Who knew I'd learn about the radicalization of Superman at an event about active transportation.
Thanks to @thewaroncars.bsky.social @ecojusticecanada.bsky.social and @cycletoronto.bsky.social for facilitating a great discussion of #Bill212 and our current struggles living in #BikeTO
🚨A Safer #KingstonRoad 🚨 is overdue so the City is planning to install 6km of new protected cycle tracks. All existing vehicle lanes will remain so #Bill212 does not apply!
Website has been updated with new details for consultation in October... toronto.ca/community-peop… #biketo
Bloody hell this is maddening. The province builds bike lane segments in front of every new LRT station, expecting the city to build the rest.
Now the city is saying it won’t do that, because the province doesn’t like bike lanes anymore?#Bill212
So now cars don’t have their lane AND cyclists […]
HIGHWAY 413 🛣️ SITE
includes interactive map 🔚
#Ontario #onPoli #FoodSecurity #farmers #environment #climateCrisis VS #DougFord #Bill212 #Hwy413
#Bill212 #BikeTO vs Forest Fires vs Section 7:
Section 7 of the Charter does not assert an absolute right to “life, liberty or security of the person” but the right not to be deprived thereof “except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
People on bikes are taking over the streets in Toronto to celebrate defeating #Bill212!
Thank you @cycletoronto.bsky.social @ecojusticecanada.bsky.social 🙏
#BikeTO #BikeLanesForever
The Applicants shall therefore have their costs of the application on a partial indemnity basis fixed in the amount of $200,000.00, inclusive of HST and disbursements. This is approximately what is sought in the Applicants’ Costs Outline and is precisely what the Respondent would have sought if it had been successful. It is, accordingly, an amount that the Respondent ought reasonably to have expected to pay in costs.
In case you were wondering how much all this costs us Ontario taxpayers, it's $200K. And of course Doug's going to appeal, and further waste time and money.
How about focusing on healthcare & education?!?! #onpoli #bill212 #bikeTO #shame /end 🧵
Dr. Rothman’s research showed that the target bike lanes saw reductions in collisions despite “great increases in volumes” of cyclists. She also warned of the “bait and switch effect” caused by the removal of bike lane infrastructure which, studies have shown, “could actually increase the burden of injury from pre-installation.” As she summarized: …it is my expectation that the removal of these major cycle track corridors in Toronto are likely to have several consequences related to injury including: 1. Some commuters and recreational riders are likely to continue to ride on these routes without the protective infrastructure. 2. Gig cyclist delivery workers are likely to continue to ride on these routes without the protective infrastructure. 3. Some people are likely to stop cycling on these routes and switch to cars, increasing congestion and putting cyclists who continue to ride and pedestrians at greater risk. These effects all acting synchronously, would likely lead to increases in collisions and fatalities
When you remove existing bike lanes, not only do you make it less safe ,you also increase congestion. A classic lose-lose situation as explained by Dr. Rothman #onpoli #bill212 #bikeTO
According to a report from the City Manager, use of the City’s Bike Share program almost doubled from 2.9 million rides in 2020 to 5.7 million trips in 2023
In case you didn't know, bikeshare trips pretty much doubled during from 2020 to 2023. Just this month they hit 1 million + ride. Imagine the number of people that are taking up cycling #onpoli #bill212 #bikeTO
In fact, the Ministry of Transportation had quite different information at the time which it released on December 18, 2024. The Ministry’s Transportation Tomorrow Survey found that in 2022 4.4% of all trips within the City were taken by bicycle or other micromobility.This compared to just under 60% for automobiles, including passengers and taxi/rideshare trips. The percentage of trips by bicycle or other micromobility rose to 9.3% for trips to downtown Toronto. This can be compared to 28.4% who used automobiles for trips to downtown Toronto in 2022. For trips between Bloor West wards and downtown, the cycling figure was 15%.
