About 50 cyclists and a couple of kid and canine passengers staged a leisurely but loud campaign Saturday along a section of Bloor Street West in protest of some area businesses that want bike lanes removed.
At the heart of the protest ride was a $10-million “negligence and nuisance” lawsuit filed earlier this year by more than 40 west-end businesses against the City of Toronto over dedicated bike lanes that were installed on Bloor in 2023 and 2024.
The establishments allege business is down because of the lanes.
“Drop the lawsuit, clear our commute,” was one of the more popular chants by the cyclists, as they rang their bells and made their way west from High Park in the midday heat.
The peloton took over the single westbound live traffic lane, and adjacent bike lane, and made a number of stops, briefly holding up traffic.
There were both honks of support and honks of rage, but vehicular traffic was not heavy and organizers made a point of taking a detour on the westbound ride — from High Park to Royal York Road — through a shady neighbourhood at the Humber River to ensure motorists weren’t too inconvenienced.
“Get out of High Park,” an older woman on the sidewalk on Bloor yelled at the passing cyclists, who were not in High Park by then. Another person yelled at a bike protester to wear a helmet, while another bystander chided cyclists for not obeying traffic signs.
Others on the steamy sidewalks cheered the cyclists on and took photos and video.
Such is the divisive and very political fight over bike lanes in a city where the Ontario government wants to rip some of them up, and make it more difficult to install new ones.
As the cyclists neared Etobicoke, where Premier Doug Ford lives and many of the businesses opposed to the lanes are located, one of the protesters joked, “We are definitely in Etobicar now.”
The rally was organized by Fridays for Future Toronto, a climate-focused group that has staged protests to preserve bike lanes and took action against an engineering firm that was tasked to remove lanes.
The bike lanes installed on parts of Bloor, Yonge Street and University Avenue have been the subject of much debate in a city grappling with traffic congestion.
The Ford government’s Bill 212, part of which takes aim at downtown bike lanes, has been subject to a Charter challenge. Until a decision is made, a judge has granted an injunction against removing the bike lanes. The province is appealing the injunction.
“The evidence is clear: bike lanes save lives, and they’re good for local businesses,” an organizer said in an email ahead of the Saturday protest. “The businesses trying to ram through an unpopular anti-bike-lane agenda are doing so selfishly at their own expense and at the expense of cyclists’ lives.”
The businesses who are suing the city say the city’s handling of the new lanes and the process was “wilfully lacking in candour, frankness and impartiality.”
Vicky Huang, one of Saturday’s organizers, uses her bike to get around the city and shop at local businesses. She fixed a sign to her bike basket that read: “Bike Lanes=Business Gains.”
Hwang said she hopes the protest ride might change some of the minds of business owners.
“They have one lane of traffic, and they have plenty of parking for their customers,” Huang said before joining Saturday’s protest ride. “I think that pedestrians and cyclists are also part of the local community, and they also deserve safety when they’re shopping.
“And it’s not good business practice to alienate a part of your potential customer base who want to shop local and support local.”
