infrastructure remaining.

When it came back to Council, they rejected all the alternatives and voted to revert the road to a four lane cross-section. Somehow, in a city where construction is almost always delayed, they managed to tender the contract, higher a contractor, and have them finish work a few weeks ago. Staff advice was that this would make it worse, not just for cyclists, but also for drivers. Traffic volume do not warrant four lanes –  this is a collector road, not an arterial – which means that the removal will encourage speeding and aggressive driving.

So for today’s delegation I decided, no more playing it nice. I decided to tell them how I really feel. Here is my slide deck.

My delegation (embedded below at the correct time in the video) slightly exceeded the five minutes allowed. I was expecting that Council would not want to linger on the topic and for the delegation to be accepted without any questions or comments. However, I think I struck a nerve. There were 35 minutes of defensive statements and questions from Councillors and answers from me when I could get a word in edgewise.

Ultimately, it made no difference.

Here are my speaker’s notes.

Good morning, Mayor Brown and councillors. I am Lisa Stokes.  I am here today because this council is dismantling the active transportation network one street at a time. 

Brampton’s environment is widely recognized as highly obesogenic, characterized by heavy car dependency. Prioritizing safe, active transportation directly dismantles the structural foundations of an obesogenic environment. 

Motornormativity is an unconscious cognitive bias leading people to assume that car ownership and driving are necessary

Because it is an unconscious bias I can understand your constituents asking for special treatment for their cars.  What I cannot understand is why this Council, who know better because you have easy access to the information needed to counteract this bias, chose to lean into it instead

The effects of motornormativy are many. They include: 

Death and serious injuries for all road users, expensive car insurance, huge demands on police resources and budget, Obesity, diabetes and heart disease and Pollution contributing to climate crisis

At the meeting during which Council voted 10-1 to remove the bike lanes on Howden the Mayor told us that residents were livid.

Well I am a resident and I am livid. 

I am livid because a couple years ago the Mayor told Council he didn’t want to see gaps in the Active transportation network.  Yet here you are about to remove another bike lane.

I am livid because BikeBrampton delegates are treated as a niche group rather than as an organization who speaks for those who lack the time or knowledge to do so

I am livid because Council makes decisions based on hyperbolic lies rather than expert staff advice. A one block conversion of Clockwork minimizes the network damage, but still breaks the network creating a disincentive to the “ interested but concerned”

I am livid because asking people to drive carefully doesn’t keep children safe.  Do you know what keeps children on bikes safe? Protected cycling lanes like the ones just removed from Howden Boulevard.

Three years ago ward 3&4 councillors were getting complaints about Charolais.  Cllr Medeiros stated….He is right.  And credit where credit is due, the Charolais bike lane is still intact. Yet they voted to remove the bike lanes from Howden.

I am livid because Council endorses plans that describe a city where the private motor car is de-prioritized, yet when it is time to implement change, Council panders to parochial car-brained demands, following the mob rather than leading by implementing previously endorsed plans which have had significant public consultation.

I am livid because Council and the public talk about balance when the scales tip overwhelmingly towards cars and roads.

I am livid because Active transportation infrastructure is funded in a way that ensures it goes in piecemeal, by only building when roads need resurfacing rather than in a cohesive networked fashion.  Then councillors criticize bike lanes for being disconnected.

I am livid because Council and staff have spent considerable resources developing a Rental Licensing Program, but instead of ensuring that the 65% of homes between Thornbush and Brisdale that have ADUs have provided adequate parking, you ask staff to break the network.  

Would you think it reasonable of me to demand that the city provide a bedroom free of charge for my visitors?

If your answer is no, why concern yourself with providing free car storage in front of people’s homes?

I am going to give the last word to the awesome 15 year old Grade 9 Ward 7 resident Victoria who writes: 

“I am one of the many angry and disappointed cyclists who have been affected by your inconsiderate actions…Council has decided to remove the Howden bike lane, one that I, and many other cyclists use every single day. This lane is important for the safety of many lives, but…Council has decided that another lane for cars is more important. There are hundreds of parents, including mine, out there worried, wondering if their kids will make it back home safe, and rightfully so – I, and many others, have been in many dangerous situations due to the lack of bike friendly infrastructure and respect for cyclists. These bike lanes aren’t luxury or inconveniences – the roads are meant to be shared, and if your decision can save someone’s life or make daily commutes a lot safer, why not make that choice?”

Ironically, this council’s decision to remove the Howden protected bike lane signals they are comfortable with a 15 year old riding with no cycling infrastructure on a four lane cross section road, yet Victoria is not old enough to have her correspondence published in the agenda without her parent’s consent.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’ll remind you that my call to action is for you, the reader, to write your councillor in support of cycling infrastructure. They constantly claim to hear from enraged drivers, and only the same old handful of cyclists. If you don’t know what ward you live in or your counselor‘s email you can use this link to the advocacy page on my blog to find out.

The future of cycling in Brampton is at stake.