Hundreds of Toronto cyclists rally against Ontario bike lane bill

Hundreds of people showed up outside Queens Park Saturday afternoon to push back against the Ford government's controversial bike lane bill that would remove certain Toronto bike lanes to help address congestion. 

The Progressive Conservative government has been fast-tracking legislation that would require Ontario municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

The bill also goes a step further and would remove three major bike lanes in Toronto on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue. 

Fight for Bikes co-founder Eva Stanger Ross, which organized Saturday's rally, said she uses the Bloor Street bike lanes almost every day. 

"They are always packed, so it's targeting the most important bike lanes in the city. It makes absolutely no sense."

Without those protected bike lanes, Stanger-Ross said drivers often don't think about the cyclists around them. 

"They don't think of them as a hazard that they have to watch out for, and it's way more likely that you'll be hit."

The rally comes days after new amendments were introduced to the bill, one of which would protect the province from potential lawsuits if cyclists are hurt or killed after lanes are removed. 

Stanger-Ross said it suggests the government knows removing the lanes will make roads less safe for cyclists. 

"To me, it shows that the government knows that they're going to be putting civilians in harm's way and they know that people will be killed or injured," she said. 

"And instead of doing something about it, instead of keeping the bike lanes, instead of addressing it, they're just covering themselves up."

Those safety concerns have kept Leah Jaunzem from cycling around the city for nearly a year — and motivated her to show up to Saturday's rally. 

"It's so straightforward and it's so simple: we need to protect cyclists. We have such a problem in this city with pedestrians and cyclists getting injured," she said. 

"Like, stop with the politicking. This is actual people's lives. There's some things that are beyond politics, and this is one of them."

Secondary roads not the answer, cyclists say

Some cyclists at Saturday's rally also rejected the government's stance that bike lanes should instead be on secondary roads. 

"Toronto is not a perfect grid and most of the time there aren't streets that run alongside the primary streets for very long," said Zev Godfrey, another co-founder of Fight for Bikes.

Godfrey said he thinks cyclists will continue to use the same major routes but be unprotected from vehicle traffic. 

"Cyclists likes primary streets for the exact same reason that car drivers like primary streets," he said. 

"They go for a long time, they are less interrupted and also the destinations that you're going to are often on those primary streets."

Asked about the protest, a spokesperson for Ontario's transportation minister repeated government talking points that bike lanes contribute to gridlock in Canada's largest city. 

"We are doing everything we can to fight congestion and keep major arterial roads moving," said Dakota Brasier. 

"We support a common-sense approach to bike lanes, and encourage the city to listen to the thousands of drivers to help clear our major roads and get people out of traffic." 

Last week, Toronto city council passed a motion to formally oppose Premier Doug Ford's plans, following a report showing it would cost at least $48 million to remove bike lanes.

Mayor Olivia Chow said Friday she knows first-hand how dangerous cycling without a bike lane can be. 

"I've been doored on Bloor Street without a bike lane. Now I ride on Bloor Street with a bike lane, I feel very secure. That is because of the bike lane there," she said at a news conference. 

Chow said she hopes the city and province can "find the middle ground" when it comes addressing traffic congestion.