Are Torontonians equipped to cycle in the city without bike lanes?

The Ontario government is considering legislation that could ban the installation of new bike lanes where a lane of traffic would have to be cut.

This comes days before Premier Doug Ford made several comments at a press conference last Monday about bike lanes in the city. 

When asked about the new legislation, Ford said he wants to get traffic moving and says that cycling infrastructure around the city is a part of the problem.

“It’s an absolute disaster, it’s a nightmare,” said Ford.

“We need to focus on transportation that gets people from point A to point B in a very quick fashion.”

Ford says that bike lanes have been at the forefront of longer emergency response times and congestion found in busier parts of the city such as Bloor Street West and University Avenue.

“Believe it or not, my brother Rob actually put more bike lanes in than (former Toronto mayor) David Miller,” said Ford.

“But he didn’t do it down the middle of University or Bloor or any of those streets, he did them on the secondary arterial roads, the side streets. That’s what you do — you don’t clog up traffic just because of their political beliefs.”

Ed Mark, head of the biking program at Evergreen, says the city needs proper infrastructure in place to support the growing number of people who are turning to biking. 

“The TTC is basically maxed out with what they can do and driving is not always reliable, so more and more people are using bikes to commute in the city,” says Mark. 

“I think the planning of routes and implementation has to be more thought out and not just catered to the cars on the road.”

Mark says many people who turn to biking do not always know the etiquette. 

“More people think they can just jump on a Bike Share bike and ride across the city and while Bike Share is great and more accessible, there is no training,” says Mark.

“You can get on without a helmet, those things are heavy and hard to maneuver, and for a novice biker that can be more of a danger than expected.”

Mark says bike lanes are a great conduit for biking but can be a danger for riders if they aren’t experienced.

“If there’s a certain place you have to go and there is no route completely off bike lanes it can be very difficult,” says Mark.

“For a person who is very cautious and already fearful of riding, they are not going to want to ride in traffic.”

For some Torontonians, the limited bike lanes found in the city have already been a deterrent. 

Paolina Leo, a sales associate, says she does not bike because there are not enough accessible bike lanes in the city.

“Bike lanes will randomly just end and dump you in traffic and it creates so many dangerous scenarios that can also be harmful for pedestrians and drivers nearby,” says Leo.

Leo says if she were to go biking there would need to be improvement on the roads.

“I would want improved bike paths and barriers throughout the city,” says Leo.

The government is expected to make its plans for legislation public later this fall.