Instead, within the City of Toronto, 4.4% of trips were taken by bike/micromobility. This increased to 9.3% in downtown, where only 28.4 % of people drove. In Bloor west, cycling figure was 15%. This was in 2022, imagine the growth that's happened since. #onpoli #bill212 #bikeTO
![Bill 212 received Second Reading in its original form on October 23, 2024. On October 24, 2024 the Premier wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “We’re bringing back sanity to bike lane decisions to get drivers moving again. The 1.2 per cent of people who commute by
bike shouldn’t be clogging primary roads for the over 70 per cent of people who drive. It’s just common sense.”
[37] The Applicants made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31, for any records or documents supporting the 1.2% figure
used by the Premier and later repeated by the Minister of Transportation. In December 2024 the response from the Ministry of Transportation was that no records were found that were responsive to the request.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nxj7q4okqvecy5ohja4uche/bafkreicinxznz5uzdunqteakxrqvz4n7aofcalbfb6aivwf4tk5yvxi76i)
Bill 212 received Second Reading in its original form on October 23, 2024. On October 24, 2024 the Premier wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “We’re bringing back sanity to bike lane decisions to get drivers moving again. The 1.2 per cent of people who commute by bike shouldn’t be clogging primary roads for the over 70 per cent of people who drive. It’s just common sense.” [37] The Applicants made a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.31, for any records or documents supporting the 1.2% figure used by the Premier and later repeated by the Minister of Transportation. In December 2024 the response from the Ministry of Transportation was that no records were found that were responsive to the request.
The 1.2% Doug and Sakaria keeps touting? It's BS and even after filing a freedom of information request, it was nowhere to be found
#onpoli #Bill212 #bikeTO
Some fun facts and figures from Justice Schabas from yesterday's landmark ruling on bike lanes in Toronto #bikeTO #onpoli #bill212 assets.nationbuilder.com/cycletoronto...
In 2024, the Ontario government passed Bill 212:
Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act.
It gave the province new authority to override cities on bike lane decisions and took a main focus on mandating removals on Bloor, Yonge, and University Ave in Toronto
#Bill212 #TOpoli #UrbanPlanning
WE WON.
Justice Schabas found that Ontario's law, Bill 212, violated section 7 of our charter rights.
The court was impatient with the Ontario government having no evidence to back up its claims.
#cycleto #toronto #bill212 #dofo
Congrats to @cycletoronto.bsky.social victory over Doug Ford's attempt to maximize the number of dead and injured cyclists in Toronto!
Here's a throwback to a 🧵 of videos documenting anti- #Bill212 motion passed in #HamOnt.
In April I was honoured to join @kidicalmassto.bsky.social at Queens Park as a rally for Toronto's bike lanes.
I never thought I'd be at Queens Park as much as I have but hey #bill212 has had some positive amongst the negative with getting us together and talking more about safe infrastructure.
The letter to the IEC reads: To Councillors Fletcher, Colle, Chernos Lin, Morley, Pasternak, Perruzza and Saxe, I am writing on behalf of Friends and Families for Safe Streets (FFSS) to express our flabbergasted dismay that city staff want to renege on an already-approved plan to make the short stretch of Jones Ave between Queen St E and Dundas St E safer for everyone, for the sake of 30 parking spaces. We are also gravely disappointed at the lack of advancement of the Cycling Network Plan, with no brand new infrastructure planned. As you may know, FFSS is a group of people whose loved ones were senselessly killed in crashes that could have been prevented, and survivors who were devastated by severe, life-altering injuries. We are the ones who have paid the worst possible price for Toronto’s deadly streets, the price for the ongoing lack of political will and resulting glacially slow pace of making all of our streets safe, for example by building Complete Streets and adding barriers between motor vehicles and people. Clearly, Toronto’s commitment to Vision Zero and what it means has been completely forgotten here. Let us remind you of Toronto’s Vision Zero 2.0 program, the most essential part of which reads: “As Vision Zero solutions are planned and implemented, there are circumstances when decisions to improve road safety may result in outcomes at odds with other objectives like reducing motor vehicle delay. Vision Zero 2.0 reiterates that human life should be prioritized over all other objectives within all aspects of the transportation system.”
