Toronto shelves major bike-lane plan

This is getting a bit old, isn’t it? Another day, another report of bike lanes being scrapped.

Toronto cyclists have been looking forward to a long-awaited plan to build protected bike lanes across a major stretch of Eglinton Avenue, an east-west road in the city.

But, according to Toronto Today, it has been snipped. It’s another casualty of the Ontario government’s restrictions on removing traffic lanes for cycling infrastructure.

According to the report, The City of Toronto confirmed it will no longer move ahead with proposed bike lanes between which would have created a very helpful near-continuous east-west cycling corridor through midtown. It would have made riding for Torontonians much safer.

The project had been in the works for years and was expected to connect existing cycling infrastructure already installed near several Eglinton Crosstown LRT stations (yes, it’s open, finally!)

City council approved the 7-kilometre plan in 2024, with construction originally expected after the LRT work wrapped up.

Neverending fight in Ontario

But Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s recent legislations have thrown all kinds of spanners into the works, when it comes to bike lane plans. While some portions of the Eglinton work had already been contracted before the legislation passed, the city delayed full construction until the Crosstown line opened.

Cycle Toronto executive director Michael Longfield called the outcome “frustrating but entirely predictable,” according to Toronto Today, blaming both the province’s legislation and what he described as the city’s slow pace in advancing the project.

And the beat goes on across Canada, it seems. Alberta is planning a similar move as Ontario to try and take control of bike lanes in municipalities. Then there’s Montreal, where a new mayor could undo years of work by the previous admin.

Cycling advocacy groups in all of these cities continue to fight the fight. Whether it’s legal appeals or protests, the work continues.