The York Region Cycling…

The York Region Cycling Coalition is a significant coalition of cycling clubs with a collective membership in the thousands. The YRCC has a simple purpose of promoting safety among cyclists and motorists, and improving cycling in York Region.

To this end, the YRCC strongly supports the implementation of a Province-wide Cycling Network and the #CycleON Action Plan. We believe that the best way to improve safety for cyclists in Ontario and encourage more people to ride a bike is the development and support of direct cycling infrastructure.

We have had an opportunity to review the draft network and have the following comments as they apply to York Region:

1. The proposed plan does not include infrastructure in some of the municipalities in the Region. The YRCC believes the plan should include routes that touch each municipality in the Region, or at least municipalities with sizeable populations. For example, there are currently no routes that run through the City of Vaughan.

2. The plan identifies existing on road routes as being complete. However, some of these existing routes lack sufficient cycling infrastructure and are not safe for the broader public. Examples of these areas would be 19th Sideroad between Keele and Bathurst, and the Lloydtown-Aurora overpass at Highway 400. Both of these roads are on the Greenbelt Route but lack appropriate cycling infrastructure. The YRCC believes the routes on the proposed plan must be further investigated to ensure that areas shown as existing routes include adequate safety measures for cycling.

3. Finally, the plan does not include a route through the southern part of York Region. There is a route through the middle of the region (along the Greenbelt Route) and through the top of the region (along the shores of Lake Simcoe), but nothing to the south where there is sizeable population. In fact, there are no east-west routes identified between the Greenbelt Route and the Lakeshore route along Lake Ontario. The YRCC believes this is a huge gap in coverage for a significant portion of the population. There should be a route near the border of York Region and the City of Toronto to allow for safe passage between north and south routes connecting the rest of the network. The YRCC believes this corridor should be a critical part of the Province-wide Cycling Network and could use existing planned cycling infrastructure along the Highway 7 corridor or new infrastructure on the Highway 407 lands.

Thank you in advance for hearing our comments. If you would like to discuss these comments in further detail, please do not hesitate to contact me.

[Original Comment ID: 209472]