A forthcoming proposal by the Ontario government to restrict bike lanes on the grounds that they cause roadway gridlock will throw municipal transportation plans into disarray and further endanger the lives of cyclists in Ontario, experts say.
The draft Reducing Gridlock and Saving You Time Act will reportedly forbid towns and cities from removing existing lanes of traffic to create bike lanes, reports Global News. It’s due to be tabled on October 21 when legislators return from their summer break.
On Monday, Premier Doug Ford had a straightforward explanation for the measure, the Toronto Star reports. “We just want to get traffic moving,” he said. “That’s what it comes down to, making sure you aren’t putting bike lanes in the middle of some of the busiest streets in the country.”
But the plan would ultimately put a damper on decisions that municipalities have already made, the Star writes. “If the legislation is passed by Ford’s majority government, it has the potential to impact Toronto’s plan—approved by council this summer—to add 100 kilometres of bike lanes to major routes over the next three years as part of efforts to reduce vehicle emissions and fight climate change.”
And the concerns extend beyond Ontario’s and Canada’s biggest city. “This isn’t a battleground in the non-existent war on cars. It’s a blitzkrieg on planning for affordable cities,” Ottawa city councillor and planning committee chair Jeff Leiper told the Ottawa Citizen. He added that making it more difficult for people to commute by bike runs directly counter to the province’s efforts to combat the cost-of-living crisis.
Many Things Cause Gridlock
Gridlock is caused by many things, but bike lanes aren’t one of them, writes Toronto Star columnist Edward Keenan in a recent op-ed.
Drivers’ moves to “block the box”— moving forward into an intersection in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the faint hope of making the light—cause gridlock. Constant lane switching also slows things down a lot, Keenan writes. And then there’s road construction.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria acknowledged as much during a media appearance last Friday, repeatedly dodging questions about the proposal.
Citing construction on Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway as one of the cases requiring “management,” Sarkaria reported lane closures increasing travel times into the city by more than 30 minutes.
But multiple news reports say Ford may be particularly focused on bike lane infrastructure now under development in Toronto, especially toward the western end of Bloor St., which runs through his riding of North Etobicoke.
In addition to generating gridlock, bike lanes inhibit first responders, the premier maintained.
“Talk to our first responders that are pulling their hair out, the fire trucks that can’t get across the road because there’s barriers or there’s bike lanes and they’re backed up,” Ford told media. “Talk to our police that are trying to get to a call or our paramedics. It’s an absolute disaster, it’s a nightmare.”
But the City of Toronto said emergency vehicles have had no issue with cycling infrastructure, present or developing, reports CBC News.
“Emergency services are accustomed to manoeuvring through a variety of road conditions throughout the city on a daily basis and will continue to take the route that provides the fastest response based on the specific conditions at the time of dispatch,” the city said in an email.
Ford also maintained “there’s a petition just in Etobicoke for 50,000 people, signing to get rid of these bike lanes.” CBC puts the count at “about 13,300 people have signed a petition on change.org calling for the “re-evaluation and balanced integration” of bike lanes on Bloor Street in Etobicoke.”
‘Transformative Projects’ at Risk
In another petition now in circulation, Cycle Toronto calls the proposed bike lane restriction a serious retreat.
“In Toronto, the new legislation by the provincial government will put so many transformative projects at risk and will allow a small minority of voices to block progress on our growing cycling network,” the group writes.
“And in communities across the province that are just beginning to embrace the benefits of complete streets, this anti-bike lane legislation could indefinitely pause progress.”
Should it go ahead, the bike lane ban will also undermine Ottawa’s Transportation Master Plan, scheduled to be completed next year. It “envisions that by 2046, more than half of all travel in the city will be by active transportation, public transit, or by carpooling,” the Ottawa Citizen writes.
Limiting bike lanes will also directly endanger lives, experts warn.
“It’s not good policy but it may make good politics. As a policy, it will be ineffective and dangerous,” Matti Siemiatycki, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s geography and planning department, told the Toronto Star.
“We have seen far too many lives lost this past year from unsafe roads, and too many vulnerable road users put in harm’s way,” added NDP transport critic Joel Harden, in a statement decrying the proposed ban as “cheap politics.”
