Ontario will soon require municipalities to receive provincial approval before removing road space for cars to install new bike lanes, a proposal that was immediately criticized by Toronto’s mayor as government overreach.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria on Tuesday said the government will introduce legislation next week to change the process for installing bike lanes across the province. He said the new law will bring “informed decision-making and oversight to a process that is frankly out of control.”
His office, the minister said, will decide whether a proposed bike lane that removes a lane for cars is warranted, and require municipalities to demonstrate that any changes would not have a detrimental effect on other traffic.
And while he stopped short of ordering the removal of any existing bike lanes, Mr. Sarkaria said the government is also asking municipalities for data on the effects of all bike-lane projects initiated in the past five years – a period that includes much of the expansion of Toronto’s bike network.
Speaking at a bar on Bloor Street West in Toronto’s western suburb of Etobicoke, where new bike lanes have prompted an outcry from some businesses and residents, Mr. Sarkaria said that in the past five years, Toronto has nearly doubled its pace of creating bike lanes as part of a plan to have 500 kilometres of the lanes on its major corridors by 2041.
“Across our province we are seeing an explosion of bike lanes, including many that were installed during the pandemic when fewer vehicles were on the road and their impacts on traffic were unclear,” Mr. Sarkaria said, citing numbers that rank Toronto traffic delays among the worst in the world.
Opinion: Toronto is stuck in traffic. Doug Ford’s tunnel vision isn’t the answer
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made addressing traffic congestion a major priority for the fall, as his government mulls an early election call before the next scheduled date in June, 2026. Just in the past few weeks, he has pledged to study the feasibility of building a tunnel under Highway 401 – something experts warn would cost tens of billions and do little to help congestion – and wouldn’t rule out buying back the privately controlled Highway 407 toll road north of Toronto, valued at close to $30-billion.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow criticized the bike-lane proposal, saying the province should focus on delayed light-transit projects in the city that have yet to be completed.
“I do not support limiting city powers. It’s always better when we work together to get things right. To tackle congestion and keep people safe on city roads we need all types of transportation,” Ms. Chow said in a statement. “The province should focus on their job of finally getting the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch LRT open, which will have a huge impact on congestion in our city.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, however, struck a conciliatory tone. “Bicycle lanes are an important part of our transportation infrastructure that we have been investing in for many years, and we will continue to do so within the new framework proposed by the provincial government,” he said in a statement.
Ottawa NDP MPP Joel Harden, the party’s transit critic, said the answer to congestion is not “steamrolling municipalities and fantasy tunnels,” but building transit and opening up Highway 407 for trucks and freight. “Pitting road users against one another will only make things worse. This is nonsense from a government that has clearly run out of ideas,” he said in a statement.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said Mr. Ford’s government should focus on tackling the crisis in health care, instead of reviewing bike lanes already approved by municipal councils. “I’d like to see Doug Ford spend the same attention ‘reviewing’ the 2.5-million-person wait list for a family doctor in this province,” she said in a statement.
The new legislation will also include the government’s plan to increase speed limits to 110 kilometres an hour “where it is safe to do so” on all 400-series highways. Ontario is also developing a “design standard” to allow vehicles to travel at speeds higher than 120 kilometres an hour on new highways, which could allow for higher speed limits.
The legislation will also enshrine into law the freeze on road-test fees, and the government said it is also consulting with municipalities to develop a “potholes prevention and repair” fund for 2025.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the next scheduled Ontario provincial election date is in June, 2025. It is in June, 2026. This version has been updated.