{"id":36089,"date":"2025-07-31T04:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36089\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T04:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:48:08","slug":"ontarios-plan-to-remove-bike-lanes-unconstitutional-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36089\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario\u2019s plan to remove bike lanes unconstitutional, court rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Cyclists on Bloor Street West. The Ontario government passed a law last fall giving itself power to remove existing bike lanes along Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue.Fred Lum\/the Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

A judge has ruled that the Ontario government\u2019s plan to remove bike lanes along three major streets in Toronto is unconstitutional and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by putting people at \u201cincreased risk of harm and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ontario government passed legislation last fall<\/a> giving itself the power to remove existing bike lanes along Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue, while also preventing municipalities from creating new bike lanes that replace traffic lanes. At the time, Premier Doug Ford<\/a> complained about bike lanes creating gridlock.<\/p>\n

The legislation was challenged by advocacy group Cycle Toronto and two cyclists who use the lanes regularly. During the court proceedings, the government\u2019s lawyers claimed bike lanes contribute to vehicle traffic and said removing them would alleviate congestion in the city. The City of Toronto estimated the bike lanes\u2019 removal and installation of vehicle lanes would cost taxpayers $48-million.<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s bill to remove three Toronto bike lanes to be tested with Charter challenge<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion: The bike lane debate isn\u2019t a war on cycling \u2013 it\u2019s a war on data<\/a><\/p>\n

But Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas found the government\u2019s argument was rooted in \u201cweak anecdotal evidence and expert opinion, which is unsupported, unpersuasive and contrary to the consensus view of experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded that the law violates the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person because removing the lanes would put cyclists and other users at risk in a way that is arbitrary and disproportionate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe negative effects of the impugned provision \u2013 injuries and death that will result from the restoration of a lane of motor vehicle traffic and the removal of the protected bike lanes \u2013 are completely out of sync with the aim of reducing traffic congestion, even with this objective taken at face value,\u201d Justice Schabas wrote.<\/p>\n

The province intends to appeal the court\u2019s decision, Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Transportation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were elected by the people of Ontario with a clear mandate to restore lanes of traffic and get drivers moving by moving bike lanes off of major roads to secondary roads. To deliver on that mandate, we will be appealing the court\u2019s decision,\u201d Ms. Brasier said.<\/p>\n

The government recently amended the legislation. Instead of explicitly requiring the lanes\u2019 removal, the law now mandates \u201creconfiguring the bicycle lanes\u201d to restore vehicle traffic. Justice Schabas said the change does not alter his assessment that the law is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Beck, a lawyer at Ecojustice who represented the plaintiffs in the legal challenge, said her team didn\u2019t argue that bike lanes are a right, but rather that the government\u2019s proposal would remove a road-safety feature, thus putting people at risk. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to remove protected bike lanes for the ostensible goal of reducing congestion was not grounded in any evidence,\u201d Ms. Beck said. \u201cI think it\u2019s not only a vindication of our clients\u2019 Charter rights, but of evidence-based policy making and decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a quarter of Toronto households don\u2019t own a car, and half of vehicle trips in the city are under five kilometres, according to a city report. On average, thousands of city residents rely on the Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue bike lanes every day.<\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has been negotiating a compromise with Mr. Ford for months, suggesting a solution that she says would keep bike lanes and add extra traffic lanes in each direction.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Ms. Chow voiced her continuing support for bike lanes and said the city is reviewing the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI maintain that the City of Toronto and its elected council should be the ones making decisions about municipal infrastructure,\u201d she said in a post to X, adding that the city is hiring more traffic agents, incentivizing quicker construction and improving public transit to reduce congestion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the judge\u2019s decision makes travel safer for all road users.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think bike lanes are great \u2013 obviously \u2013 for people on bikes, but they\u2019re great for everybody who moves around the city. They make things calmer, more predictable and ensure that everybody\u2019s getting to where they need to safely,\u201d Mr. Longfield said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Longfield is recovering from a broken femur he sustained in a collision on an unprotected bike lane.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s decision safeguards 19 kilometres across three routes of \u201cprotected\u201d bike lanes, which are designed to keep cyclists safe by physically separating them from cars. Over the past decade, 68 per cent of the collisions causing death or serious injury to cyclists in Toronto happened on streets without safe cycling infrastructure, according to data from the city.<\/p>\n

Mr. Longfield hopes to see more bike lanes constructed across Toronto. Cycling is convenient, good exercise, reduces carbon emissions and ends up being faster than travelling by car, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Cyclists on Bloor Street West. The Ontario government passed a law last fall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-36089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36089","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=36089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}