Mayor calls Ford government’s removal of bike lanes ‘arbitrary’ and not a good use of taxpayers money

Mayor Olivia Chow says the Ford government’s rush to push through with its arbitrary decision to remove up to three bike lanes in downtown Toronto is not a good use of taxpayers’ money.

The mayor reacting to the news Friday that the provincial government is moving ahead with plans to remove bike lanes along University Avenue, Bloor and Yonge streets ahead of a November 20 deadline for public comments on Bill 212. That’s the legislation that would require municipalities to ask for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

“We need to move quick. We know that these bike lanes which only 1.2 per cent of people use to commute to get to work are taking away almost 50 per cent of the infrastructure on those streets,” Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria said on Friday without citing any specific studies to back up his position. He said he’s had “conversations” with businesses along the affected routes and the “challenges that have come forward.”

The Bloor BIA recently released statistics touting the success of the Bloor bike lane, and other bike lanes in the Annex area, adding that removing them would be “disastrous to the neighbourhood.”

“These are the three streets that we need to focus on and that’s why we’re pushing forward as quickly as we can to move forward on the removal of those three lanes,” said Sarkaria without getting into specifics as to which portions are up for removal.

Chow says the city is exploring its options for how to respond to the Ford government’s latest move, an indication that it may have to go down the legal route.

“The provincial government is rushing through it, it’s arbitrary and it’s not a good use of taxpayers’ money,” she said. “We want to negotiate, we want to collaborate with the province of Ontario. We want to give them the evidence. We want to submit information but the way they’re rushing it through its making it quite difficult.”

Premier Doug Ford sounded adamant that it’s a done deal.

“You can’t take 50 per cent of the lanes up for less than one percent of the people it’s common sense. We have the most congested city in North America, if not the world and we need to fix it.”

When word first surfaced of the province’s plans to remove bike lanes Coun. Shelley Carroll, who is also the city’s budget chief, asked who would foot the bill adding that the premier “better have a cheque.” On Friday, the government indicated the city would be required to “provide support to facilitate the removal” of the lanes.

With files from Richard Southern