The Ford government began physically removing Toronto’s protected bike lanes this week, sending crews to a 600-metre stretch of Bloor Street West near Clissold Road on September 1 — the first cut in what’s set to become the removal of 19 kilometres of cycling infrastructure on Bloor, Yonge and University. The move follows an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling on August 14 that overturned a lower court’s finding that the province’s bike lane law, Bill 212, violated cyclists’ Charter rights. What’s largely missing from the coverage of the ruling and the removal order: the City of Toronto’s own before-and-after data on exactly the lanes now being torn out, and the price tag both sides still can’t agree on.
What the Court Actually Decided
The Court of Appeal didn’t rule on whether removing the lanes is a good idea — it ruled that the decision is Queen’s Park’s to make. The panel found Bill 212 was “the sort of decision legislatures make routinely without attracting any concerns about the constitutionality of their actions,” reversing an Ontario Superior Court judge who had sided with cyclists’ groups in July 2025 and found the law engaged Section 7 of the Charter, the right to life, liberty and security of the person. That’s a narrower finding than it might sound: the court settled who gets to decide, not whether the decision itself makes streets safer or more dangerous.
The City’s Own Numbers Tell a Different Story
That’s where Toronto’s own transportation data becomes relevant, and it’s largely absent from the day-of coverage of the removal announcement. When the city and University of Toronto researchers evaluated the Bloor Street bike lane pilot after installation, they found cycling injuries on the corridor fell 56 per cent, pedestrian injuries dropped from 13 to 5 a year, and motorist injuries fell from 29 to 21 — even as cycling volume rose sharply. A separate before-and-after conflict analysis found a 44 per cent drop in conflicts between all road users combined. None of that data is disputed by the province; it simply hasn’t been part of the public case for removal, which has centred on relieving car congestion rather than on the corridor’s safety record.
The $48-Million Question Nobody’s Answered
There’s also an unresolved cost dispute hanging over this week’s start date. A November 2024 city staff report put the cost of removing the three streets’ bike lanes at $48 million — $27 million in sunk infrastructure investment, plus unbudgeted costs to redesign the roads and build replacement cycling routes elsewhere. Premier Doug Ford dismissed that figure as “hogwash” at the time, and the province has offered to cover removal costs directly. But two years later, as shovels actually go into the pavement, neither the city nor the province has published an updated, agreed-upon number — meaning Toronto taxpayers are watching construction begin on a project whose final bill remains an open argument between two levels of government.
What Comes Next
The Clissold Road segment is the test case for a rollout expected to stretch across Bloor, Yonge and University over the coming months. With the legal question now settled in the province’s favour, the remaining fights — over cost, over whether the safety gains the city measured will simply be reversed, and over how city council responds — will play out at the construction and budget level rather than in court. Toronto city council has previously voted to formally oppose the removals; whether that opposition amounts to anything now that the legal avenue has closed is the next thing worth watching.
via CBC News (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-toronto-bike-lanes-9.7327751)
