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People have three weeks to submit a comment to the ERO after “a further amendment to the proposed framework for bike lanes that require removal of a traffic lane” was .

“The Ontario government is proposing an addendum to the framework that would require the province to remove sections of the Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue bike lanes in the City of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøand return them to a lane of traffic for motor vehicles,” stated the posting on the ERO.

That suggests the most contentious sections of the lanes — on Bloor West in Etobicoke, University south of College and Yonge north of Bloor — could be slated for removal in the months after the Nov. 20 ERO “comment period” concludes.

“The legislation would also, if passed, provide the province with the authority to establish a review process on other existing bike lanes (where the removal of a lane of traffic took place),” the post said. “The review of municipal submissions would lead to the decision of whether to maintain existing bike lanes or to require their removal and return lanes to motor vehicle traffic.”

In a statement, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria noted “º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøalready loses $11 billion each year due to congestion,” according to regional board of trade data.

“We are doing everything we can to fight congestion and keep major arterial roads moving, but the removal of lanes of traffic on our busiest roads, such as Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street, has only made gridlock worse,” said Sarkaria.

“Bike lanes should be on secondary roads, where they make sense for the more than 70 per cent of people who drive and for the 1.2 per cent who commute by bike. It’s just common sense.”

That’s a reference to Statistics Canada data from May that 71.2 per cent of Toronto-area residents took a car, truck or van to work, while 22.7 per cent rode transit and 5.4 per cent used “active transportation,” meaning they walked or cycled.

In 2011, 1.2 per cent of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøand surrounding-area residents commuted by bicycle while 69.9 per cent drove or were passengers in cars, 23.3 per cent took public transit and 4.6 per cent walked.

Last week, Ford thundered in the legislature about the “crowded streets that are just absolutely insanity right now on Bloor, on Yonge, on University.”

Under Sarkaria’s legislation introduced Oct. 21, the Highway Traffic Act is being amended to say the Ministry of Transportation “may review existing bicycle lanes” and that municipalities must receive provincial approval before installing new lanes.

His bill empowers the ministry to take “consideration of traffic flow” before approving any future bike lanes.

“When considering whether to approve the design for the construction of a bicycle lane, the ministry may consider whether it would unduly diminish the orderly movement of motor vehicle traffic,” it states.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has criticized the province for “significant overreach” into civic jurisdiction.

Chow said the city prefers to work collaboratively with the province to address issues like congestion “rather than be subject to arbitrary and costly infrastructure changes which are not based on any evidence.”

“By ripping up our roads, the province will only make congestion worse and our streets less safe for cyclists and drivers alike,” she said in a statement.

The province will foot the tab for the cost of removing the lanes, sections of which are less than one year old.

At city hall, Coun. Dianne Saxe (Ward 11 University—Rosedale), whose ward has seen the most cyclist deaths this year, said the move is “yet another disruptive and harmful action by the Ford government to try to distract voters from his own failures.

“This is strictly culture war stupidity that’s going to make life in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøworse. It’s going to cost lives, it’s going to worsen congestion, it’s going to worsen air quality, it is going to increase the cost of living, it’s going to harm businesses,” said Saxe, who was the last environmental commissioner of Ontario before Ford scrapped that independent watchdog position in 2019.

“It’s an utterly destructive, stupid thing to do. It’s absolutely overreach,” she said.

But Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19 Beaches—East York), an avid cyclist, played down the move as “an evolution.”

“For me, I don’t need the premier of Ontario to tell me that the Bloor West bike lanes are not working,” said Bradford, who ran for mayor against Chow last year.

“It comes down to a lack of leadership and common sense at city hall. I think this government is responding to the concerns of people in those neighbourhoods where these bike lanes were put in without the type of engagement and consultation that was necessary to make them successful,” he said.

Coun. Josh Matlow (Ward 12 Toronto—St. Paul’s), whose constituency includes some of the contentious Yonge lanes, said “rather than once again meddling in municipality’s decisions, Doug Ford should focus on the many provincial priorities he’s neglected including health care and housing.

“He’s not the mayor of Toronto, he’s the premier and he should remember that,” said Matlow, who also ran for mayor in 2023.

“He’s not who I would take advice from when it comes to improving transportation. He can’t even get the LRT completed on Eglinton. He’s neglecting his own job as premier to focus on municipal issues,” he said.

Ford’s Tories are considering an early election in the spring, a year ahead of the scheduled June 2026 vote, and believe curbing bike lanes would be popular with commuters stuck in traffic.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles has attacked Ford for fighting ancient battles dating to his tenure at city hall, where he was a councillor when his late brother, Rob Ford, was mayor.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has said the premier needs to get over losing the 2014 mayoral race to John Tory and let municipal leaders govern.

Cyclist Firth MacMillan, who was riding along Bloor Street West near Spadina Avenue on Thursday, said she was “so angry” that bike lanes could be gone from some parts of the city.

“I think it’s so retroactive to spend all this money and then spend a bunch to take (the bike lanes) out,” said MacMillan, noting the separated lanes make her feel safe on Bloor and College streets.

With files from Nathan Bawaan

Clarification — Nov. 6, 2024

This article has been updated. Cycling information from StatsCan for 2011 on the 1.2 per cent of people that commuted to work, pertains to the Census Metropolitan Area, which includes º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøand its surrounding areas.