Anthony Furey: Ford, Bradford on the right side of the bike lane issue

The removal of bike lanes in Toronto will surely serve as a motivator for many voters in the municipal election that’s a little over a week away. The whole issue symbolizes the question the electorate now faces: do we want to continue letting Toronto literally come to a halt to serve limited special interests, or can we make it a city that works for everyone?

The other day, the provincial government began removing the bike lanes on Bloor Street and returning them to vehicle lanes.

This is just common sense, given that the stretch of Bloor where work began in suburban Etobicoke is a heavily car-dependent area, and Bloor is a major thoroughfare. Moreover, the bike lanes were rarely used.

That didn’t stop belligerent cycling activists from making a rare journey out to the suburbs to harass the construction workers tasked with lane removals. Police officers were assigned to monitor the situation and protect the workers so they could do their jobs. Three protesters have been arrested.

It is shameful, self-centred behaviour on the part of the activists. That’s always been the challenge with the bike lobby, though — they aggressively demand that the roads be retooled to their personal preference and then petulantly act out and hurl abuse at anyone who doesn’t step in line.

For too long, city hall has acquiesced to them, and Toronto’s ability to be a truly inclusive city that facilitates the efficient movement of people and goods has been sacrificed in favour of ideology.

Much of the latest bike lane expansion happened when citizens literally weren’t watching — when people were staying at home during the COVID pandemic. At the time, city hall removed 40 kilometres of vehicle lanes on major roads and replaced them with bike lanes.

Mayor Olivia Chow’s administration has since tried to supercharge the bike lane grid. For years, Chow was well-known for biking around the downtown core with her signature bike adorned with flyers on its basket. But it’s one thing to bike around downtown on side streets and bike lanes on secondary roads; it’s quite another to force these lanes on major suburban commuter roads.

The average resident inherently understands this. A recent poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Torontonians support the removal of bike lanes on major roads.

Chow’s lead challenger in the mayoral election is Coun. Brad Bradford, who agrees with the province’s plans to remove bike lanes and says he’ll instead put them on secondary roads.

Bradford has faced criticism for previously voting in favour of bike lanes in 2023. He says that he’s now changed his views after watching the ramifications. This sort of non-ideological approach to policymaking should be applauded.

The Ontario government knows it’s on the right side of this issue and that it has many supporters.

Following the protests, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario sent out an email to supporters signed by Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.

“Starting this week, we’re restoring vehicle lanes on Bloor Street West,” Sarkaria wrote. “The people of Ontario gave us a clear mandate to tackle the traffic that’s costing our economy over $56 billion a year.

“Next up? The bike lanes on Yonge, University and Avenue Road.”

The province is clearly not backing down and hasn’t been deterred by the protesters. If activists next want to get arrested on Yonge Street — where bike lanes notoriously make it hard for emergency vehicles to pass during rush hour — then so be it.

We’ll also learn how many people the agitators actually count among their ranks. Can they motivate enough supporters to get out and vote for Olivia Chow based on this issue, in what’s now proving to be a tight race?

What’s more likely is that the removal of the lanes has put a quiet smile on the faces of the silent majority, who have had enough.

National Post