Cycling advocates in Toronto are celebrating a small victory after the Ontario government revealed that it won't be removing bike lanes on Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue until at least March 2025.

The delay comes after advocacy and charity organization Cycle Toronto filed a legal challenge against Bill 212, which recently passed at Queen's Park and gives the provincial government control over the installation and removal of municipal bike lanes.

The lawsuit, which was launched by the organization as well as two regular cyclists in Toronto — namely Eva Stanger-Ross and Narada Kiondo — argues that the legislation deprives Toronto cyclists of their rights to life and security.

Although Cycle Toronto's executive director, Michael Longfield, was planning to announce the legal challenge at Queen's Park, Cycle Toronto Chair Dana O'Born told reporters that he was coincidentally injured while riding in a painted bike lane on St. George Street, and is still in the hospital recovering from surgery.

 

 

 

 

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"His injury would likely not have happened if the lane was separated by a protective barrier rather than just paint," O'Born told reporters.

In response to the court challenge, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said that traffic costs the economy billions of dollars every year.

"Gridlock is at an all-time high, and we need to deliver on our plan to keep people moving by bringing sanity back to bike lanes and building new roads, highways and transit," Dakota Brasier said in a statement.

"We can't let activists who represent less than one per cent of the population force families to sit in traffic any longer."

A Dec. 12 email obtained by The Trillium from Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General notes that the provincial government doesn't plan on removing bike lanes until the first day of spring in 2025.

"We have just received instructions and can advise that Ontario does not intend to make any physical changes to the infrastructure in question (the Yonge, Bloor or University bike lanes) before March 20, 2025," reads the letter.

Cycle Toronto called the delay a "win," although Longfield says the organization's "goal is that they don't ever get the chance to start at all."

According to a city staff report, installing the bike lanes cost around $27 million, and removing them to make way for vehicular traffic would cost roughly $48 million, although the province has disputed these estimates.

blogTO has reached out to Cycle Toronto for comment on the bike lane removal delay.