TORONTO – Negotiators for the TTC union and the City of Toronto worked two hours past their self-imposed deadline yesterday to avoid a transit strike that would have seen the creation of new bike and carpool lanes.

A plan approved last month by city council called for the curb lane on Bay Street from Queen’s Quay to Yorkville to become a bike-only lane, along with curb lanes on Queen’s Quay from Lower Spadina Avenue to Yonge Street, and Dundas Street East from River Street to Broadview Avenue.

City politicians celebrated the deal, saying they can now go back to claiming that bike lanes are very expensive and take a very long time to establish. “That was really close,” one councilor said. “Just imagine. If we’d created those bike lanes, cyclists might have gotten used to them! Heck, some people might have even tried biking to work in safety for the first time and enjoyed it. It could have been habit forming.” When asked if he was trying to equate cyclists to drug users, the councilor replied, “what do you think?”

Another councilor agreed. “Drivers can rest assured that this council will not do anything to jeopardize their unquestioned supremacy on the roads,” she said.