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Toronto's bike plan is sending spokes out into suburban communities, in the form of new bicycle lanes in Etobicoke and Scarborough that the city's cycling committee chair says will help knit the city's bike network together.

"What we've been trying to do is take the path of least resistance of putting lanes in wherever we can get them," said Ward 35 (Scarborough Southwest) Councillor Adrian Heaps. "Now we want to connect those networks. We're getting a lot of calls from outside the downtown core, from people who want to cycle in and connect with those routes."

On Monday, Toronto's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will be debating installing five dedicated bike lanes. In Etobicoke, on Horner Avenue, Renforth Drive and The Queensway; and in Scarborough, on Conlins Road and Brimorton Drive.

There will likely be two more phases of bicycle lane approvals in the remainder of this year, said Heaps, as the city struggles to reach a target of installing 50 km of new bicycle lanes by year's end.

And next year, the city will be moving even faster, aiming to approve between 90 and 100 km of new bike lanes - a dramatic acceleration of the process, said Heaps, that he maintains is necessary to establish an effective network for bicycle commuters.

"I look at bike lanes the same way as you would a road," said Heaps. "Nobody would phone you up and say people in my area don't drive on that road so take it out. But the people who use Avenue Road don't live there, they use it as a thoroughfare. That's how bicycle lanes should be used in neighborhoods."

However, while the bike lanes aren't unwelcome in other parts of town, some local councillors aren't sure how much of a regional amenity they really are.

Ward 5 (Etobicoke Lakeshore) Councillor Peter Milczyn said that the two lanes going into his ward - along The Queensway from near High Street to Windermere Avenue, and Renforth Drive between Bloor Street West and Rathburn Road - would be welcomed by his community, but more as a recreational use.

"I know a few people who live in the ward and work in the ward and ride their bicycles, but they want lanes on roads where you really can't justify it," he said. "In Etobicoke, it's more a matter of it being a recreational thing."

Here are the projects:

- Brimorton Drive from Brimley Road to Scarborough Golf Club Road;

- Conlins Road from Ellesmere Road to Sheppard Avenue East;

- Horner Avenue from Browns' Line to Judson Street;

- Renforth Drive from Bloor Street West to Rathburn Road;

- The Queensway, from 250 metres east of High Street to Windermere Avenue.