Ford Govt Considers Restricting Bike Lanes

Published 09/20/2024 · Updated 09/20/2024

Bad enough this week that Kitchissippi councillor and planning committee chairman Jeff Leiper has been involved in a controversy about his “bungalow belt” comment, now this.

The idea below from the CBC might be helpful in separating cars and cyclists but (and this is a very big but) somehow Ontario Premier Doug Ford needs to make up for the lost bike lanes in new ways. Dedicated roads or bike paths? They might not work in the way the legislation is being crafted.

And another note. This publication has been roundly criticized for being anti-bike. How can you be anti-bike? What could possibly be wrong with travelling and exercising on your bike? Your agent has always been an advocate for everybody having a sport. Playing sports is good for you. It’s a rule I live by. Biking is a sport, among other things.

The problem is that we are paying a lot of money for infrastructure that is hardly used in the winter or in extreme heat and storms in the summer (which are becoming more frequent with climate change). If this were Memphis, bike lanes have the possibility of being a credible form of commuting. You can bike all year save extreme heat and storms. That’s a huge improvement over Ottawa biking.

But what is apparent is that we are letting ideology triumph over practicality. You won’t save the climate by biking, or for that matter the insignificant ways we are addressing climate change now. When you can get China and southeast Asia from breaking annual records for coal use and other related greenhouse gas matters, you’ve got a small chance of saving the climate. Will we do that? Probably not.

Back to bikes. Many of the bike lanes the city is building are dangerous. I don’t know of a parent who would let their child pedal down the Laurier Avenue bike lanes. They’re not safe.

So somehow, and I don’t know how to do this, we need to encourage cycling but not with the wasteful and unsafe manner it is being applied today.

If the bike community has an answer, we’d love to read about it in the comments below. If the motoring community has an answer, we’d love to hear it … if not for the fact that we don’t hear from the motoring community very much.

Still, a bad week for Leiper.

This from the CBC:

The Ontario government is considering bringing forward legislation that could prohibit the installation of bike lanes when lanes for motor vehicles are removed as a result, sources say.
CBC News has obtained internal government draft documents indicating such a proposal has been under consideration, which several sources with knowledge of the proposed bill confirmed. It is not, however, clear if the measure has been formally brought before cabinet. …
… In Toronto and its surrounding areas, gridlock has been a continuing headache and political issue. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said his government intends to address the issue in upcoming legislation.

To read the whole CBC story, click here.