Push to honour London’s first female mayor by renaming portion of Thames Valley Parkway

There is a push to name a stretch of the Thames Valley Parkway after London’s first female mayor.

Jane Bigelow, now 91, was regularly seen biking to city hall while she held the mayoral office from 1972 to 1978.

A motion is coming before Tuesday’s community and protective services committee meeting calling for a section of the TVP between Wellington Street and Adelaide Street to be renamed the Jane Bigelow Pathway.

Her children, Ann Bigelow and David Bigelow, made the submission to council.

“My brother and I wanted to find a way for the city to recognize our mother’s contribution and biking was something that was really important to her. She used the bike trails all the time, she rode to work, she used her bike to get her groceries — she really was an avid cyclist,” Ann Bigelow said.

“When we were thinking about ways that the city might be willing to recognize her with the naming of something, it seemed like the bike path was the right choice. She wouldn’t have wanted a road or a bridge named after her, so we thought the bike path was the perfect thing.”

Their submission comes with the backing of Ward 7 Coun. Josh Morgan, who wrote a letter to the city committee in support of the motion.

Morgan says the siblings approached him over a year ago looking at ways to honour their mother’s contributions to the city.

“She was not only an avid cyclist, but an advocate for growing that infrastructure as a way to provide an environmentally friendly form of transportation in our city, and a way for people to enjoy some of the most beautiful aspects of our city along the parkway,” said Morgan, adding that Jane Bigelow’s work as mayor had a lasting impact on much more than the TVP.

“She is someone who stood up for the rights of women at every available opportunity. I believe my daughters enjoy some of the privileges and opportunities they have today because of people like Jane Bigelow and what they advocated for when they were in positions of power.”

More than 40 years after her mother left office, Anne says although the city has made significant progress with cycling infrastructure, she believes her mother would still be pushing for more to be done.

“If she were in a position to influence things, I think she’d be pushing for more and more cycling infrastructure,” said Bigelow.

“She always believe that cites should be places where people can get around easily on foot or by bike. That was what was behind her thinking all those years ago in terms of having that path paved and making it connect to all parts of the city.”

The community and protective services committee will take a look at the submission when they meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday.