Nothing can convince Davina Winer that dedicated bus lanes on Bathurst Street are worth it. To her, they feel like an existential threat, to her business and the local community.
The women’s clothing store Winer owns sits just south of Dupont and Bathurst streets. Some of the customers she relies on come from out of town or have accessibility needs. They need the kind of on-street parking that could be taken out and replaced with a priority bus lane as part of the city’s RapidTO project.Ìý
“Nobody wants any traffic snarl ups, but we don’t actually have that issue here,” Winer said, “They’re just taking away our parking.”
What would usually be an uncontroversial push for better TTC service and better transit in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøhas become a battle over traffic data, public consultation and a threat of legal action, one that is also playing out similarly on Dufferin street.
There are transit riders and city councillors who want the bus lanes built to help move buses quicker, lure more riders onto public transit to ease congestion, and to prepare the city for an influx of tourists and commuters ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Winer, like other business owners who have rallied against proposed bus lanes on Bathurst are adamant they aren’t against transit, but are instead concerned about what the lanes will do to their businesses and the neighbourhood.ÌýThey say parking on their stretch of Bathurst is a necessity, claim that the city has rushed through the process and say they are even exploring legal options to put a stop to the red paint that could soon claim a lane of traffic.
The new dedicated bus routes are part of a proposed expansion of the city’s RapidTO bus lane program onto Dufferin Street (from Dufferin Gate to Eglinton Avenue West) and on Bathurst Street (for buses and streetcars, from Lake Shore Boulevard to Eglinton Avenue West). The proposed lanes were approved by the TTC board with the caveat that they could be changed depending on public consultations. Three public consultations (two in-person and one virtual) for the Bathurst street bus lanes were conducted this week and  will remain open until May 26. The proposal still needs to go through city council before the routes are installed.
The plans for these new dedicated lanes come as º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøcommuters continue to struggle with traffic — this city ranked as having the eighth worst traffic in North America, according to .ÌýBuses, as a consequence, have been bogged down in those traffic jams. The average speed of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøbuses has steadily declined since 2013, from an average of 20 km/h to 17.2 km/h in 2024, data from the TTC shows.
The average speed of buses on Bathurst, according to the TTC, is 13 km/h, meaning riding transit right now takes up to 75 per cent longer than driving for the more than 35,000 riders who take either the Bathurst bus or streetcar on an average weekday.
The city says bus lanes on Bathurst Street would necessitate the removal of 138 on-street paid parking spaces, but would save up to seven minutes per trip during peak hours, making the journey from Eglinton Avenue to Bloor Street in about 17 to 19 minutes, as well as increasing reliability and ridership. Accessible parking, the city adds, will be maintained.
The TTC and city’s plans for proposed priority bus lanes on Bathurst Street.Ìý
TTC and City of TorontoBrad McMullen, owner of the grocery store Summerhill Market, which has a location on Bathurst Street near Bloor Street, doesn’t believe the city’s statistics and is so skeptical that he’s hired an engineer to conduct an independent analysis of the traffic impacts and says he is exploring his legal options to see if he can slow down the approval process for the bus lanes.
“All my staff all come to my work by TTC and I have 500 employees and we all use the TTC ... and we want a more robust transit system,” said a frustrated McMullen. “It’s just such an aggressive move here from the TTC, and I guess the city, whoever’s behind it.”
“They haven’t listened to us, and I don’t think they intend on listening to us.”
Even some who are supportive of the lanes don’t see them as the perfect solution, but rather as an urgent answer to the city’s growing transit needs.
The city is playing catch-up after decades of underfunding transit expansion, said Ian Chamandy, who lives just off Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue.
“We’re in a position where we have to resort to desperate measures, like shutting down one lane on a major artery like Bathurst so that only transit can go on. … Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it’s going to hurt. But what’s the alternative?” asked Chamandy, who drives, bikes and takes transit to get around the city.
“The only things left are bad decisions.”
A cross-section view of the proposed priority bus lanes.