RE: Jones Avenue This section of Jones Ave is not safe enough to leave it as it is. According to the Toronto Police’s All-Collision Database, 145 car crashes have been recorded on this 400m section since Jan 1 2014. That’s 13 per year, or more than 1 per month. There is been one fatality at Dundas St E and Jones Ave, when a father named Douglas Crosbie was violently killed by a van driver who right-hooked him on May 16 2018, in broad daylight. After his death, the city could have chosen to install a protected intersection that would prevent that kind of right hook death in the future, but refused to do so because it might have caused “motor vehicle delay.” 37 people have been injured in preventable crashes on this portion of Jones Ave, or 3 people per year. The road user type bearing the highest rate of injury is motorists themselves, 16 of whom have been injured in crashes. 19 people riding bikes have been struck by motorists, of whom 13 were injured. 8 people walking have been struck by motorists, all whom were injured. There are also an unknown number of unreported crashes and injures, where people rightfully afraid of the police won’t officially report being struck and hurt and risk a police encounter that could turn violent. Though this 400m section of Jones Ave represents 20% of its total length, it is disproportionately dangerous, representing 26% of recorded crashes and its only fatality. This is too much danger and human carnage to merely install some bus stop platforms and call it a day. Valuing 30 parking spaces above valuing the safety of everyone who travels on this section of Jones Ave to go to work, school, play, visit friends, access transit, go to the library, etc, is to value slight convenience for motorists ahead of human life and safety, yet preserving 30 parking spaces instead of preserving human life has been described as “balancing the needs of our local neighbourhood.” It is absurd and perverse to treat finding a convenient parking space a…
to motorists who don’t wish to park in a different place. To choose to prioritize these 30 parking spaces over an extremely effective safety improvement is to actively sabotage Toronto’s Vision Zero program, TransformTO climate mitigation goals, connection to public transportation, the recent interest in encouraging seniors to cycle, and to actively undermine equity, public health, and children’s independent mobility. To the transportation staff who support reneging on building physical protection, and to any elected councillors who vote to renege on this already-approved Vision Zero upgrade, if someone is killed or hurt again on Jones Ave if the bike lanes remain a painted line because of you, because you have worked to deny the wider public the safety benefits of speed calming and physical protection, the blood will be on your hands. Every Canadian and Torontonian has the Charter right to security of the person, and the right to move around the city safely without being harmed or killed in a preventable car crash. All kids have the right to travel to school safely and to reap the developmental benefits of independent mobility, instead of being driven everywhere by parents who are too frightened of unfettered reckless motorists to allow their kids to walk or bike where a mere line of paint does nothing to calm speeds or prevent a motorist from striking someone in the bike lane or on the sidewalk or in the crosswalk while they cross the street. We demand that the city stick with its original plan to build a protected cycle track on Jones Ave between Queen St and Dundas St. It’s the right thing to do. You already know it’s the right thing to do. RE: Lack of New Infrastructure in the Cycling Network Plan We understand that the City is grappling with Bill 212, the provincial effort to destroy existing lifesaving Complete Streets and prevent new ones from being built and saving even more lives. However, it is still shocking to see the extent this has been allowed t…
Read our letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, demanding the City keep its plan to build #CycleTracks on Jones Ave and calling out the chill that #Bill212 is having on #VisionZero.
#TODeadlyStreets #WalkTO #BikeTO #KillBill212 #DeadlyByDesign #SafeStreetsSaveLives #TOpoli #ONpoli
thenarwhal.ca/ontario-high...
Bill 212’s passing in late 2024 would allow the province to start on early work like bridges before the assessments are completed. Bill 212 would also allow the province to not publish the studies done as part of those assessments.
