Premier Doug Ford was at City Hall on Friday, carrying with him a $67 million cheque to help the city build more homes and community infrastructure. But it was the issue of bike lanes that quickly took centre stage.
The Ford government passed legislation last year to take out sections of bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, with Ford blaming them in part for gridlock, he says, which costs the Ontario economy $56 billion a year. While the province’s plans to rip out the bike lanes have been stalled by a court injunction granted in April to a cycling advocacy group, it appears the premier and the mayor may be close to reaching some sort of middle ground.
Mayor Olivia Chow suggested on Friday that there may be a way to let more cars back on the roads, but also keep the bike lanes in place.
“I think there are places that we can absolutely accomodate an extra car lane, so restore the car lanes but also have the bike lane there. I think that’s a solution that can be arrived at through collaboration, which is what we’re doing right now,” she said.
That would seem to echo comments from the Transportation Minister’s office in April, who suggested that they were open to collaborating with the city, “provided they fund their portion of their identified infrastructure needs.”
Ford has said he is not against bike lanes, but prefers them off arterial roads and on secondary routes. He said while he had a “clear mandate” to remove the bike lanes, he was hopeful of working with the mayor to find an alternative that works for everyone.
“I think the world of the Mayor. We get along very well,” said Ford. “We may have some differences once in a while, but that gets solved every time I take her out for a bike ride Saturday and Sunday mornings.”
On the topic of gridlock, Ford once again doubled down on his Highway 401 tunnel scheme, with an added twist.
“We’re building that tunnel, and at a future date we’ll even put transit right down the middle of the 401.”
