{"id":243931,"date":"2025-10-27T18:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243931\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:00:16","slug":"ontario-doubles-down-on-bike-lane-restrictions-despite-court-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243931\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario doubles down on bike lane restrictions despite court loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ontario government is taking another swing at municipal bike lanes. Doug Ford\u2019s administration has announced new restrictions that would block the construction of any lanes requiring road reconfigurations, according to Cycle Toronto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move comes buried in the \u201cFighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025,\u201d an omnibus bill ostensibly focused on housing<\/a>. It marks the third time in just over a year that Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria has amended the Highway Traffic Act to target bike lanes.<\/p>\n

They typically fall under municipal jurisdiction. The bill, officially framed as a package of new laws on rental housing\u2014including ending rent control\u2014quietly included provisions that would restrict municipal bike lanes.<\/p>\n

Doug Ford vows to fight bike lanes and build a giant car tunnel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cycle Toronto, along with individuals Eva Stanger-Ross and Narada Kiondo, successfully challenged sections of the legislation in July 2025. The victory prevented the removal of 19 km of protected bike lanes along Bloor Street, University Avenue, and Yonge Street. The province is appealing the decision.<\/p>\n

Court documents revealed that despite public claims linking bike lanes to congestion, the government\u2019s own experts saw no such connection. The report stated that removing bike lanes \u201cwill not reduce congestion.\u201d The court also noted that the legislation\u2019s actions were arbitrary, stating the government \u201cbreaches s. 7 of the Charter\u201d<\/a> by creating an increased risk of harm without advancing its stated objective.<\/p>\n

Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the government\u2019s actions are \u201cfurther proof that any claims this time last year that the Province of Ontario intended to collaborate with municipalities on data-driven decisions\u2026were never sincere. This is a government wasting your tax dollars by doubling down on a bad-faith culture war. It will only make congestion worse while putting people\u2019s lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts have repeatedly noted the safety benefits of protected bike lanes, citing reductions in total collisions between 35 and 50 per cent. Critics argue the government is ignoring these facts while pursuing politically motivated policies. Longfield added: \u201cWhere is the same focus and intensity from the province on real solutions like opening the endlessly delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ontario government is taking another swing at municipal bike lanes. Doug Ford\u2019s administration has announced new restrictions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[33276,49,48,114525,635,13743,82,3302],"class_list":["post-243931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bike-lanes","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycle-toronto","tag-cycling","tag-doug-ford","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}