TTC and City of TorontoAugust Puranauth, an organizer for the transit advocacy organization TTCriders, has been canvassing near Bathurst station, hearing from transit riders who sorely want faster and more frequent buses.
The red paint needed for bus lanes is a quick fix to bus service issues, they said, versus waiting for years (or over a decade in the case of the Eglinton LRT) for transit infrastructure to be built.
“People are frustrated with how crowded and slow transit is on Dufferin and Bathurst, and these are long overdue. It’s been called for years by advocates and riders,” Puranauth said.
McMullen said he would be more open to the lanes if they aren’t implemented all day, but just during rush hour. Winer, also, wants the city to find a way to keep her on-street parking spots if the lanes are implemented. Otherwise, they both said, the bus lanes could spell doom for their businesses.
And while local city councillors are open to discussion and compromise, it can only go so far.Ìý
There are nuances in this debate, says Coun. Josh Matlow, whose ward includes Bathurst street, from just north of Dupont Street all the way up to Eglinton Avenue.
“I think what’s really important is to, first of all, understand their concerns. And then, where somebody’s factually wrong, you don’t capitulate to that. … But where there are reasonable concerns that can be addressed, you work on that.”
Matlow said he has his own concerns about how cars will make left turns and added that city staff need to address residents’ concerns before city council moves ahead with the dedicated bus lanes.Ìý
He said he shares the cynicism people have about how the TTC and the city have handled city-building projects in the past, like the King Street transit’s priority corridor or the snow-clearing debacle from the winter.
”(City staff) do a lot of things right, but they don’t do everything right,” Matlow said. “And that’s why, the debate, the discussion shouldn’t just be about whether or not we should make transit faster, it’s about how it’s done.”
Dianne Saxe, the councillor for Winer and McMullen’s ward, said it will be difficult to accommodate what the businesses are seeking.
Bathurst is a heavily used route, Saxe said, one that has boardings as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m. — meaning the lanes would be in use nearly all hours of the day. And having only partial lanes would be more difficult to enforce, she said, as drivers would have to learn when they are allowed to drive in the red, dedicated bus lanes.Ìý
“What research shows really clearly is that it often happens that business owners dramatically overestimate the amount of their business that comes from people in cars, and dramatically underestimate the amount that comes to people who walk in or cycle or take transit,” Saxe said, pointing to studies that have come out of the installation of the Bloor street bike lanes.
The Etobicoke portion of the Bloor bike lanes has been the subject of fierce debate, leading to some local businesses suing the city over their implementation.
“Having run a small business myself for 25 years, I absolutely understand that … this is a very, very personal issue,” Saxe added. “I’m sure it’s true for some people that they will only go somewhere if they can drive right there. But that’s not what the research shows happens.”
Saxe’s argument is backed up by the science, U of T civil engineering professor Eric Miller said.
He pointed to that looked at the implementation of the Bloor street bike lanes, where 136 on-street parking spots were removed. That study showed monthly customer spending and the number of customers to storefronts on Bloor increased after the bike lanes were put in place.
It comes down to execution, Miller said, and taking full advantage of the benefits provided when taking over a lane of traffic to get transit moving.
“It’s a win for cars as well,” Miller added. “The big problem with on-street parking is you have this stationary hunk of metal that is effectively taking away much of your lane.”
The RapidTO plans have been in the works for years, Saxe said, and the complaints are simultaneous. Some, from transit advocates who think these are long overdue, and that city hall has taken too long to get them painted, and others who say the city is moving too fast.
“We need (the bus lanes). We need them badly,” Saxe said. “And we have to do everything we possibly can to minimize the pain for the small number of people who are really adversely affected. That’s my focus.”
Meanwhile, Winer, made her final plea.Ìý
“I, as a transit rider, don’t have any desire for a bus lane,” she said. “When I first entered this community, when I drove up Bathurst street, there was crap on both sides. It was a lot of darkened doorways. And now they’re lit and they’re lively. Let’s keep it that way.”
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