{"id":895638,"date":"2026-09-17T19:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895638\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T19:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:02:36","slug":"ontario-engineers-say-bike-lane-ruling-doesnt-settle-safety-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/895638\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario engineers say bike lane ruling doesn\u2019t settle safety questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are lots and lots of hot takes floating around now about bike lanes across the country (including the comments section on Canadian Cycling Magazine\u2019s Facebook page, which is, btw, a veritable tire fire) and now, another group has weighed in.<\/p>\n

Ontario now has the legal green light to remove protected bike lanes from three major Toronto streets, but the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) says the court ruling doesn\u2019t settle the engineering and safety questions around the move.<\/p>\n

OSPE on the lanes<\/p>\n

OSPE first raised concerns about Bill 212 in November 2024. The group argued that the province\u2019s restrictions on bike lanes and changes to environmental assessments could undermine safe, multi-modal transportation planning.<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot has changed since then. Oh boy, has it ever.<\/p>\n

Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, took effect on Nov. 25, 2024. It requires certain municipalities to get provincial approval before installing bike lanes that would remove motor vehicle lanes.<\/p>\n

A court ruled in July 2025 that the bike lane removal provisions were unconstitutional<\/a>. That was the result of a Charter challenge led by Cycle Toronto. Briefly, things looked OK for the future of the cycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But then, CUT TO: August 2026. After the province appealed, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the province has the authority to redesign public roadways.<\/p>\n

Now what? Well, it\u2019s a TBD, but it doesn\u2019t look great.<\/p>\n

That decision clears the way for the removal of protected bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue. On Sept. 1, the province issued a request for proposals for the work.
Another piece of legislation has since joined the mix. Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, passed in November 2025 and further restricts the installation of bike lanes that would reduce vehicle lanes.<\/p>\n

OSPE says the court decision answered whether the province has the authority to act, but not whether removing the lanes makes sense from an engineering and safety perspective.<\/p>\n

Toronto cyclists ride \u2018secondary roads\u2019 to protest Ontario government\u2019s plans to remove bike lanes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In a statement, the organization mentioned a safety analysis prepared for the Ministry of Transportation by engineering firm CIMA+. OSPE has actually been weighing in on bike lanes on multiple occasions\u2013this is far from the first. But as far as the analysis, it came out during the court proceedings. And it had some bangers. The report estimated that removing the lanes could increase collisions involving cyclists, pedestrians and drivers by as much as 54 per cent. It also found no clear evidence that removing the lanes would reduce congestion. Some firm data which many say needs to be used as a basis for decisions. Facts>feelings.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s more. Especially when it comes to moolah. There\u2019s a possible very, very hefty price tag, too.<\/p>\n

A November 2024 City of Toronto staff report estimated that removing the lanes would cost at least $48 million. And that\u2019s after about $27 million had already been spent installing them.<\/p>\n

OSPE is calling on the province to release the full CIMA+ analysis. That includes material that has not yet been made public before the removal work begins. Data matters, which is something that many advocacy groups have been saying since Day 1 of all this.<\/p>\n

The engineers\u2019 group also said something that many have said from the start. Transportation decisions should account for local conditions. So that means municipalities need to retain a role in designing their road networks\u2013not provincial.<\/p>\n

The province has also mentioned a big ole $56-billion annual cost of gridlock in Ontario. That figure is part of the case for its broader approach to congestion. But OSPE said that the figure comes from a province-wide estimate commissioned by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Road Builders\u2019 Association. Furthermore, it really doesn\u2019t show what removing bike lanes on these three Toronto streets would do to traffic.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this is far from the last you\u2019ll hear about bike lanes in Ontario \u2014 or Alberta, or Quebec, and on and on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are lots and lots of hot takes floating around now about bike lanes across the country (including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-895638","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\/895638","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=895638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}