April 2025 Consultation Roundup

The month of April brought some good news for Toronto’s cycling community with Justice Paul Schabas having granted an injunction until he can decide on Cycle Toronto’s Charter challenge against the bike lane removal aspects of Bill 212. While that decision may not be made for another few months, there are several public consultations which we need to get involved with. Let’s round them up here! 😊

The Leaside-Danforth public consultation from March 2024

A Soggy March Critical Mass

While Cycle Toronto’s charter challenge against Bill 212 is less than three weeks away and their injunction request was denied earlier this month, Toronto’s cycling community continues to put pressure on the Ford government to scrap their bike lane removal plans for Bloor, Yonge, and University. To follow up on last week’s direct action by Fridays for Future Toronto, a Critical Mass ride was held last night. Not even the rain could stop more than two hundred people from attending.

March 2025 Bill 212 Update

With the court challenge against the Ford government’s Bill 212 expected to be held on Wednesday, April 16, Toronto’s cycling community will be hosting a Critical Mass ride on Friday, March 28. Meet 6:00 PM at Bloor and Spadina for 6:30 PM departure. As with other Critical Mass rides, the route is never provided ahead of time. This announcement offers a good opportunity to recap what has been happening with this bill since Doug Ford won his third majority last month.

RANT – Doug Ford’s Third PC Majority Win

As was widely expected, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party secured its third straight majority last night. This is despite him being the least liked premier in the country and all the trouble he caused including the RCMP Greenbelt investigation, the destruction of Ontario Place for a mega spa nobody wants, the crumbling of our health and education systems, and the ripping out of Toronto’s bike lanes. And of course, those $200 pre-election bribe cheques. However, there is a lot more to rant about aside from the outcome itself.

Editorial cartoon via Theo Moudakis

The Year #BikeTO Got Flip Turned Upside Down

While trying to describe 2024 from a Toronto cycling perspective, the phrase "flip turned upside down" from Will Smith’s “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” song had come to mind. Especially considering the record number of cyclists killed and the Ford government’s passing of their anti-bike lane Bill 212 (which also calls for accelerating Highway 413 construction). Let’s recap 2024 to see why that was the case.

Winter conditions along the Sherbourne cycle track this afternoon

Fridays for Future & Cycling Good Cheer

This weekend saw two cycling events take place in Toronto and the two atmospheres couldn’t be any different with one being a protest ride and the other being a festive one. Let’s recap what happened during these two events.

What’s Next After Bill 212 Passed?

Yesterday was a sad day for cyclists in Toronto, Ottawa, and across Ontario with the Ford government having passed the Third Reading of Bill 212. This bill would not only restrict where new bike lanes would be built, but also remove existing bike lanes on Bloor, Danforth, and University while preventing people from suing the government. This is despite over 24,000 signatures for Cycle Toronto’s petition and a broad base of opposition from planners to engineers, doctors, universities, organized labour, and several city councils including Toronto’s. Despite this major setback, the fight is not over and it’s time to put things into perspective.

Fight for Bikes Protest at Christie Pits

Earlier today, Zev and Eva – two University of Toronto students who started “Fight for Bikes” organized a protest against Bill 212 at Christie Pits Park. The turnout was incredible with some claiming there were at least 1,500 which would make it even larger than the September 23 rally at Queen’s Park!

Rally and Ride for Road Safety

Queen’s Park was back in session on Monday after an extended holiday and the first order of business was Bill 212 called “The Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act”. This bill would require municipalities to get provincial approval for bike lanes that remove traffic lanes – except for those tendered and started construction once the bill takes effect – as well as review existing bike lanes. To make matters worse, Premier Doug Ford mentioned he plans to remove existing bike lanes on Bloor, University, and Yonge. Hundreds of people came out yesterday in response to this irresponsible (and unprecedented) legislation which you can submit comments on until Wednesday, November 20.

West Parkdale Cycling Connections Consultation

Earlier this evening, the City of Toronto hosted the West Parkdale Cycling Connections public consultation which I covered in an earlier blog post. Sometime before this meeting, I found out from the Parkdale Community Updates Facebook group that a petition was being circulated to pause this project (which was closed off this evening due to the heated debate). Given that opposition was brewing for this project, I attended to show my support and encouraged others to do the same. However, I will also discuss some legitimate concerns that were raised.

High Park Policing Shenanigans

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been considerable outrage by Toronto’s cycling community over the ticketing and harassment by police officers in High Park. One cyclist got ticketed for going 26 km/h in a 20 km/h zone – something which rarely happens for drivers – while another got a $110 fine for rolling through a stop sign. There was even another case of a ticketing police officer driving into a cyclist who was reported to have earned $281,000 in 2021! If that doesn’t make your blood boil, Mayor John Tory claimed police do not deserve to be criticized for ticketing.

A Toronto Police officer ticketing a cyclist in High Park (via Dave Shellnut)

Parkside Motion Coming to City Council

In response to last month's fatal collision on Parkside Drive, about 150 residents took part in a peaceful protest on Tuesday, October 26 while Councillor Gord Perks has introduced Motion MM37.1 regarding safety measures proposed on that street. While the motion does include some of the items requested by the Safe Parkside group, there are serious concerns with Item 1F which calls for the addition of Green P parking on the west side of Parkside.

Given this motion will be debated at next week's City Council meeting, please e-mail Toronto City Council (councilmeeting@toronto.ca), as well as copy Mayor Tory and your city councillor calling on them to remove Item 1F from the motion and instead push for expediting the redesign of Parkside Drive through the High Park Movement Strategy. Below is the e-mail I sent, though I encourage you to customize it to emphasize why a safer Parkside Drive is important to you.

UPDATE 2021/11/05 - Since my e-mail was sent to City Council, a suggestion was brought up in the Safe Parkside group to have the motion referred to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee in order to allow for the public to comment and depute on the item. A 2/3 majority is needed to waive the referral for this item at City Council, so at least nine councillors (out of 26 including the Mayor) would need to oppose waiving the referral for this to happen. (Thanks David W)

Stepping Up Action on Parkside Drive

Since the Sunnyside Community Association held their meeting in May 2021 and the Safe Parkside Facebook group was created, there was little activity aside from City Council rescinding the afternoon rush hour parking restrictions on Parkside Drive . However, last week’s deaths of Valdemar and Fatima Avila at Parkside and Spring Road – which I use every day to walk Mozzie in High Park – prompted neighbours to organize and renew calls to make Parkside Drive safer for everyone. Lots of “Slow Down” signs were put up along Parkside and 50 to 60 people attended a vigil at the crash site on Tuesday afternoon including Councillor Gord Perks, MPP Bhutila Karpoche, and MP Arif Virani. It’s time to recap some of the upcoming actions, as well as clarify some facts regarding arterial roads.

Members of the Bike Brigade helped marshall the intersection closure during Tuesday's vigil