Ontario promises to pay for ripping out bike lanes that fail unannounced criteria

The Ford government is promising to wage the outgo of removing bike lanes from large metropolis streets that neglect to conscionable its unannounced criteria arsenic it ploughs up with a program to bounds biking infrastructure and rip retired immoderate routes.

The authorities has been teasing its changes to motorcycle lanes for a week, with Premier Doug Ford announcing precocious that his enactment “will region and regenerate existing motorcycle lanes connected superior roads that are bringing postulation successful our cities to a standstill.”

Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria confirmed Monday that motorcycle lanes could beryllium removed from immoderate roads arsenic portion of a “reasonable” attack to transit readying successful Toronto and crossed Ontario.

“Not everybody tin usage a motorcycle to get astir — these are immoderate of our large arterial roads, whether it is Bloor, University oregon Yonge Street — radical request to get to and from work,” Sarkaria said.

“What we don’t hold (with) and don’t deliberation — ripping up Bloor Street and turning it into 2 lanes. I heard firsthand from astir 50 businesses, section residents that came retired to the announcement, I’ve ne'er seen enthusiasm similar that before.”

The projected instrumentality was tabled Monday, as portion of the archetypal time backmost for MPPs astatine Queen’s Park aft an extended break.

During the day, the proscription minister’s bureau confirmed that, if motorcycle lanes installed successful the past 5 years are removed, provincial taxpayers volition ft the bill.

“I deliberation the existent question is, what is the outgo of not building?” Sarkaria said successful effect to a question astir the terms tag for the wide motorcycle lanes policy.

The state has said it volition determine whether oregon not to let aboriginal biking infrastructure, and whether to region immoderate routes, based connected as-yet-unspecific information cities and towns volition person to nonstop to Queen’s Park.

Sarkaria said Monday that accrued congestion was an indicator of the information the existent attack is not working, portion his bureau has referenced Toronto motorcycle lane studies that excluded definite upwind from their enactment arsenic problematic. The state has said it wants to beryllium definite caller motorcycle lanes don’t summation gridlock connected streets they’re installed on.

The details of however applications volition beryllium assessed and by whom, however, stay unclear.

“We’ll enactment with our municipal partners, we’ll look done the strategy to found that,” Sarkaria said. “As we enactment done this legislation, done the process, I deliberation you’ll besides spot an accidental for galore of them to taxable their concerns oregon taxable what they deliberation could beryllium a bully process.”

Sarkaria’s bureau has said regulations volition beryllium “completed implicit the coming months” and that they volition see an outline of “data and submission requirements, timelines, support criteria, and accusation sharing details.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who oversees the Ontario metropolis with the biggest motorcycle lane plans, has said she doesn’t mean to alteration course.

“Mayor Chow is committed to the city’s cycling web program precocious adopted by council,” a spokesperson for the politician previously told Global News. “She volition proceed to enactment with metropolis assembly and the city’s readying unit to find opportunities for each modes of transportation, including motorcycle lanes.”