ACTION ALERT – Sign & Share Toronto’s Open Streets Petition!

Happy Friday, everybody! If you live in Toronto, I need your help!

Further to last month’s blog post calling for an open streets campaign – which got subsequently picked up by CBC – the petition calling on Mayor Olivia Chow and City Council to bring back open streets programs to Toronto by 2026 has just been launched this morning. You can sign the petition here which I encourage you to please share widely with your fellow Torontonians. I also encourage you to e-mail Mayor Chow (mayor_chow@toronto.ca) and your city councillor to show your support if you haven’t already done so.

It’s Time for an Open Streets Campaign

WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!

Remember when the City of Toronto closed parts of Bloor and Yonge for Open Streets TO for walking, cycling, and other forms of physical activity? Or the hugely popular ActiveTO weekend closures on Lake Shore West during the COVID-19 pandemic? One thing that has long frustrated me is how despite their popularity, these open street programs didn’t happen at all in 2023 or 2024, while there has been nothing but radio silence on this topic for this year. While Bill 212 and next week's court challenge may have sucked up a lot of the cycling community's oxygen as of late, It’s time to break the silence and get organized on this open streets issue!

The last Open Streets TO event held on August 21, 2022

Rage Against the (Ford) Machine

All right, folks! The worst-case scenario for Toronto's cycling community has come upon us! On Tuesday, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria announced cities will be required to get provincial approval to put in bike lanes which remove traffic lanes. Cities would also need to provide data about bike lanes installed over the past five years which could put large parts of Bloor-Danforth, University, and Yonge at risk. On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford said, "We need to and will remove and replace existing bike lanes on primary roads that are bringing traffic in our cities to a standstill”. This has been motivated in part to his own distaste for the Bloor bike lanes in Etobicoke which was the subject of last night's town hall hosted by Councillor Amber Morley. You can read Jun's report here.

Premier Doug Ford calling for the removal of the Bloor bike lanes in Etobicoke on October 31, 2023 (CPAC)

Addressing Bike Lane Obstruction Risks

As you probably already know, a 24-year-old female cyclist was killed on Bloor Street east of Avenue Road last Thursday; making it a record-breaking five cyclists killed this year so far. A likely cause of death was the placement of a construction bin at the end of the bike lane which forced the cyclist to exit the bike lane early to get around before being hit and killed. Since then, there have been a fair number of reports of motor vehicles blocking bike lanes which prompted me to write about how we can address such bike lane blocking risks.

A blocked bike lane on Davenport at Bartlett on Saturday, July 27

Toronto's Bike Plan Recycling Act

Yesterday, the City of Toronto released their 2025-27 Bike Plan which will go to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee next Tuesday. Despite extensive consultation and the fact four cyclists were killed in 2024 so far, this plan is one that road safety advocates need to slam as a big disappointment. Let’s go through the bike plan documents to see what it has and what’s missing.

Map of 2025-27 Bike Plan (via City of Toronto)

My List of 2022 Toronto Candidate Endorsements

Over the past several weeks, I have been working with the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition (TCBC) to interview candidates for the purposes of endorsement, as well as ask them to sign onto our group’s three calls to action. Over 40 council candidates in 22 wards – plus two mayoral candidates – have signed on so far. We have since endorsed Gil Penalosa for Mayor and candidates in the following seven wards:

• Ward 2 (Etobicoke Centre) – Thomas Yanuziello
• Ward 3 (Etobicoke – Lakeshore) – Amber Morley
• Ward 5 (York South – Weston) – Chiara Padovani
• Ward 9 (Davenport) – Alejandra Bravo
• Ward 18 (Willowdale) – Markus O’Brien Fehr
• Ward 20 (Scarborough Southwest) – Kevin Rupasinghe
• Ward 23 (Scarborough North) – Jamaal Myers

In addition to these seven city council races, I would like to personally support candidates in additional wards, but will add a disclaimer they do not represent the views of TCBC.

Norm Di Pasquale's and Ausma Malik's joint campaign office in Kensington Market