{"id":35781,"date":"2025-07-31T20:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35781\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:48:11","slug":"local-cycling-enthusiasts-applaud-court-decision-protecting-bike-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35781\/","title":{"rendered":"Local cycling enthusiasts applaud court decision protecting bike lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Doug Ford\u2019s beef with bike lanes has been long and loud, but a <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2025\/07\/30\/bikes-lanes-toronto-court-ruling-ford-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">recent decision by the Ontario Superior Court<\/a> is putting the kibosh on the premier\u2019s plans to remove three bike lanes on busy Toronto streets.<\/p>\n<p>That decision is drawing praise from cyclists across the province, including members of<a href=\"https:\/\/cyclewr.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> Cycle Waterloo Region<\/a> (CycleWR).<\/p>\n<p>Janice Jim, Vice President, CycleWR told 570 NewsRadio the province failed to back its argument with hard facts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe province did not prove that removing a bike lane will reduce traffic congestion. He (Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas) said that it might cause more traffic congestion because of more added cars on the road. The whole point of bike lanes is to reduce the number of cars on the road,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the province\u2019s assertion that <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ontario.ca\/en\/release\/1005667\/ontario_taking_bike_lanes_off_torontos_busiest_streets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">removing certain bike lanes and replacing them with motor vehicle lanes would help reduce gridlock<\/a>, but the data seems to show otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The premier vowed to appeal the decision. Jim pointed out that the appeal will come at taxpayers\u2019 expense, as did the original case.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not like the bike lanes are just installed with no real thought, the advocate noted. There is careful consideration and considerable resources dedicated by municipalities when looking at installing bike lanes. A major component is public engagement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of the projects are planned on the back of a napkin, as some people say. You\u2019re not going to wake up overnight, and there\u2019s a bike lane. There is careful planning, and for the province to come in and say they know better is completely wrong and they\u2019re overstepping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim is a firm believer that the rift that exists between cyclists and motorists is unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCyclist and transit users are making your drive easier because we\u2019re not taking up space in a car. And also, maintenance on multi-use trails is way lower than maintenance on main roads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jim says for her group, bike lanes are matter of life and death. Removing bike lanes would only put cyclist at risk with no real benefit for motorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Ford\u2019s beef with bike lanes has been long and loud, but a recent decision by the Ontario&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-35781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}