A group of Toronto cyclists appeared before Ontario’s highest court on Wednesday as the provincial government seeks to overturn a lower-court ruling that blocked plans to remove protected bike lanes on major city streets.
The case is being heard by the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which is reviewing an appeal by the province after cyclists successfully challenged the government’s plan in Superior Court last year. The cyclists including a bike courier and a university student argue that dismantling protected bike lanes would put their safety at serious risk and violate their constitutional rights.
The dispute centres on a 2024 law passed by Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government to remove about 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes along Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue. The province has said the changes are intended to ease traffic congestion, a claim that has been strongly contested.
In a decision issued last July, Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas rejected the province’s argument. He found that both internal advisers and external experts had warned the plan was unlikely to reduce congestion and could even make traffic worse. Even if the government’s goal were accepted, the judge said the safety risks to cyclists were wildly disproportionate to the modest time savings for drivers.
Schabas concluded that removing or effectively weakening separated bike lanes would predictably lead to more crashes, injuries and deaths. He also pointed to a clause in the legislation granting the province immunity from liability as evidence the government itself recognized the danger.
City data played a key role in the ruling. A 2024 Toronto staff report cited research suggesting the risk of injury on major streets without cycling infrastructure is roughly nine times higher than on protected bike lanes. Over the past decade, 28 cyclists have been killed and 380 seriously injured in Toronto, with about two-thirds of those crashes occurring on streets lacking safe bike lanes.
While the case was underway, the province amended the law to say bike lanes would be “reconfigured” rather than removed. Schabas dismissed that change as cosmetic, saying it amounted to the same outcome if physical separation from traffic was eliminated. He suggested the move could be seen as an attempt to sidestep the court’s scrutiny.
In its appeal, the province argues the judge went too far by finding that bike lane removals would infringe the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person. Government lawyers say that section of the Charter was never meant to subject legislation affecting public safety to routine judicial review.
Ford has publicly criticized the ruling, calling it ideological and at times using it to argue against what he described as unelected judges interfering with government policy. He has said he supports cycling infrastructure in principle but believes bike lanes should be placed on side streets rather than busy arterial roads. Evidence presented to the court, however, suggested that in many of the targeted areas there are no viable secondary-road alternatives that would form a safe, continuous network.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has taken a more conciliatory tone. Her office says the city is working with the province on “win-win” options that preserve both vehicle lanes and protected cycling routes. City officials have previously estimated it could cost up to $48 million to remove the bike lanes a figure the province questioned but did not replace with its own estimate.
In October, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the government would proceed with restoring car lanes while retaining protected bike lanes on a short stretch of Bloor Street, at a cost of about $750,000. Chow welcomed the compromise.
Cycling advocates remain cautious. Cycle Toronto, which is leading the legal challenge, says limited concessions do not resolve broader safety concerns across all affected corridors. Ahead of the hearing, executive director Michael Longfield said the case is ultimately about upholding the rule of law.
“The Ford government is wasting time and public money on a bad-faith culture war, against the advice of its own experts,” Longfield said in a statement. “Ontarians deserve leadership focused on real solutions to real problems.”
The Court of Appeal’s decision is expected to have significant implications for cycling infrastructure, road safety policy and the balance between government authority and constitutional rights in Ontario.
