Walking the Toronto streets, it’s not uncommon to be stopped in your tracks by a parked bike, painted stark white, so spindly it almost disappears against the urban backdrop. These poignant memorials, called ghost bikes, are here because a cyclist is not. This year alone, traffic accidents claimed six lives, marking the deadliest year for cyclists in Toronto in nearly two decades (a dramatic increase from 2023, which remarkably saw just one fatality). The city’s current bike lanes are far from perfect — by the end of the year, we will have approximately 230 kilometres of major city-wide routes, though continuity is lacking — but they are nonetheless well utilized, where they exist. Most importantly, they help to keep those who do choose to cycle safe on the roads.

This vital infrastructure is part of the wider Vision Zero program to prevent road deaths. On October 21, it was put at risk with the introduction of Bill 212, which proposes the removal of bike lanes on three of the city’s busiest corridors: Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue. What’s more, the city will need explicit permission from the Ontario government to construct new bike lanes that require the removal of a traffic lane. Why? Allegedly, the legislation aims to target city gridlock.

The problem is that ripping up bike lanes (to the tune of $48 million) won’t make a considerable impact on rush hour traffic. And cost is just part of the issue. In the short term, the construction required to remove these lanes would only worsen congestion. Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that bike lanes help to reduce traffic (and the associated emissions) by giving people alternatives to auto travel, thereby keeping cars off the road. But because people need time to adjust to changes in infrastructure, the demand may not show up until years after bike lanes are implemented. Still, data shows that demand is growing, with a record number of annual bike share memberships purchased in 2023. Imagine how many more people would choose to cycle if there was a safe, interconnected and comprehensive network to support it?

Bill 212 is the reflection of an auto-centric society that prioritizes the convenience of drivers over the safety of vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists. Even if removing bike lanes would make a dent in rush hour traffic, would it be worth compromising public safety? Yesterday evening, advocates took to Queen’s Park with ghost bikes symbolizing the two cyclists killed in Ajax and Kingston just this month. For those families, and so many others grieving preventable losses caused by traffic violence, the answer is a resounding no. For the Ford government, it’s a risk they are willing to take at any cost — and their intent to ban lawsuits against the province for those killed or injured on streets where bike lanes have been removed is further evidence of that.

Sustainability and quality of urban life are both compelling reasons to fight for the continued development of our cycling infrastructure, but the human impact is arguably most important of all. Please join us in supporting this cause and demanding our government protect Toronto’s bike lanes.

The below resources have been compiled by Toronto resident and architectural designer Heather Breeze.

BILL:

Ontario’s Regulatory Registry: Bill 212 – Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 – Framework for bike lanes that require removal of a traffic lane.

Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024

PETITION:

Cycle Toronto I Love Bike Lanes petition to stop lane removal in Bill 212

FIND YOUR MPP:

Current MPPs

FURTHER READING:

John Lorinc: Dead man/woman/child cycling

Dylan Reid: Ford’s attack on bike lanes is also a planning problem

Shawn Micallef: How Doug Ford’s bike lane move is steering Toronto toward a dangerous place

The Biking Lawyer: Ontario vs Bike Lanes

Percentage of bike riders higher where lanes are installed: StatCan

Toronto’s bike lanes cost millions to install. How much will it be to remove them?

Removing bike lanes will cost at least $48M: city staff report

TEMPLATE FOR COMMENTS & EMAILS TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES:

I am an Ontario resident, and I urge you to vote down and refuse the proposed Bill 212 Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, until the provisions regarding removing the bike lanes from Toronto’s Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue, are deleted from the bill.

There are many reasons why this bill should not proceed as written. It is a gross overstep of jurisdiction into municipal affairs, setting the stage for the handicapping of cities and communities everywhere to be subject to the whims of the province. It is laughably in opposition to this administration’s purported goal of slashing red tape: now, every time any city throughout Ontario wants to make a decision about their own transportation infrastructure, it needs to be studied at taxpayer expense by the province. It defies proven data about congestion, with cycling actually proven to reduce congestion, emergency services wait times, and vehicle maintenance. It is against the province’s own planning goals – with no safe bike lanes, how are we to increase housing density when none of those new tenants can get around the downtown?

But the most crucial and obvious argument against this portion of this bill, is that cycle lanes save lives. 

Toronto invested in saving those lives with a visionary planning and installation project that saw continuous bike lanes on the city’s main thoroughfares, and now not only would this bill undo millions of dollars of studied municipal infrastructure, it would spend even more untold millions of Ontario taxpayer dollars to do so. There hasn’t even been a cost published by the province for this work, and yet the bill is being rushed through.

The provision proposing the removal of the Yonge, Bloor, and University cycle lanes was snuck in ten days after the full bill was released and the 30 day comment period opened, leaving less time for study and comment by both Ontarians and their representatives. This underhanded move is par for the course with Doug Ford’s leadership, demonstrating abhorrence for due process, but also his contempt for the citizens he’s supposed to be working for, and his colleagues in the legislature debating this bill today. 

Not to mention even more costs when injuries happen, but we all know that one death is one too many. I beg you to remove these two clauses from this legislation, and prevent further deaths and catastrophic injuries.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME HERE

y