Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government doesn’t just plan to block the installation of new bike lanes in some cases but also plans to rip out routes that have already been built when having them in place brings “traffic in our cities to a standstill.”
On Thursday, Ford confirmed he planned not only to make cities jump through new hoops to build bike lanes — but also remove them on key streets if they failed the province’s as-yet-unspecific rules.
“Minister Sarkaria was in Etobicoke talking about our focus on getting drivers moving faster by bringing sanity back to bike lane decisions,” Ford told the Empire Club.
“It isn’t enough to keep an eye on future bike lanes. We need to and will remove and replace existing bike lanes on primary roads that are bringing traffic in our cities to a standstill.”
The province finally unveiled its plan to limit new bike lanes in Ontario’s towns and cities by making municipalities demonstrate they won’t negatively impact the flow of traffic on the roads they’re built on.
“Cities in Ontario have seen an explosion of bike lanes, including many that were installed during the pandemic when fewer vehicles were on the road and their impacts on traffic were unclear,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said on Tuesday.
At the announcement, Sarkaria said the government would be asking for five years’ worth of data for existing bike lanes to demonstrate the effect they have on how cars move. The government has complained that local studies have excluded information like data about winter cycling.
Ford’s confirmation there are plans to remove bike lanes, not just to block new ones, comes as the government appears not to have actually finalized what cities will have to demonstrate to get the green light on a bike lane or how long it will take to process those requests.
The government said its proposed law, set to be tabled on Monday, will give it “the authority to require” information on “an existing bike lane that previously removed a traffic lane” on a local road.
Asked what data would be required, how long it would take to assess it and who would take on the work, a spokesperson for the minister of transportation said work was still underway.
“Development of the regulations and associated policies is expected to be completed over the coming months,” they told Global News. “This will include details on data and submission requirements, timelines, approval criteria, and information sharing details.”
Several Ontario cities told Global News they had not yet assessed how the new rules could impact them but would report back to council ones the rules were in place. Toronto, Ottawa, Brampton and Mississauga all said they were working to understand how the changes could impact their various active transportation master plans.
A spokesperson for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who would have the ultimate political authority to continue to push forward with bike lanes, said she hoped to continue to do so.
“Mayor Chow is committed to the city’s cycling network plan recently adopted by council,” the spokesperson said. “She will continue to work with city council and the city’s planning staff to find opportunities for all modes of transportation, including bike lanes.”
Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government’s planned changes to how bike lanes can be installed amounted to the creation of new red tape for local officials.
“What the premier is doing is he’s bringing in expensive red tape to make it harder for cities to come up with the best, most affordable transportation options for people,” he said.
“We live in a world now where people want more choices. People are looking at cycling, e-scooters other mobility devices as affordable, fast ways of getting around cities. For the premier to take those choices away from people is bad for our economy, it’s bad for people’s pocketbooks — it’s not a serious plan to address gridlock.”