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‘Art bikes’ a sign Toronto becoming more friendly toward cyclists?

It started when artist Caroline Macfarlane decided to turn a bicycle abandoned outside the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) into a piece of urban art.

She stripped the bike and painted it an eye-catching neon pink. But before Macfarlane could complete her work by adding flowers to the bike's basket, a city inspector attached a removal notice.

Subsequent coverage in the media, and a blog post from Macfarlane, led Toronto Councillor Gary Crawford to step in and suggest that instead of ending the art project, the city should support its expansion.

The city provided Macfarlane with abandoned bikes, and she has, with help from her team, transformed them into colourful art installations called "good bikes." The first of these have now begun appearing around the city, including the one pictured above near Yahoo's offices on Queens Quay.

While the project is turning a media headache into a public relations victory, it remains unclear just how committed the office of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford really is to accommodating cycling in the city.

Toronto council recently voted to remove bike lanes from busy Jarvis Street, as well as from two other streets in the city's east end. They did, however, vote to install a separated bike lane, the first of its kind in Toronto, on nearby Sherbourne street.

Following the Jarvis decision, and the Mayor's brother Doug Ford's public spat with novelist Margaret Atwood, a piece on Toronto's so-called 'war on cycling' even made the website of the U.K. newspaper the Guardian.

Mayor Ford has openly supported the good bike program, even mounting the pink bicycle that started it all for a photo, and says he supports plans to build a system of dedicated bike lanes.

Whether the same Mayor who decried Toronto's "war on cars" incessantly during his campaign will take his support for cyclists beyond photo opportunities remains unclear.

(Photo: Michael Bolen/Yahoo! Canada News)