The problem with this city is that there aren’t enough bicycles on the streets. True, hundreds of cyclists can be seen on downtown roads like College, King and Queen. The dedicated Sherbourne lane is sometimes busy and so are Bloor and Danforth.

But what Toronto needs is thousands and thousands of cyclists, hordes of two-wheelers, enough to take over the streets and establish, if not primacy, at least equality with cars and trucks.

The issue is critical mass, and this city hasn’t reached it. Of course, cyclists get precious little support from official Toronto. Despite the brave talk about 500 kilometres of bike lanes on city streets by 2011; that deadline has come and gone with little to show. The temporary proposed routes on Richmond and Adelaide are a good sign, but Toronto’s a long way from realizing its pedalling potential.

Live chat Tuesday on Toronto’s bike strategy

There’s strength in numbers and nowhere more so than on the roads. When there are enough bikes on the streets, drivers and police simply won’t be able to ignore them. Think of the torrents of shoppers in Manhattan that no red light can stop. It takes two cops with ropes on every corner to force pedestrians to make way for cars.

That’s the sort of flood Toronto could use. Many gripe at every marathon, street festival or demonstration, but these sorts of things are as crucial to the health of urban life as the flow of traffic. Already there are streets — think of King between Bay and Spadina — where cars and trucks no longer make sense. This is no longer the best use of the roadway. It would be more efficient, provide more civic benefit, if given over to bikes, walkers and streetcars.

And by the way, this is nothing new. Look at any photograph of the 19th-century city; the roads are awash in bikes, pedestrians and streetcars.

Before the bike can assume its role in the urban ballet, there’s another biggie we have to deal with — street parking. Shop owners would rise as one to fight its elimination. And naturally, drivers want more parking, not less.

Yet with these stationary lanes removed, Toronto’s roads would be much better able to accommodate mixed transit, i.e. cars and bikes. Even without bikes, parking-free streets would help ease the flow of traffic.

For decades, we have conflated ease of driving with ease of getting around. We overlooked other forms of transit — buses, streetcars, subways, walking — in favour of the automobile. That’s why transit is the issue of our time, and why some question the future prosperity of the Toronto region.

The city and province responded badly, both failing to deal with transit in its totality. Instead, they divided it into a series of discrete operations. In London, by contrast, one super-agency oversees roads, parking, transit . . .

Toronto, which lags, elected a mayor who sees change as a “war on the car.”

Confusing convenience with efficiency, personal mobility with moving masses, the chief magistrate has revealed himself yesterday’s man. His outdated notions of transit, though shared by countless Torontonians, serve the city badly. The lack of imagination and fear to change, also shared by many residents, are signs the city has lost the suppleness crucial to civic success.

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Congestion makes losers of us all; but worse still is the mental gridlock that leaves us stuck in traffic, unable to get moving again. Mired in an endless cycle of recrimination and regret, we spin our wheels going nowhere. Toronto’s most pressing task is to catch up with itself and get where it needs to go while it still can. There’s no time to waste.