“Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks, not for people on bikes,” said the infamous former mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, before he spent $300,000 of taxpayers money to rip off biking infrastructure across the city (despite running to put brakes on the gravy train).
These comments were made over a decade ago.
Here we are nearing the end of 2024, and another Ford brother has, what feels like, resurrected Rob from his grave to end “the war on cars” – something else Rob said when he was mayor.
Doug Ford’s government has legislation planned to floor when the house returns on October 21 that will severely limit new biking infrastructure across Ontario in order to ease congestion.
Just tell us Doug, was this a dying wish of Rob’s that you’re trying to fulfill? Because we all know that limiting bike lanes isn’t the solution to congestion.
Doug Ford seems to believe that cycling is just for la-la recreational purposes. Who’s going to tell him that they’re transportation vehicles that take people from one point to another, just like cars, motorcycles and public transit. Just like seatbelts and airbags were enforced by law to increase the safety of motorists, segregated bike lanes – like the ones on College and Bloor streets in Toronto – increase cyclists’ safety.
Here’s a video of the Premier from 2023 with a message for Mayor Olivia Chow to “get rid of those bike lanes on Bloor and Etobicoke…we see one cyclist a year and the businesses are losing their hair.”
I believe in debunking lies with facts.
In 1977, Bloor St. was identified in a City of Toronto report for a future bike lane due to the high number of cyclists using it, and its potential to connect motorists to the subway. That was over 40 years ago – today, this major east-west corridor has about 4,000-5,000 cyclists going through it everyday. As per another report by the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition (August 2023) conducted by volunteers standing on Bloor counting the number of cyclists going by at different hours of the day – on July 26 alone, 519 cyclists rode by, including 121 at midnight; 418 at 8AM; and 500 at 6PM.
As to businesses losing hair – multiple economic studies on bikes and businesses on Bloor all had one conclusion – bike lanes have had a positive impact on businesses. From Cycle Toronto: In 2015, before bike lanes were installed, the average person was spending $186 per month. In 2017, post-bike lanes: the average spend was $245 per month. This adds to multiple studies from around the world, including Paris and Portland, have shown that cyclists spend more per month than car drivers.
The number of people cycling has increased, and there’s no contesting it. Toronto’s Bike Share – the public bike sharing system – usage has also increased exponentially from 665,000 trips in 2015 to 4,600,000 trips in 2022. Increased cycling isn’t just limited to Toronto. In Hamilton in 2023 between July and December, more than 80,000 cyclists used the Cannon Street cycle track – a major east-west corridor downtown.
As cyclists have increased, the Premier should actually be helping municipalities in making roads safer for everyone, rather than adding fuel to the fire of the same old cars versus bikes culture war. Limiting bike lanes will lead to more cyclists dying, despite a record number of cyclist deaths in 2024 already, including the death of the 24-year-old who was hit by a dumpster truck while going west on Bloor. One death is one too many.
Doug Ford is doing nothing more than playing politics – it’s becoming increasingly evident there might be an early provincial election in 2025, and these are his petty ways of grabbing votes. Toronto is a major North American and global city and what it needs are policies that propel it forward towards more visionary urban planning, where parents don’t have to get in their car, for example, to drop their kid off at school; or where grocery store runs can be made on bicycles.
Many cities around the world have taken a hard look at their urban planning post-covid and have quite quickly transformed from major car to major cycle cities. Paris comes at top, where increasing the city’s biking arteries doubled the number of cyclists in just one year (2022-23). Paris’ plan is to become a 100 per cent cyclable city by 2026. Closer to home in Montreal, the Express Bike Network – a 191kms city-wide cycling network – is currently under construction, adding to its already top-class and safe cycling infrastructure.
If Doug Ford is actually serious about easing road congestion, then he would stop wasting his time pitting road users against one-another and focus on improving public transit and making roads safer – proven ways of moving people faster. Cutting bike lanes will do nothing to shave off time for car drivers, except maybe earn Doug Ford a couple more hundred votes in the next provincial election.
The Premier, honestly, needs to stick to his lane. The construction of bike lanes falls under municipal jurisdiction. Doug Ford can’t just pick and choose when he wants to meddle with municipal politics. There’s an urgent housing crisis in Ontario and he’s been on record saying that municipalities know what’s best for their towns and cities, and he will not dictate what they should do sitting from Queen’s Park. Then I suppose the same logic applies to moving traffic.
Cycling has many benefits, and we know them all. But alright, for the Premier, one more time: cycling helps ease congestion; it’s a carbon negative way to commute; good for one’s physical and mental health, and definitely good for the economy.
Rob Ford once said: “My heart bleeds for them [cyclists] when I hear someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” I can almost hear the exact same words being spoken by Doug Ford: your heart won’t bleed if you keep your hands and legislation off bike lanes; and if you don’t, your hands will definitely be covered in blood for the next cyclist who dies.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
