Doug Ford’s bike lane plan is taking us backwards

Given the state of healthcare, housing and various other crumbling systems in Ontario, I didn’t have “ban bike lanes” on my bingo card of Premier Doug Ford’s priorities.

But increasingly, it feels as if everything I care about in this province is under attack by the Ford government — from climate action to childcare to housing to, now, cycling.

The Premier has gone back to his roots in his latest tirade against bike lanes, which he’s been teasing for a while now but officially acted on earlier last week. His government recently proposed legislation that would ban all new bike lanes that take up space that could otherwise be used by cars — unless they receive special permission from the province.

The Premier’s eye isn’t just on future bike lanes either. In a recent speech at the Empire Club, he 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."

Leaving aside the serious overreach into municipal matters happening here (as highlighted by the Association of Ontario Municipalities), there are some major gaps in this line of thinking.

The first that comes to mind is safety. The Ford government claims it wants to make Ontario safer — but that doesn’t seem to apply to everyone. Because this new legislation doesn’t stop cyclists from using any of our roads — it just restricts the dedicated lanes they’ll use to do it. 

I have news for the Premier: people are going to bike whether we have bike lanes or not. That’s because cycling is cheap, healthy and an easy way to get around when streets are jammed with traffic. 

Banning bike lanes isn’t going to stop biking. It’s going to push cyclists onto the road and into traffic — leading to more injuries, more deaths and more anxiety for cyclists and drivers alike.

As a parent of a child who regularly bikes to school, that’s not the direction I want to see our province move in. Anyone who has dropped their kid off in a busy school parking lot before knows we need to make the bike (or walk, or scoot) to school safer.

Beyond safety, there’s also the issue of traffic. 

The Ford government is framing its bike lane ban as a measure to reduce traffic. But here’s the thing: There is no evidence that bike lanes make traffic worse. In fact, one journalist fact checked claims the Premier recently made about bike lanes and dug up several falsehoods.

What does make traffic worse, though, is when we waste money on highways and sprawl development, leaving people with no options except to drive to get where they’re going.

I’m asking us to imagine a different sort of Ontario.

Imagine if communities such as mine in Kitchener had all-day, two-way GO train service so people could take the train to work or school in the morning and then take it home at the end of the day. Right now, we have a patchwork system with only a handful of direct trains during rush hour. If you miss one, it adds hours to your commute.

Imagine if we had reliable intercity bus service so that people could get from Hamilton to Waterloo to London quickly and easily, without having to schedule their entire day around when the one lone bus comes.

Imagine if our major cities had fast, functional transit that could get them from home to work to their friends without hassle and headache. 

Imagine if that transit had its own dedicated lanes, so buses and street cars weren’t stuck sitting in traffic.

Imagine if, instead of banning bike lanes, we invested in e-bike and bike-sharing infrastructure that actually made it safer and more affordable to get around our communities, not harder.

Imagine if we could build communities with more kinds of housing — such as apartments and multiplexes — so more people could live close to work, school or loved ones without having to spend many thousands of dollars every month?

And imagine if we made it easy for people to choose lower-emission, climate-friendly and healthy ways of getting around without forcing them to jump through so many hoops?

This is not just about removing cars. I have a car, which I need and use regularly. But offering more transportation options actually makes driving faster, safer and easier — because they’re rooted in data and in what will actually work.

What we need is a vision that extends beyond the 401. One where our lives aren’t spent sitting in our cars in bumper-to-bumper traffic, where we are free to choose the best way to get ourselves around — whether it’s driving, biking or taking the bus.

It’s time for the Premier to stop dividing us and invest in more choices for people who are just trying to get where they need to go.

Bio: Aislinn Clancy is the MPP for Kitchener Centre and the Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario.