Ford is coming after bike lanes. What will he target next?
Toronto Star, October 21, 2024
Critics of bike lanes on Bloor Street West are calling for their removal or modification, saying they slow traffic too much and aren’t attracting many cyclists. Cycling advocates strongly disagree.
The Premier is proposing restrictions on bike lanes as an answer to congestion, no matter that a minuscule number of roads in Ontario — including a mere four per cent in Toronto — actually have bike lanes.
The proposal does have a comforting appeal both by playing to certain prejudices and by distracting us from realities that require mature debate and leadership. It’s much easier for Ford to punt the problem of traffic congestion to some future date, instead of admitting that he is out of ideas. The emperor has no clothes.
The bike lane — part of a Complete Streets policy that seeks to balance the needs of all road users — was approved in a 21-1 vote by Toronto City Council after a thorough study, public consultation, and council debate.
The focal point of opposition to the Bloor bike lane is in The Kingsway, a wealthy neighbourhood that has the Premier’s ear, much as eager developers apparently did before the Premier’s Greenbelt gerrymandering.
The Premier first intervened on Bloor Street in October 2023, absurdly claiming that there was perhaps one cyclist per year. Today, this segment of road is part of a popular bikeway that, after years of advocacy, stretches 21 km across most of the city.
Significantly, in the June 2023 mayoral election in which bicycle-friendly Mayor Olivia Chow prevailed, candidates who railed against bike lanes (including the former police chief who had Ford’s endorsement) got a cold shoulder from city voters.
Ontarians, whatever means of transport they use, shouldn’t dismiss Ford’s intervention as someone else’s problem. A Premier who arbitrarily imposes his will on municipal decisions about bike lanes can’t be trusted to keep his nose out of other local decisions. Will he next interfere in the siting of a community centre or the extension of a recreational cycling and walking path? In fact, he already has — the question is what will be next beyond Toronto.
In contrast to the Premier, Etobicoke city councillor Amber Morley showed leadership in the Bloor West debate, centring discussion on facts, the need for good urban planning (in a ward with soaring residential development), and the achievement of city policies that prioritize human life, vibrant communities, and climate action.
What most infuriates some of Morley’s opponents, whose proximity to power had in the past preserved a car-first status quo that served them very well was that she would not bend obediently to their will.
Doug Ford’s meddling in municipal decision-making diminishes his government and our democracy — and will do nothing to solve road congestion.
