On November 25th 2024, the Ontario government officially passed Bill 212, which became the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024. This legislation greenlit the proposal to implement a framework for bike lanes that require the removal of a traffic lane. For the city of Toronto, this meant the removal of existing bike lanes on three arterial roads: Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue (ERO, 2024). The main aim of the bill is to relieve traffic congestion across Ontario and expedite the construction of Highway 413.
Ever since its proposal, Ontario’s Bill 212 has been contentious. Public consultation resulted in concerns about the efficacy of the bill in alleviating congestion. It is counterintuitive to suggest that the solution to problems created by more cars is enabling space for more cars. Transport research has long shown the phenomenon of induced demand, whereby there is an increase in the use of a highway or highway network when its capacity is expanded (Gray, 2023). More importantly, the public has raised concerns about road safety for not just bike users, but all road users. Road accidents continue to be one of the leading causes of mortality globally. Recognising this, the city of Toronto has adopted a Vision Zero road safety plan to eliminate traffic-related fatalities (Ontario Traffic Council, 2023). However, Ontario’s new law impedes the city’s efforts to make roads safer, as revealed by the government’s internal documents.
Once passed, the Act sparked several protests across Toronto, which culminated in a lawsuit against the province. In the most recent development, the court has granted an injunction against bike lane removals. The court decision came just in time as Toronto geared up to celebrate Jane’s Walk Festival Toronto, in honour of the legacy of Jane Jacobs. Jane’s walk celebrates the power of community-led storytelling, bringing people together to explore, share, and reimagine the city’s spaces. This year, the Toronto chapter boasted over 150 walks spread across several Toronto neighbourhoods between 2nd and 4th May.
Jane Jacobs, who pioneered the notion of urban vitalism, was an avid believer that cities are for their people, not cars. Jacobs, who made Toronto her home from the late 1960s until she passed, was a leading figure in helping stop the proposed Spadina Expressway, in the name of urban renewal. Had the expressway been successful, the city of Toronto would look very different today, and not in a good way. Jane’s Walk Toronto provides an opportunity to celebrate essentially the pulse of Toronto through stories of communities, resistance, solidarity and vibrancy through its streets and community members. It is a testament to how streets are inherent to placemaking rather than a means for facilitating car mobility.
Jacob’s recurring theme that cities are for people, not cars, resonates to this day and is evident across the Atlantic, where cities are embracing the notion of giving streets back to people. In March this year, Parisians voted in favour of closing 500 city streets to cars, making way for pedestrians, bikers and greenery. Similarly, in Oslo, the city launched its Car-free Livability Programme in 2015, which reduced the area designated to private cars in its inner ring, thus allowing for more city life in the streets over the course of the years. Cities are increasingly piloting car-free initiatives because giving streets back to people is good for business – research like Aldred et al. (2021) has shown that stores located in pedestrian environments tend to record higher sales volumes than stores located in non-pedestrian environments. In other words, not giving our streets to cars can bolster the local economy.
However, the battle to maintain cycling infrastructure in Toronto is ongoing. It had initially seemed that the province would be open to finding a compromise. This compromise would allow for the return of a car lane on three roads, while still keeping a bike lane in place. At the time of writing, the provincial government has appealed to the court for an injunction that bars the removal of Toronto bike lanes. As this legal battle draws out further, Jane’s Walk festival can serve as a reminder of what cities teeming with life look like, ones where streets are for everybody, not just cars. It is not a matter of what we are giving to cars, but rather what we are taking from everyone else in that process.
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Subina Shrestha is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She is an interdisciplinary researcher, mainly exploring the themes of urban governance, social justice and sustainability transitions. Shrestha holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Bergen in Norway.
: Subina Shrestha