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Toronto reacts in shock as Doug Ford moves to cut bike lanes from downtown streets

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Toronto reacts in shock as Doug Ford moves to cut bike lanes from downtown streets

As much as residents may hope that Premier Doug Ford’s more preposterous suggestions for Ontario never go beyond just talk, more and more of them have been coming to fruition, from the razing of Ontario Place for a private spa to the needless relocation of the Science Centre to, now, the removal of swaths of bike lanes in Toronto.

Following the September revelation that the provincial government was looking into making sweeping changes to cycling infrastructure — infrastructure that has been strategized, built and handled at the municipal level — leaders have this week posted further details of what’s to come as part of Bill 212: Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 – Framework for bike lanes that require removal of a traffic lane.

Originally posted online on October 21, the draft legislation pushing for greater provincial oversight of bike lanes on major streets in general was updated on Halloween day to specifically call out the cycling paths on Bloor, Yonge and University Ave. in downtown T.O.

Portions of these lanes, some of them only just installed after months of messy construction, will apparently be eliminated if the bill is passed.

They’ve ripped through our health system. They have ripped through the greenbelt. Now they are ripping through municipalities to remove bike lanes. Doug the Ripper. Happy Halloween. https://t.co/MrV4JHjlXi

“The Ontario government is proposing an addendum to the framework that would require the province to remove sections of the Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue bike lanes in the City of Toronto and return them to a lane of traffic for motor vehicles,” yesterday’s update reads.

“The legislation would also provide the province with the authority to establish a review process on other existing bike lanes (where the removal of a lane of traffic took place). The review of municipal submissions would lead to the decision of whether to maintain existing bike lanes or to require their removal and return lanes to motor vehicle traffic.”

Though Ford’s obsession with seeming non-issues in the face of greater problems and strong-arming against public resistence and is not at all surprising at this point, people are still absolutely shocked.

Beyond the tens of thousands of people who cycle and use these lanes regularly, there are those who are simply baffled that Ford is being permitted to meddle so much in city-level issues.

It is especially exasperating when there are so many other, bigger demands that the people of Ontario have in regards to our floundering healthcare and school systems, housing, cost of living, opioid and homelessness crises, and more. 

Much like getting alcohol into convenience stores, this feels like wrong thing to focus on, a superfluous distraction from far larger, more pressing problems impacting the livelihoods of constituents.

As one MPP wrote in response to the news on X, “This is Doug Ford’s priority while so many of our neighbours cannot afford their rent, their healthcare, their groceries, their bills etc. Shameful.”

Many are taking to social media in outrage, reiterating the safety, environmental and other benefits of protected bike lanes, the uptick in cycling in the city over recent years, and the highly developed cycling infrastructure of other modern cities.

There have also been countless challenges to Ford’s claims that adding cycle tracks at the expense of mixed-traffic lanes is worsening congestion, including a Beck Taxi executive who told blogTO last month that bike lanes don’t cause congestion, drivers do.

“[Bike lanes] are just common sense – it’s safer when everyone knows where everyone else is and/or should be,” she added.

Lawyer and cycling activist Dave Shellnutt believes Ford’s motives lie in “dividing road users and hitting alking points that they know play with suburban voters… it’s easier to rile those folks up about a hot topic (but comparable non-issue) than address the crippling congestion those same voters face on the 401,” as he wrote in a post on the topic in mid-October.

“Ontarians must see these bike lane attacks for what they are. A tool to distract us from the real problems pressing this province. Most will recognize that it is the sheer number of cars on the roads, and maybe the baffling number of construction projects, that are actually creating gridlock. There are no studies to show bike lanes cause traffic. There are studies that show they keep people safe, and alive.”

Some locals, though, are celebrating the prospect of the new bill, having taken the City to task about new bike lanes over the years with claims they negatively impact businesses, traffic, parking, even safety, and are not used nearly enough to warrant so much expansion (especially in winter).

There have been petitions for the removal of bike tracks on the Danforth, around Roncesvalles, and along the streets Ford has targeted, with groups like Keep Toronto Moving writing that they are “delighted” with Ford’s plans.

“Congestion and gridlock has increased significantly and these bike lanes are empty — the gig’s up for the City’s misguided transportation department,” the group said in an email blast Friday. It assures that its members are “not opposed to bike lanes on our city streets,” but believe “it has to be done smartly and in the right practical places.”

Regardless of your feelings about bike lanes, the fact is that they keep vulnerable users safe and, as Shellnutt says, “there can be no reasonable, factual, or statistical justification for impeding the provision of safe infrastructure.”

Also, it is hard to contend how objectively absurd it is for the Province to not only intervene in what is a City matter (and a fairly negligible one in the grand scheme of things), but to spend so much additional public money ripping out brand-new infrastructure that already cost tens of millions, undermining the City and its decisions made based on the interests of those who live here.

blogTO has reached out to Dave Shellnutt for further comment on the subject.

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