This article was first published by TorontoToday, a Village Media publication.
The Ford government’s plan to rip out bike lanes along Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue will cost $48 million, dramatically increase travel times during construction and will not deliver much time savings for commuters when the lanes are out, city staff said in a new report.
“The removal of existing bike lanes will be a complex project that will be challenging to implement within a short-time period, due to planning, design and construction requirements,” staff said.
Staff don’t know how much it will cost to install new lanes along other streets.
It also means the city will lose the $27 million it cost to install the lanes in the first place.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria promised to cover the costs of removal.
Travel times for drivers will increase during removal and reconstruction, staff said. Not having the lanes along some of Toronto’s busiest streets will result in “minimal improvements in travel times.”
The report backs up comments Mayor Olivia Chow made earlier on Wednesday.
“Ripping up our roads will make our congestion worse, especially during the time that you're ripping it up. It’s costly and it will make our road less safe for cyclists and it's sometimes confusing for drivers because they’re sharing the road [with cyclists],” she said.
Taking out lanes along Bloor Street between Spadina Avenue and Avenue Road would mean four months of construction with only one car lane open in each direction, then another four months with of only one car lane in one direction, and a month-long closure of the St. George Street and Bloor Street intersection.
Removing the lanes along University Avenue between College Street and Dundas Street would take nine months and would result in a single open southbound lane.
The replacement lanes also can’t be put on secondary streets without taking car lanes out, staff said.
“There are no feasible parallel alternates for cycling routes that wouldn’t also result in the conversion of a motor vehicle travel lane,” the report said.
The report also came with new bike lane ridership numbers.
Along Bloor Street, ridership increased by as little as 28 per cent at the Church Street intersection. The biggest increase was at the Kingscourt Drive intersection, where cyclist numbers jumped by over 650 per cent.
Along University Avenue, rates jumped by 71 per cent at the Richmond Street intersection and over 280 per cent at the Adelaide Street intersection.
Yonge Street saw some of the biggest increases, with cycling rates rising by as little as 221 per cent and as much as 603 per cent.
The report, however, did not include any advice on steps the city could take to fight back against the removals.
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government moved last month to remove bike lanes along some of Toronto’s busiest streets that have frequently drawn the premier’s ire. The bill will force municipalities to obtain provincial approval before installing new bike lanes that take away a lane for cars. It will also require cities to send the province data on how bike lanes affect congestion.
The Tories then fast-tracked the bill to curtail debate and ensure it’s in force as soon as possible.
Ford has long complained about bike lanes, arguing they’re a big reason behind the city’s congestion woes. The ones the province is targeting — Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue — also neatly align with where he lives (near Bloor Street West in Etobicoke) and works (Queen’s Park is near University Avenue and Yonge Street).
Ford and Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria claim just over one per cent of Torontonians commute by bike compared to the vast majority of people who drive.
The figure cited by the provincial government mirrors a finding from the 2011 census. The census covered the entire Toronto metropolitan area, including most of the Greater Toronto Area’s suburbs like Burlington and Ajax.
A pre-pandemic City of Toronto poll found one in 10 residents reported biking to work, while 70 per cent of respondents said they’re a recreational or “utilitarian” cyclist who occasionally bikes for general transportation needs.
The City of Toronto has published several studies that show expanding bike lanes has only a small impact on car commute times and next to no impact on emergency response times.
In 2016, the city installed new bike lanes on Bloor Street between Shaw Street and Avenue Road.
As a result, biking went up by 50 per cent and "conflicts" between bikes and cars — which include near-miss collisions — went down by 61 per cent. Spending at local businesses also increased.
Travel times went up by as much as eight minutes after the lanes were installed, but traffic mitigation efforts cut the increases in half.
A study on the Yonge Street bike lanes between Bloor Street and Davisville Avenue conducted in fall 2022, showed similar findings
During morning rush hour, vehicle travel times increased by 20 seconds northbound and decreased by 30 seconds southbound. During the afternoon rush, car travel times were up by about 50 seconds both ways.
The same study found emergency response times went up eight seconds for the fire department compared to the city-wide average, while ambulance response times increased by 36 seconds, which is less than the citywide average.
On University Avenue, right by Queen's Park and home to many hospitals, another 12-month city evaluation found bike lanes had "limited to no impacts on motor vehicle travel times," according to a Toronto spokesperson.
Emergency services have also "not raised any issues about traffic" related to bike lanes along the corridor, the spokesperson said.
Sarkaria promised the province will pay for the bike lanes to be removed. Toronto City Manager Paul Johnson recently said the province should also reimburse the city for the initial installation costs.
Ford’s bike lane fight could be used as an effective wedge issue ahead of an expected early election call in 2025.
Chow is an avid cyclist who mobilized the city’s biking community in her run for mayor in 2023. On her first day, Chow rode her bike to City Hall as a gesture to the voters who helped her win.
That contrasts starkly with Ford’s suburban voter base, which is largely concentrated outside the downtown core and in areas around the city where people drive more often.
Chow also won a decisive victory in the city’s core during her election, where more residents say they use bikes for commuting, compared to other areas.
The bike lane escalation comes at a delicate time in City Hall’s relationship with Queen’s Park. Chow has asked the province for a billion dollars to help fund the second phase of her plan to build more rental housing, which was a central pillar of her election platform.
Chow’s motion isn’t the only potentially controversial bike lane-related item on the agenda when council meets Wednesday through Friday.
Councillors are set to vote on installing bike lanes along Parkside Drive, just east of High Park. The thoroughfare connects the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Drive to Bloor Street West, where it turns into Keele Street.
Parkside is one of the most dangerous roads in the city and community members have long pushed for change.
“Narrow and missing sidewalks, lack of bikeways, excessive vehicular speeds and aggressive driving, and a history of collisions resulting in fatality or serious injury are frequently heard concerns,” city staff said in a report published last month.
In October, the city’s infrastructure committee voted in favour of a staff motion that recommended adding two kilometres of bike lanes for $7.5 million.
If council votes to officially approve the new lanes, it will run up against the Progressive Conservative’s bill to limit their expansion.
During last month’s infrastructure committee hearing, the prospect of paying to install new bike lanes just to have them blocked seemed to rattle one council member.
“If the province is going to pass legislation where they can retroactively stop … or dismantle bike lanes that are in the public roadway, we are putting at risk $7.5 million by proceeding with this,” said York Centre Coun. James Pasternak.
The city is also in the midst of a major bike lane expansion plan beyond the proposed lanes on Parkside Drive. Over the next three years, the city aims to add another 100 kilometres of new bike lanes along streets such as Avenue Road, Dupont Street, Wellington Street and Gerrard Street, plus the rehabilitation of 40 kilometres of existing lanes
