{"id":266552,"date":"2025-11-06T23:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266552\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T23:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:33:09","slug":"ottawas-bike-lane-plans-could-stall-under-ontario-government-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266552\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s bike lane plans could stall under Ontario government bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just another day in the bike lane drama. This time, in Ottawa.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s efforts to expand cycling infrastructure may be hit hard by proposed provincial legislation that would prevent municipalities from converting vehicle lanes into bike lanes.<\/p>\n<p>The latest legislation<\/p>\n<p>Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, is currently in second reading in the Ontario legislature. On Wednesday, the Ford government <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/ontario-doubles-down-on-bike-lane-restrictions-despite-court-loss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moved to fast-track the omnibus bill<\/a>. It would bypass committee hearings entirely, so that\u2019s fun. While the legislation primarily addresses housing and tenant issues, its provisions targeting bike lanes have sparked concern locally.<\/p>\n<p>For Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, chair of the city\u2019s public works and infrastructure committee, the implications are serious. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like we\u2019re going to have an opportunity to continue on with our plans anymore, so it is going to be a big challenge, let\u2019s not sugarcoat it,\u201d Tierney told the <a href=\"https:\/\/ottawacitizen.com\/news\/ottawa-cyclists-councillors-ontario-bike-lanes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ottawa Citizen<\/a>. Projects like the proposed Kent Street bike lane could be delayed or scrapped if a construction contract isn\u2019t already in place, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Backwards, not forwards<\/p>\n<p>Cyclists in the city also see the bill as a setback. Florence Lehmann, a member of Bike Ottawa, described Ottawa\u2019s cycling network as \u201clike Swiss cheese\u201d with \u201cmissing links all over the place.\u201d She said the legislation threatens to stall projects that would make streets safer and more connected for riders.<\/p>\n<p>Orl\u00e9ans West-Innes Coun. Laura Dudas questioned whether the province is positioned to make decisions on local infrastructure. \u201cThis decision is being made at a very high bird\u2019s-eye-view level and doesn\u2019t really understand the nuances of what a community would like to see,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates also warn that vague language in the bill could have unintended consequences, though Tierney confirmed bus lanes would not be affected. With projects already funded through consultations and assessments, councillors say the city may face extra costs if bike lanes are forced off the streets.<\/p>\n<p>The war against bike lanes, as it were, has been something seen from coast to coast to coast: British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia. The hits \u2014 unfortunately \u2014 just keep coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just another day in the bike lane drama. This time, in Ottawa. The city\u2019s efforts to expand cycling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[33276,49,48,635,13743,20739,82],"class_list":["post-266552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bike-lanes","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-doug-ford","tag-ottawa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266552","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=266552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}