Documents unearthed as part of a legal challenge show the Doug Ford government received expert evidence that planned bike lane removals could worsen traffic congestion in Toronto and lead to injuries.
In December, Cycle Toronto and two other plaintiffs launched a Charter challenge against the Progressive Conservative government’s Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act.
The bill directs Ford’s transportation minister to remove portions of the bike lanes along Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue.
Doing so would violate the Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person, Cycle Toronto’s lawsuit alleges.
The advocacy group is in court this week asking for an injunction to block the bike lane removals until the Charter challenge is heard. The Ontario Superior Court judge is expected to rule on the injunction request in the coming days.
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, provincial lawyers provided the court and Cycle Toronto with a third-party engineering report prepared for the government and a tranche of internal emails between civil servants.
Some of the documents were created in summer 2024, before the Ford government’s bike lanes bill was introduced, while others are from as recently as last month.
Bike lane removals will offer little traffic reprieve: report
Broadly, the documents say removing Toronto bike lanes likely won’t help gridlock, but should lead to more road collisions.
Cyclists will likely continue to use key routes whether or not there are bike lanes, ministry staff noted in internal emails. As a result, they will be at increased risk of injury or death, according to a third-party report from engineering and urban planning company CIMA, prepared for the government and read in the courtroom on Tuesday by Cycle Toronto lawyer Andrew Lewis.
CIMA estimated the removals will result in a 54 per cent increase in collisions.
Last summer, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation noted that removing bike lanes “might not have the desired impact of reducing congestion,” Lewis said.
Those who stop biking may choose to drive instead — which will increase congestion, the ministry said in internal emails.
According to Lewis, the report accepts that removing bike lanes may increase vehicle capacity on Toronto roads “but the actual alleviation of congestion may be negligible or short-lived” because of induced demand — a “widely accepted” principle of traffic management which states that as more traffic lanes are added they are quickly filled with new drivers incentivized to take their cars.
When removing bike lanes, there should be a “direct and continuous” alternate route established, according to the engineering report. No such route exists for the major Toronto roads where the province plans to potentially remove bike lanes.
The government “had knowledge, and then expert advice, that ripping out … bike lanes will result in increased collisions and increased severity of collisions, not only for cyclists, but also for motorists and pedestrians, and also that it will likely not achieve the legislation's putative objective of reducing congestion,” Lewis told the courtroom Tuesday.
A draft briefing for cabinet, previously reported by The Trillium and TorontoToday, notes that bike lane removals “may not reduce congestion,” pointing to research from New York, Washington and Vancouver, Lewis said.
Cycle Toronto argued the documents should be admitted as evidence in the injunction case. The government’s lawyers argued they shouldn’t have any bearing on the injunction.
Draft provincial plans suggest removals will start this year
As part of the bike lane removal plan, ministry staff created a draft schedule showing a construction contract awarded on April 1, 2026, with removals beginning on April 7, the emails show. Another email, however, suggests ministry staff prepared for removals to be done by the end of this year.
“‘I expect we’ll be asked for options to accelerate the work, such that removals are done before the end of 2025. Can I get an option that makes this possible?’” Lewis said, quoting a ministry email.
The government’s lawyer argued that despite any harms that may or may not come to pass as a result of the bike lane removals, the legislature has the final say.
“Changes to roads are not exceptional. They happen across Ontario all the time,” government attorney Padraic Ryan said. “Bike lanes have been expanded and restricted in this city before, and it will happen again.”
Ryan argued bike lane users won’t face “irreparable harm” — which would be necessary for the court to grant an injunction — because they would still be able to walk, drive or take transit.
If they choose not to bike, the applicants “will simply have to face the inconvenience of taking the subway that runs underneath the roads in question,” he said.
Ford has said the bill is intended to speed up drivers’ commute times.
Politically, the Progressive Conservatives believe the issue is a winner. On a recent podcast, Kory Tenycke, the premier’s campaign manager, partly attributed the PCs’ recent election win to the bike lane legislation.
