A lower court last year stopped the province from replacing protected\u00a0bike\u00a0lanes\u00a0with car\u00a0lanes\u00a0along 19 kilometres of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, ruling it posed an unconstitutional risk to cyclist safety.<\/p>\n
At issue was a 2024 law passed by the Ford government that required municipalities to seek approval to install new\u00a0bike\u00a0lanes\u00a0that cut into car traffic. The fast-tracked law also empowered the province to remove the Yonge, University and Bloor\u00a0bike\u00a0lane stretches.<\/p>\n
The newly issued RFP will study and propose design options for restoring vehicle lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street, University Avenue, Queen\u2019s Park, Queen\u2019s Park Crescent and Avenue Road.<\/p>\n
The RFP will also identify options to retain or reconfigure Toronto bike lanes \u201cwhere they make sense and do not make gridlock worse,\u201d the province says.<\/p>\n
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow issued a statement in response to the government\u2019s decision to begin work on reversing bike lanes, reading, in part, \u201cThe Province of Ontario and the Minister of Transportation should be laser focused on dealing with Trump<\/a> and helping workers and families through these uncertain times, not picking endless political fights with the City of Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI believe strongly in Toronto\u2019s autonomy and right to govern itself,\u201d Chow continued. \u201cI resist any argument that pits road users against each other because it makes everyone less safe. Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all deserve safety on our roads.<\/p>\n \u201cI will keep working to get traffic moving through actions like speeding up construction, hiring more traffic agents and investing in transit, while ensuring all road users are safe, whether they are walking, biking or driving,\u201d Chow said.<\/p>\n Work begins on Bloor Street West<\/p>\n The Ministry of Transportation confirmed that lane restoration is already underway on Bloor Street West, beginning east of the 600\u2011metre stretch at Clissold Road, west of Islington Avenue, where a vehicle lane was reinstated in December 2025<\/a>. That earlier project maintained a bike lane while restoring one lane for drivers.<\/p>\n Via a press release, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the government is acting on what he described as a \u201cclear and direct mandate\u201d from Ontarians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re keeping our promise. Under Premier [Doug] Ford\u2019s leadership, we\u2019re getting people and goods moving again and giving commuters back more of their time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ford has long complained that\u00a0bike\u00a0lanes\u00a0created gridlock, in particular on a stretch of Bloor Street a short drive from his west-end home. On Tuesday, the province cited a report from the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, which found gridlock costs Ontario $56 billion annually. <\/p>\n Two provincial laws \u2014 the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 and the Plan to Protect Ontario Act, 2025 \u2014 require the restoration of motor\u2011vehicle lanes on specified Toronto roadways.<\/p>\n Court ruling clears path for province<\/p>\n The RFP follows the Ford government\u2019s successful appeal of a legal challenge to its bike\u2011lane framework, with the ruling arriving amid growing tension between cycling advocates and the province. Last week, hundreds of cyclists rallied downtown<\/a> to protest the removal of bike lanes, arguing the changes will make streets more dangerous and undermine years of progress in building safer cycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got a pretty scathing decision from the Court of Appeal of Ontario that said Doug Ford can rip out existing bike lanes, that our safety doesn\u2019t matter, and people take that really personally,\u201d David Shellnut, the founding partner of The Biking Lawyer LLC, said at the Aug. 28 rally. \u201cThey\u2019re just trying to get home safe, take their kids to school, so I can expect a lot of people to be up in arms about that.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email to CityNews, Kayla Lewis, the City of Toronto\u2019s Manager of Media Relations, said, \u201cstaff are assessing the implications of these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe City remains committed to providing a safe, efficient and integrated transportation network for all road users.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the province\u2019s announcement on Tuesday drew support from the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) and Etobicoke business owner Sam Pappas, who operates The Crooked Cue on Bloor Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe removal of the bike lanes on Bloor Street will restore access and beauty that was lost,\u201d Pappas said. \u201cAs a business owner and long\u2011time resident, I am grateful that we will get back to a system that works for the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n The RFP process will determine how lane restoration unfolds across the six corridors, while immediate work will continue on Bloor Street West in Etobicoke.<\/p>\n With files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tA cyclist rides in a bike lane on University Avenue in Toronto on Dec. 13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Laura Proctor <\/p>\n \t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n Add CityNews Ottawa as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1dd229611bd114be1c55ff2f546d35408e28b1bf9750c6c062d7fb301f6b1eff-edited.jpg\")
Cyclists ride on the designated Bloor Street bike lanes in Toronto on Oct. 12, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Nathan Denette.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bike-lanes-toronto.jpg\")
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