Ontario appeal court says Ford can rip out Toronto bike lanes

Ontario appeal court says Ford can rip out Toronto bike lanes

Friday’s decision by a panel of 3 judges reverses lower court ruling from 2025

Premier Doug Ford’s government can rip out 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes in Toronto, the Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled in a decision released Friday, reversing a lower court decision made in July 2025.

The law empowering the province to remove bike lanes along Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue was initially passed at Queen’s Park in 2024. But the infrastructure remained on Toronto’s streets after advocacy organization Cycle Toronto and others launched a legal challenge against the bill.

In the 2025 ruling, Justice Paul Schabas ruled the removal would be unconstitutional because it would put people at increased risk of harm and death, which engages the right to life and security of the person.

But a panel of three appeal court judges ruled Friday there is no constitutional obligation to regulate the use of roads in any particular manner. The Ford government has long maintained removing the bike lanes would improve traffic congestion in the Greater Toronto Area.

"The legislature is free to legislate to remove a bicycle lane from a road — indeed, it may remove a road entirely — without implicating the Charter," reads the decision from three appeals court judges.

The judges wrote that Schabas's ruling inflated the negative impacts of removing bike lanes.

"[The original ruling is] talking of injuries and deaths that will occur only if the bicyclists choose to ride on the roads that have no bicycle lanes," Friday's decision says.

Do only 1.2% of Torontonians really commute by bike? StatsCan data says no

Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario's transportation minister, welcomed the appeals court decision in a statement Friday.

"Today’s court ruling is a victory for common sense and for respecting the appropriate division of roles between duly elected legislatures and the courts," he said.

CBC Toronto has reached out to the Ministry of Transportation to ask when it plans to begin removing bike lanes.

Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the decision is a step back for evidence-based decision making.

"I want to be clear that bike lanes do not cause traffic congestion. Removing them will put people's lives at risk," he said.

Bradford vows Bloor Street W. bike lanes are 'coming out' if he's mayor

Ontario aware bike lane removals may not reduce congestion, could make people less safe: internal documents

Longfield said Schabas's original ruling still found Ontario’s plans were pushed through despite its own advisers and external experts broadly agreeing the move wouldn’t accomplish its stated goal of reducing traffic congestion.

But in Friday's decision, the appeals judges wrote, "legislative policy is not arbitrary just because some or even many advisors, experts, and citizens predict that it will not work."

Government doesn't have to use expert evidence: judges

Hundreds of pages of internal ministry documents, reports and emails made public during the court challenge show the government is aware the move may not have a meaningful impact on congestion and could increase collisions for everyone who uses roads.

But the appeals judges ruled the government doesn't have to accept any of the expert advice it receives on a topic.

"Legislation is not unconstitutional for failing to satisfy the preferences of experts whose advice the government was not required to accept," the decision reads.

In a statement to CBC Toronto Friday, a spokesperson for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's office said the city has been working with the province to reach an agreement that brings back vehicle lanes while still keeping cyclists safe.

"She resists any argument that pits road users against each other because it makes everyone less safe," Braman Thillainathan said, adding work was already done to restore a car lane and maintain a bike lane for a stretch of Bloor Street W., between Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue.

"The Mayor will keep working to get traffic moving through actions like hiring more traffic agents and investing in transit, while ensuring all road users are safe, whether they are walking, biking or driving," Thillainathan said.

Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford, who has served as the councillor for Beaches-East York since 2018, says the ruling confirms his belief: that bike lane placement should be up to elected governments, rather than courtrooms.

"The best people to decide what happens on Toronto's streets are still Torontonians," he said in a statement Friday. "For almost two years, the future of Toronto's streets sat in legal limbo. Drivers sat in gridlock. Businesses on Bloor West watched their sales fall."

Ontario court strikes down Ford government's plan to remove Toronto bike lanes

Toronto cyclists defend bike lane challenge before Ontario's top court

Bradford added the province should now let the municipality take the lead.

"You've made your point," he said. "Now let the city do this job, with the communities who live on these streets, and work with Toronto's next mayor instead of around him."

Bradford committed earlier this week to removing bike lanes from part of Bloor Street W. from the South Kingsway to Resurrection Road should he be elected. He said the bike lanes are dangerous for cyclists, cause gridlock for all other road users and impact foot traffic for businesses in the area.

Lane Harrison is a reporter with CBC Toronto who primarily covers municipal and provincial politics. Born and raised in Toronto, he joined CBC in 2022 as a Joan Donaldson Scholar after an internship with the Globe and Mail. You can reach him at lane.harrison@cbc.ca