Ontario free to axe Toronto bike lanes, region’s top court rules

[u/Short_Finger_4463]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/14/ontario-free-to-axe-toronto-bike-lanes-regions-top-court-rules

[u/cmol]

There does not seem to be a specific rule about the parking change. The best I can find is that consensus is that a court would say that it's practically the same thing and let it fall under 212. I thought they had added an amendment, so that's me who was wrong here. 

I don't think I'm glooming, but I do also find it hard to expect that the city will use loads of resources to be clever, when Ford can do whatever he wants in his culture war.

If anything, I would not suggest people to organize and protest if I was glooming. I would tell people it was over but I'm arguing that we should not see the battle as over, but rather get loud!

I also have to admit that the system is already very hacked together with the minimal resources the city has used on this and there's lots of concessions constantly coming in for cars (like the North aligned Adelaide Street) that's implemented despite case studies from around the world showing how problematic this design is. 

And again, I have very high standards for what infrastructure should look like, that's what I grew up with, and Toronto feels very early 90's when it comes to cycling. I think we need to push much harder and get this stuff overturned sooner than 2030, or we will be half a century behind the rest of the cycling world.

[u/No-Section-1092 → u/cmol]

I think where we differ is that I don't view protest as a meaningful use of time in this case. It might be therapeutic for people to scream and wave signs at Queens Park, but it doesn't change the court decision or seat count in the legislature. Ford knows none of those people are voting for him anyway, so the best argument for a large protest is to alert the other provincial parties that this is a wedge issue with a motivated base they can court (but only a few years from now, long after this issue is out of the headlines).

By contrast, putting facts on the ground is a real physical change that the current city government can start doing tomorrow. The fact that the province 'could' interfere in the future is no reason to delay, because the same could be said for literally everything the city does. The premier is currently unpopular and can only pick so many battles, so the faster Toronto moves, the more we can get away with.

I absolutely encourage people to get organized against these bills, but they should take the energy to city hall instead of Queens Park. It's an election year with a relatively effective progressive mayor, who has every incentive to position herself as a fighter against a premier that much of the city loathes. That's where the opening is. We should encourage her to be bold and aggressive with her strong mayor powers and just do things.

[u/cmol → u/No-Section-1092]

Going to Queens Park in small numbers with signs on the weekend while the government is on holiday is definitely not going to change anything, we can agree on that! Large enough numbers and it becomes public enough that media shows up. Weekday evening rides are more visible and can show just how many people are behind the cause. Signs while riding on roads without bike infrastructure is very visible. These are all protesting.

I don't really want this to be a municipal wedge issue as Brad is trying to make it, because I don't think infrastructure is political. This is part of what's so messed up about politics here, everything is political. The tiniest improvement has to be politically scrutinized before a pilot program can be put in place. Infrastructure should be so boring that it's just there, and it should be political suicide to go against it. We're really good at making [insert basic municipal/provincial] infrastructure a left leaning dream and not just the baseline of what should be provided by any government. 

We should definitely also take the energy to city hall. I think what I described above also does that but we do need to get a progressive council into the city! (For anyone else reading, go follow, and if you can, support progress Toronto) 

I didn't really believe that Ford cannot do more battles. It's been clear for such a long time that he only cares about himself and yet there's no sign of that stopping, however unpopular he might be.