Ontarians are pushing back against Premier Doug Ford’s plan to tear up additional bike lanes in Toronto as part of his 2025 budget.
The budget was tabled at Queens Park on Thursday and highlighted the need to reconfigure roads and bike lanes by working to reinstate vehicle lanes on Yonge Street, University Avenue, Bloor Street West, Queens Park Crescent, and Avenue Road, by removing bike lanes.
The proposed removal of lanes around Queens Park Crescent and Avenue Road have now been added to the list after Ford received intense pushback last year for seeking to remove lanes on University, Yonge, and Bloor.
This also comes after an April 22 injunction by Justice Paul Schabas which temporarily paused the removal of lanes on those roads, pending his decision on a Charter challenge by cycling advocates.
The province has repeatedly suggested that the removal of lanes will help ease congestion and reduce gridlock in the city, but advocates say there is little evidence to support these claims.
The Ford Government passed the Reducing Gridlock and Saving You Time Act in November which requires municipalities to seek government approval if they wish to install bike lanes that results in the removal of vehicle lanes.
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The government also gave itself the power to remove the proposed lanes over the objections of the city.
Ford’s commitment to remove bike lanes as part of the 2025 budget is receiving backlash from Ontarians and politicians.
MPP for Spadina-Fort York, Chris Glover, posted a video to his social media accounts along with MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, Lise Vaugeois, criticizing the plan.
“We can ease congestion by building more public transit and alternative ways to get around so not everyone has to get in a car,” he said. “Bike lanes save lives.”
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The move to remove more bike lanes in the city’s downtown core has stirred up mixed reactions online.
“He is wasting money on this instead of finding solutions to make bikes in Toronto safe and viable for transportation,” an X user said.
“Bike in the park, roads are for vehicles,” another user said.
“It was an absurd waste of taxpayer money to build the things. I’ll gladly put my property tax towards removing them,” another user said.
ADVOCATE SAYS THE REMOVAL OF LANES WILL RESULT IN MORE DEATHS
Founder of The Biking Lawer law firm in Toronto, David Shellnut, says the removal of lanes are unnecessary, and can lead to serious injuries, and possibly even death, some of which have already taken place on the proposed roads.
“We represent the family of a young person killed, or of a man killed on Avenue Road. There’s another young man killed a year or two prior on Avenue Road,” Shellnut told Now Toronto on Friday. “Removing these bike lanes will just mean that more families like the ones we represent, will be without a loved one.”
Shelltnut says bike lanes are not the issue, and congestion is being caused by construction and vehicle traffic. He says the only true solution is to get more people out of cars.
“The only way to do that is to put more people on bikes, and if you remove the safety features that allow them to get around the city without getting mangled by a cement truck, then you’re not going to encourage that,” he said.
