How will province’s plan to restrict new bike lanes play out in London?

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London academics and cycling advocates are puzzled by the province’s commitment to restrict new bike lanes, as city hall anxiously awaits how the legislation will look and work in practice.

Ontario cities would have to seek the province’s permission to install new bike lanes that remove lanes of vehicle traffic under upcoming legislation, the transportation minister announced Tuesday in Toronto.

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“When strategically placed, bike lanes are a vital part of every city, offering residents a safe and reliable way to move around,” Prabmeet Sarkaria said at a news conference. “What cities should not be doing, however, is taking away lanes of traffic on our most congested roads.”

Too many drivers are gridlocked as a result of bike lanes installed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the process is “frankly, out of control,” he said.

Cities would have to prove adding a bike lane in place of a vehicle lane would not negatively affect traffic, and the province will ask cities for data on any bike lane projects launched in the last five years.

It’s unclear so far how, if at all, that may affect operations in London given the lion’s share of the bike lane network so far hasn’t taken away any traffic lanes.

Andrew Hunniford, an owner of the London Bicycle Cafe, said the province seems to be appealing to voters’ emotions, not looking at data, to solve gridlock.

“The only real solution to alleviating traffic congestion is by getting fewer people into cars,” he said.

Alexander Wray is a doctoral candidate in Western’s geography and environment department and community planner. He said the idea restricting bike lanes has merit given that in cities like Toronto, bike lanes have been added to major arteries without replacing lost road capacity elsewhere.

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But he calls the provincial proposal “asinine,” saying the government should develop a transportation planning standard rather than requiring ministerial approval for every Ontario bike lane project that could reduce vehicle lanes.

“What I find hilarious is this government has been all about red-tape reduction, and then they . . . did this in a way that creates the most red tape possible,” Wray said. “Now we’re going to have to hire a bunch more bureaucrats and develop a whole new process and all this red tape for municipalities to go through and add something as simple as a bike lane.”

The exact threshold for a provincial review will have to be defined, Wray said, citing projects such as existing medians being fitted with bike lanes, or foot traffic-related streetscape improvements incorporating bike lanes.

“That’s where I think this policy kind of makes no sense from the province,” he said. “Really what it is, I think . . . is GTA politics again dictating Ontario policy.”

Toronto mayor Olivia Chow and the Association of Ontario Municipalities both harshly criticized the province’s proposal, with the latter calling it a “significant overreach.”

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Mayor Josh Morgan said he always has concerns “whenever the province creates a broad-based policy that doesn’t allow a municipality to make a local decision.”

But he said the new rules are unlikely to have a significant impact on London because of how bike lanes here have been designed over the years.

“They have not been on main arteries, and where we’ve done them in significant thoroughfares, we’ve usually widened the road . . . and not taken away lanes of traffic.”

Morgan said he will await details of the new policy. In a statement, city staff said they are awaiting the legislation that could be tabled at Queen’s Park next week.

City hall said any future bike lane plans in the city’s upcoming 25-year master transportation planning document, dubbed the Master Mobility Plan, must consider any new provincial rules.

The document’s proposed new road, transit, biking and sidewalk networks will be released for public consultation in December, a new staff report says, then go to city council in the spring.

With files from Dale Carruthers and The Canadian Press

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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