A cyclists’ advocacy group is asking an Ontario court to strike down the Ford government’s controversial bike lane restriction law, calling the provincial legislation “ill-conceived, arbitrary and hurried.”
Cycle Toronto has launched a charter challenge claiming the Ford government is engaging in a “legislative campaign against people who ride bikes” and that the law will result in an increased number of injuries and deaths.
“This reckless legislative act infringes the rights of people who ride bikes, other road users, and/or pedestrians in the City of Toronto under s. 7 of the Charter by depriving them of life and security of the person contrary to principles of fundamental justice,” the court application claims.
The Ford government fast-tracked Bill 212 through the Ontario legislature in late November, giving itself the power to reject or even reverse the installation of separated bike lanes in any municipality in the province.
The broad-based law, however, appears to be narrowly focused solely on three bike lanes in Toronto — Bloor Street West, Yonge Street and University Avenue — which Premier Doug Ford has vowed to tear up in an effort to decongest major routes for vehicle traffic.
“Getting rid of those nasty, terrible bike lanes that are on main arterial roads,” Ford recently said in the Ontario legislature. “We have a different thought process: Put them on the secondary roads.”
In its court application, Cycle Toronto claims secondary routes “do not exist,” that there is “no rational connection” between the government’s gridlock-reducing intent and potential effect and suggests that the government is aware of the potential harms.
“Bill 212 also introduced provisions prohibiting cyclists from suing the province if they are injured or killed by a collision with a motor vehicle in what used to be a bike lane that was removed,” Cycle Toronto states.
“This serves as legislated acknowledgment by the Ontario government that removing these bike lanes will increase the risk of injury and death to cyclists.”
Cycle Toronto is also asking the Ontario Court of Superior Justice for an injunction preventing the province from “removing, reconfiguring or otherwise altering” the three city bike lanes to allow time for the court challenge to be heard.