A biking advocacy group is main a courtroom problem in opposition to lately handed laws that provides the Ontario authorities sweeping management over the set up and elimination of municipal bike lanes, arguing the legislation deprives Toronto cyclists of their Constitution rights to life and safety.
The problem of the newly handed Bill 212 seeks an injunction to forestall the elimination of motorbike lanes on Bloor Avenue, College Avenue and Yonge Avenue, which the Ford authorities has claimed are including to congestion and response instances for emergency automobiles.
The lawsuit was launched Tuesday by Cycle Toronto and two people who say they cycle often in Toronto — Eva Stanger-Ross and Narada Kiondo — in a discover of software to Ontario’s Superior Court docket of Justice.
“Proof reveals that separated bike lanes, like these on Bloor Avenue, College Avenue and Yonge Avenue, are most secure for cyclists and have little impact on automobile visitors,” the group stated in a launch Wednesday.
Michael Longfield, govt director of Cycle Toronto, stated within the launch that the province is not appearing in one of the best curiosity of the general public by eradicating lanes.
“It’s not about tackling congestion, working with municipalities for knowledge pushed options or giving folks extra transportation choices,” he stated.
“It’s unprecedented jurisdictional overreach undermining native democracy that may value taxpayers thousands and thousands of {dollars} and jeopardize the protection of cyclists.”
A metropolis report in November estimated the cost of removing the targeted bike lanes in Toronto at $48 million.
CBC Toronto reached out to the workplace of Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, who launched the invoice, for touch upon the courtroom problem.
In an e-mail Wednesday night, spokesperson Dakota Brasier stated visitors congestion is costing Ontario’s economic system billions of {dollars} a 12 months and the province “cannot let activists who symbolize lower than one per cent of the inhabitants power households to sit down in visitors any longer.”
Research from cities around the world means that including bike lanes to streets does not truly add to congestion, although including extra roads for motor automobiles does.
Information from the 2021 Statistics Canada census suggests the variety of folks commuting on bicycles in areas of Toronto the place bike lanes are positioned is much above one per cent, excluding the federal using of Etobicoke-Lakeshore, the place the debate over the Bloor bike lane has been arguably most intense.
Longfield doored whereas biking, misses information convention
Longfield was speculated to announce the courtroom problem at Queen’s Park, Cycle Toronto Chair Dana O’Born informed reporters on the information convention Wednesday, however he was injured whereas biking in Toronto Monday. He was hit by a automotive door whereas using in a painted bike lane on St. George Avenue, she stated, and is now in hospital recovering from surgical procedure.
“His harm would doubtless not have occurred if the lane was separated by a protecting barrier slightly than simply paint,” O’Born stated.
The laws was fast-tracked final month, drawing criticism and protests from cyclists and advocates who say they depend on bike lanes to get across the metropolis safely.
That features Stanger-Ross, one of many two people named within the courtroom problem, who says she cycles 10 kilometres to and from her College of Toronto lessons each college day. She says she and different college students depend on the Bloor Avenue bike lanes to get to campus, saying it is the best, most inexpensive solution to get round.
“There is no such thing as a different possibility for a lot of college students,” she stated at Wednesday’s information convention. “Eradicating these bike lanes won’t take away bikers from the highway, it can simply put them in hurt’s means.”
The Ontario authorities has handed Invoice 212, a controversial piece of laws that permits the elimination of motorbike lanes on three main biking routes in Toronto. The invoice additionally lets Freeway 413 development start earlier than Indigenous session. CBC’s Lane Harrison has the main points.
Bronwyn Roe, a lawyer with Ecojustice who’s representing the challengers together with legal professionals from Paliare Roland LLP, stated within the launch that research present bike lanes save lives.
“Invoice 212 is an arbitrary and harmful piece of laws that violates the part 7 Constitution-protected rights,” she stated.
“Eradicating [bike lanes], with out alternative routes in place and with no proof that doing so will deal with visitors issues, locks in irresponsible automotive dependence and isn’t in one of the best curiosity of communities,” she stated.
The laws additionally contains an modification that stops any lawsuits from being filed in opposition to the province ought to a bicycle owner be injured or killed on roads the place bike lanes have been eliminated, one thing the group calls “a tacit acknowledgement of the protection threat the federal government is creating.”
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