Extension needed, but at what cost?

The emotions one feels after learning that the cost of extending the West Toronto Railpath by two kilometres is set to be almost $150 million are somewhat complicated.

- EDWARD KEENAN

On the one hand, this city desperately needs more good cycling infrastructure, both to get more people to travel by bike rather than in cars (we have the worst traffic pretty much anywhere), and to make the trips safer for those who do (more cyclists have been killed on the roads this year than in any other recent one).

And we can particularly use more of this kind of trail, which doesn't run on the road at all, making it all more peaceful: both the ride itself (no lights, no door prizes, no tricky intersections) and the process of installing the lanes (no complaining about lost parking or narrowed roads).

I've written before about how the rail-trail pedestrian and cycling path that ran behind my house in Washington, D.C. turned me into a happy bike commuter when I lived there, after I hadn't previously owned a bike in decades.

A network of this kind of pathway can transform how a city commutes and turn hours of misery into minutes of exercise and joy for those who use them.

All of that is true. And, I think, important.

But then, on the other hand: how the heck can it possibly cost $75 million per kilometre to build this, in a corridor that already exists for rail tracks?