Cyclists file Charter challenge against Ontario over bike lane removals

TORONTO — Cyclists have launched a Charter challenge against the Ontario government over its decision to remove bike lanes on three Toronto roads, alleging the change puts lives at risk.

The province recently passed a law that will allow for the removal of bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue. The law also requires municipalities to ask the province for permission to install a bike lane when it would remove a lane for cars.

The group argues the province’s actions infringe on the rights of cyclists, pedestrians and other road uses by depriving them of life and security of the person.

“Removing bike lanes will increase the risk of death and serious harm to people who travel by bike in this city,” Bronwyn Roe, a lawyer with Ecojustice, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“It will make the roads more dangerous for everyone.”

Premier Doug Ford has made traffic a key issue at Queen’s Park as he tries to tackle gridlock, especially in Toronto. He has said cyclists should use secondary roads instead.

Dana O’Born, chair of the board at Cycle Toronto, said the group’s executive director is currently in hospital after recently being injured on such a side street. He was hit by a car door while riding in a painted bike lane on St. George Street, she said.

“His injury would likely not have happened if the lane was separated by a protected barrier rather than just paint,” O’Born said at the press conference.

The group is also seeking an injunction to prevent the removal of those bike lanes.

“The Ontario government has embarked on an ill-conceived, arbitrary, and hurried legislative campaign against people who ride bikes in the City of Toronto by mandating the removal of approximately 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes in each direction on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue,” the group wrote in its notice of application filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday.

“It has done so in full awareness of, or lacking all concern about, the increased number of injuries and deaths that will result.”

In the new law, the government has tried to protect itself by barring all claims against them on behalf of injured or dead cyclists.

The bike lanes “have increased road safety and reduced the risk of accidents for all road users and improved the accessibility of the roads to persons with disabilities,” the application said.

The group also says bike delivery workers are unfairly targeted by the new legislation.

In response to the legal challenge, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said gridlock costs the economy billions of dollars a year.

“Gridlock is at an all time high and we need to deliver on our plan to keep people moving by bringing sanity back to bike lanes and building new roads, highways and transit,” Dakota Brasier wrote in a statement.

“We can’t let activists who represent less than 1 per cent of the population force families to sit in traffic any longer.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

Liam Casey and Allison Jones, The Canadian Press