#OnPoli #DougFord #Bill212 #HWY413
The Alberta government under #DanielleSmith is considering seeking similar powers to Ford's Bill 212 to rip up bike lanes in #Edmonton.
You know #DougFord has messed up when the UCP starts copying his populist rage-politics that harms all road users.
#Bill212 #Bikesky #yegbike
The city of #toronto is requesting feedback on protests. If you #biketo please take some time to fill this out as the cycling community in Toronto has been protesting #bill212 for months now.
#topoli
Peaceful #criticalmass except for the cops arresting one of us for marshalling at a sleepy intersection in the Annex while parents and kids are waving as we ride by with music and signs opposing #bill212. Overreact, overreach, we will only be made stronger by this. #biketo #topoli #onpoli #cycling
Bill 212 Charter Challenge: Bike Lane Removals Temporarily Halted Statement from Fridays for Future Toronto -->
Fridays for Future Toronto welcomes the Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s decision banning the province from removing Toronto’s bike lanes until a final decision is made on the application.
Having access to safe, accessible and efficient bike lanes is particularly important to young people. Whether this is because they’re too young to get a driver’s license, because they can’t afford a car, or simply because they want a healthy, environmentally friendly mode of transportation, many young individuals find cycling the most well-suited means to get around. They feel empowered by the autonomy and independence cycling gives them.
Youths also stand to be the most impacted by climate change stemming from carbon emissions as they inherit a world riddled with greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants. Cycling is one of the most energy-efficient mode of transportation and every single bicycle is a potential carbon-emitting vehicle taken off the road.
(1/2): Today, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted an injunction to ban the removal of Toronto bike lanes, until a final decision is made in @cycletoronto.bsky.social et al.'s Bill 212 Charter Challenge. Read our full statement below 👇
#biketo #bill212 #onpoli
📷Martin Reis
Looks like #Bill212 is contagious!
pedestrian tunnel crossing major road with bike lane going through intersection
green marked bikeway in scarborough
bikes locked up to butterfly ring and posts
work crew installing new bike lanes on major scarborough road
In Scarborough this week, so rode the new bike lanes near Pacific Mall at Steeles & Kennedy. More lanes being installed east of Brimley as part of the Steeles Ave E. Complete Street plan. This includes intersection improvements, tree plantings & green infrastructure! #bikeTO #ONpoli #TOpoli #Bill212
The big moment for Toronto bike lanes is here.
This Wednesday, we’re heading to Ontario Superior Court to challenge part of #Bill212 — a law that threatens local democracy and puts bike infrastructure at risk.
OBSERVING FROM #bikeMississauga 🚲 where #BloorBikeLanes project (Alternative #6) is paused pending MTO direction and Constitutional 🇨🇦 Charter challenge ⚖️ to #Bill212 (in court April 16) brought by Cycle Toronto et al. #CyclingSafety ⚠️ #BikeTO 🏙
🔗: www.cp24.com/politics/que...
THIS EVENT IS TONIGHT AND IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER! See link below 👇
#BikeTO #WalkTO #TODeadlyStreets #DeadlyByDesign #SafeStreetsSaveLives #KillBill212 #Bill212
How about you actually make things better instead of trying to ruin them Doug Ford? Add you name to save Ontario's bike lanes! #bill212 #bikelanes #ontario #ontariopoli
act.gp/412pwun
(5/5) The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers recognized that #Bill212 was a wrong step for our future. #Stantec, why are you helping to implement it? Read our full letter to Stantec and sign the @cycletoronto.bsky.social "Shame on you, Stantec" campaign: www.cycleto.ca/shame_on_you...
After leading this event, having a grasp of the horrific violence unleashed on innocent people by preventable car crashes on Bloor St W, it is unbearable that the provincial government continues to stubbornly pursue their mendacious goal of destroying our #CompleteStreets. #KillBill212 #Bill212
