People are fed up with being bullied by a province obsessed with a culture war

Last week, lawyers from Ecojustice and Paliare Roland LLP, representing Cycle Toronto and our co-applicants, filed an injunction to ensure our legal challenge against the province's anti-bike lane legislation gets its day in court.

The province responded: "We can’t let activists who represent less than one per cent of the population force families to sit in traffic any longer."

To which we reply: people are fed up with being bullied by a government fixated on igniting a culture war.

Let’s be clear: Toronto has over 5,300 kilometres of roads. Blaming gridlock on 19 kilometres of bike lanes isn’t just absurd—it’s deliberate misdirection. Traffic congestion isn’t caused by bike lanes. It’s the result of failed planning and years of endless delays on critical transit projects like the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch LRT.

(Behind the non-stop “one per cent” blustering, provincial data shows more people rely on bikes and micromobility to get downtown than all car/taxi/rideshare passengers combined. Image: Summary of findings from Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) 2022.)

This government still has time to change course and work with municipal partners on data-driven solutions that actually get people moving.

Wasting taxpayer money to rip out safe bike lanes is reckless and dangerous. Moving forward with this plan will put people’s lives at risk.

Bike lanes are a critical part of reducing congestion, providing people with sustainable transportation options, and ensuring no family ever has to endure the unimaginable tragedy of losing a loved one on our streets. And let’s be honest—their claims about some hitherto undiscovered network of “secondary roads” are nothing more than fairytales.

(Attempting to bike from Runnymede to Six Points zig-zagging through “secondary roads” is nearly 50% further than the direct route along the Bloor bike lanes.)

It’s time to end this cynical distraction.

That’s why we’re fighting back.

Read more about our legal challenge and the April 16th, 2025 hearing date.

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