ARChive: Diary of ARC Happenings Toronto cyclists standing together. legal defence, direct action, lobbying, education

Parking Meter Removal

November 23/99

Mayor Lastman,

We are writing to you in the hopes that you will resolve a problem that is of great importance to cyclists. As cycling is a mode of transport the city is committed to encourage our hope is that you will find it to be worthy of immediate attention. This is the matter of large-scale loss of bicycle parking due to the removal of parking meters. Study after study has shown that provision of adequate bike parking is one of the most essential services that cities can provide to cyclists.

As you know, the existing parking meter posts around Toronto are presently being converted to a Pay and Display system which consists of one box per block. For years, Toronto cyclists have relied on the parking meters for bike parking because the city has not provided enough post-and-ring and bike racks to meet demand. This has worked well except that the arrangement has not been officially recognized which leads us to the situation we are now in with thousands of parking meters being removed leaving cyclists stranded.

Last month, a meeting took place between staff in the Parking Authority and Transportation departments. Although ARC made a request to attend this meeting our request was denied. However, our understanding based on reports from this meeting was that 1) no further parking meters would be removed before replacement bicycle parking was installed, and 2) that parking meter poles would be left in place to be re-used for bike parking (by removing the head and attaching a ring). We now find that these commitments are being broken.

We would ask that this be put on the appropriate committee agenda as soon as possible so that this situation can be resolved quickly.

Our requests are as follows:

1. The city stop removing parking meters until substitute bike parking is provided. We recommend that during the interim (in which Pay and Display units are installed yet parking meters are still needed due to replacement bicycle parking not yet available), that bags be placed over the heads of the disabled meter heads directing the public to use the Pay and Display units. We would be happy to assist in designing these bags, if needed.
2. That parking meter poles be re-used for bike parking.
3. That costs for this process come out of the Parking Authority budget instead of the extremely small cycling budget.

There is a critical time element to this matter. Already on major streets such as Danforth, Elm, Wellington and King there is nowhere to park a bike at all, except trees and guywires. We have heard reports that when cyclists rightfully complain, they are being informed that replacement bike parking will be installed in the spring. Would this situation be considered acceptable if a motor vehicle driver were told that all parking on certain streets was being removed until the spring at which time a parking facility of unknown capacity was built?

Thank you for your earliest attention to this matter.

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