Cyclist protest blocks province from removing bike lane in Etobicoke

'Make no mistake, these bike lanes are coming out,' says Ontario transportation minister

Cyclists in Toronto delayed the province’s removal of the Etobicoke section of Bloor Street W. bike by rallying in a protest that prevented the scheduled construction from starting.

The work to take out the bike lane near Bloor and Islington, part of an Ontario government plan to rip out bike lanes on three major Toronto roads, was set to begin Tuesday evening.

The construction was blocked, however, when cyclists near the intersection surrounded the trucks, not allowing them to move, shortly after 8 p.m. Organizers said it aimed to send a message that ripping out the lanes makes the roads less safe for all road users.

"The bike lanes are still here," Michael Longfield, executive director of cycling advocacy group Cycle Toronto, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Wednesday.

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The disruption was one part of a larger protest Tuesday afternoon. Crowds of cyclists, including many children, looped around the area of the intersection on their bikes before the lane removal was set to start.

Longfield commended the protesters for their dedication, saying hundreds came out in support of their cause. He said the group is keen to continue to hold off construction.

"I don't think we know what the next day or the day after that holds," he said. "But certainly tonight, I think people are very motivated to go back out again."

Longfield encourages the province to reconsider the plan to remove bike lanes and opt instead for one pitched by Toronto mayor Olivia Chow which would see traffic lanes added while keeping protected lanes for cyclists.

Ontario’s transportation minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the delay due to the protesters does not change the province’s plans.

"Make no mistake: these bike lanes are coming out," Sarkaria wrote in a post on social media platform X following the protest on Tuesday. "We have a clear mandate and we will deliver."

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Cycle Toronto is also trying to stop the province from removing bike lanes by seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Taking the issue to Canada’s top court would be the latest move in a long legal battle over a 2024 law allowing the province to take out the bike lanes. The move was framed by the province as a way to reduce congestion.

A lower court initially ruled the province's plan to replace 19 kilometres of bike lanes with car lanes on three major roads was an unconstitutional risk to cyclist safety. That decision was later overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in an August ruling that said the judge in the first trial had overstepped into policy-making and political considerations.

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Bronwyn Roe, a staff lawyer with one of the legal groups that represents Cycle Toronto and its co-applicants, environmental law charity Ecojustice, said that although their application is now in, it will make no difference to the immediate removals the province has planned.

"It could stop the work that is supposed to start, likely in the spring, on the remaining bike lanes," she said.

With files from Metro Morning and Kate McGillivray