“Bike lanes are not a fad.”

Via Brent Toderian, the former planning director of Vancouver:

Mr. Toderian bemoaned the fact that bike lanes have become a hot-button issue, noting that biking is merely one pragmatic part of making a city function.

“Only in North America has this become an ideology,” he said, blaming both those who call bike lanes a war on the car and “self-identified cyclists” who don’t help the discussion.

Mr. Toderian, now an independent planning consultant, said bike routes are the only aspect of the city’s entire transportation puzzle that the public and the media tend to talk about.

“Bike lanes are not a fad. They are part of a multi-modal city, a critical part of the city working well in the future.”

Given New York’s recent tabloid hysterics, I share Toderian’s concern that “we’re starting to sound like Toronto with Mayor [Rob] Ford.”