Let's go to the east side of downtown, where there isn't any incoming bike infrastructure at all. The Queens Ave painted bike lanes end at Colborne Street, east of downtown, and since the BRT picks up on Queens Avenue west of Wellington, it's not a preferred option to enter downtown without considerable design changes (a cycletrack similar to what we suggested for King would be necessary). From what I was told by BRT engineers, Dufferin maybe will get some painted lanes from Colborne into downtown, perhaps allowing access to Victoria Park from the east. If we're lucky it could even be a curb-separated cycletrack. However even this solution requires people on bikes to zig-zag, making two unnecessary turns, while cars are prioritized and will continue to be able to drive straight into downtown. Is this the kind of city planning we deserve in 2018? I'm sure we can do better.

What's more important than picking apart each instance of failure to plan for bikes, is the lack of a cohesive plan to get quality bike infrastructure for Londoners. London's master bike plan is unambitious, and outdated. Despite being published in 2016, it ignores transitional success stories in car-centric Calgary and Edmonton (where an entire cycletrack network went from council discussion to full construction in less than a year, and then cycling numbers doubled in the first month of operations), and doesn't mention Montreal's decades-old success as being one of the world's top urban cycling cities. What each of these cities has in common is on-street infrastructure that separates bikes from cars with curbs. The "London ON Bikes" plan focuses on comparisons with infrastructure-also-rans like Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, and Windsor. Not one of the Strategic Action Items for London include "Design and build on-street infrastructure that separates bikes from cars with curbs," which is the only proven way to get more people riding. London ON Bikes promotes an outmoded strategy that won't meet the needs of people who want to get on bikes more often, and as a result, London has zero bike routes that meet the following three important criteria:

Separated from cars Cleared in the winter Lit at night

The future we envision is one where families can comfortably and safely ride their bikes from anywhere in the city to downtown for festivals, hockey games, shopping, theater, restaurants, and picnics. Also a future in which families who increasingly choose to live downtown can do so without using a vehicle for everyday activities. A network of protected bike infrastructure is not only feasible, and desirable, but necessary in a modern city that competes for talented professionals in a global economy, and one that treats its citizens with dignity no matter what mode of transportation they choose. The current BRT plans are a firm step backwards for people on bikes in Downtown London. We hope these plans change before the system is finally built out.